Today I want to talk about an app that I consider the single most useful app for my ADHD-writer brain on my phone—it’s first page, top row. I have a lot of apps to manage a lot of different things—including Todoist, which is my app of choice for daily tasks—but this one serves a unique purpose.
If you’re already using Pensieve, yay! Isn’t it the best? But also sorry, because the rest of this post probably won’t interest you.
Pensieve is an incredibly simple app to use. When you first open it, you put in the destination email address and it saves it, so you don’t have to enter it again. Then you jot a note or add a picture or a voice memo. Hit send, and off it goes to your email. The first line automatically becomes your email’s subject line, so you don’t even have to type one in.
So when I’m in Walmart, trying to find a decent tomato, and my brain shouts “wait, the heroine had a cat in chapter one and then it’s never mentioned again”, I just take the 30 seconds to send the note.
Of course, there are a lot of ways to make a note on one’s phone. I use Apple Notes for a million different things. And I have multiple other apps capable of capturing quick thoughts. But here’s the problem: I have to remember I had that thought and then go looking for the note.
I’ve found notes for books well after the books were turned in. Or I’ve found a note about a personal/home issue that I stumbled across too late for it to be relevant. Once I jot the thought down, I might never think about it again. With Pensieve, that thought goes straight to my email and, because it’s “important”, I get a red icon on my Gmail so I definitely won’t miss it.
Sometimes it’s a forgotten cat. Or it’s two paragraphs of dialogue my brain coughs up while I’m sitting in a restaurant. Or my husband will tell me, just before he nods off, that he’s running out of time to find a code update course for his electrical license. I can literally type “S code class” into Pensieve and not lie awake stressing about whether or not I’ll remember.
When I’m at my laptop and open my email, I can address that Pensieve note properly. Maybe it’s something I need to add to my calendar, or to Todoist with deadlines and/or reminders. Maybe it’s words to paste into my manuscript or a plot note to put in the file. The key is that I just have to capture the thought in the moment. I won’t forget it because I check my email more often than I should during the day. And I can do the fiddly sorting/filing/tagging/reminder stuff at my laptop later.
Pensieve is so fast and simple to use, it keeps me from believing that little voice that says “I’ll remember that”.
[Narrator: She never remembers.]
It is a paid app, with the subscription model. (As of February 2023, it’s $3.00/month or $25/year.) It was free for years, but last year (I think it was), the developer communicated there would be a cost going forward. He also explained why, and honestly my reaction was to be happy for him. I think it’s an amazing app, and it’s a bargain (for me) at that price. (That’s not an affiliate link or anything. I just really think it’s worth it for a brain wired like mine.)
So if you haven’t crossed paths with Pensieve, and you’re prone to jotting notes on your phone and then forgetting about them, you might find it useful!
OH! MY! GAWD!!! Why have you been keeping this magic from me???? I've been trying a bunch of different options, but I record the info and it is never to be heard from again. This is perfect!