A new academic year is about to begin. Instead of using a proprietary note taking service that could leave you burned consider WordPress.
Terms of service agreements have complete control over your content and could delete your work or change at any time. Evernote recently removed functionality from it’s free version and Google shut down a 14 year old Blogger site.
But with little effort a self hosted WordPress site can become a full featured note taking suite where you call the shots.
Taking notes on your phone or tablet
Like Google Keep and Evernote WordPress has an app for iOS and Android. It can handle text, links, images, documents and media files. Posts are stored locally on your device until you’re ready to hit publish. Don’t want the world seeing your notes? Save it as a draft or set a password.
Taking notes in the browser
Whether you’re on a Chromebook, Mac, Windows PC or using a Linux distribution the WordPress dashboard can be accessed from almost any web browser.
Before you say, “Joe… Wait, WordPress is way too busy.” Consider trying distraction free writing mode and using keyboard shortcuts to speed things up. (My favorite is hitting Ctrl + k to hyperlink a selection.)
Collaborate and extend functionality with themes and plugins
Providing accounts for colleagues and friends can extend WordPress to a project management tool. Posts can be tagged or categorized and revisions can be automatically saved on the server . For instance beyond taking notes and blogging I use WordPress to track small projects like tracking website carousel slides I created for reference later, and as a personal calendar / to-do list.
For calendars I use the aptly named “Events Calendar” plugin from Modern Tribe. That “small project” blog was merely a custom theme I built myself.
Why self hosted WordPress?
Complete control, you can backup your site and move it to any host you like. Don’t want to use a web host? Install it on your computer or personal server and control your data and who sees it.
Have you tried using WordPress as a productivity tool? Please share your experience in the comments.