My Drafts 5 Setup

Drafts 5 is an essential tool in my productivity workflow. I use it connected to both Evernote and Things 3 with the GTD Action Group. Here's a detailed overview of my setup and how I use each component:

1. Basic Actions

These actions from the Basic Actions group form the foundation of my Drafts usage:

• Copy: I use this frequently to quickly copy text for use in other apps or documents. It's particularly useful when I'm researching and need to gather information from multiple sources.
• Share: This action allows me to quickly send drafts to other apps or share them with colleagues. It's invaluable for collaborative work or when I need to move my ideas to a different platform.

2. Editing Actions

These actions from the Editing Actions group streamline my editing process:

• Undo/Redo: Essential for quick corrections and experimenting with different phrasings or ideas.
• Toggle Tasks: I use this to quickly convert lines of text into a checklist, which is great for creating to-do lists on the fly.
• Mail: This action allows me to quickly turn a draft into an email, which is perfect for when an idea or note needs to be shared immediately.
• Message: Similar to the Mail action, this lets me send drafts as text messages, which is useful for quick communications or sending myself reminders.

3. Infinite Notebooks

I made this Infinite Notebooks action to create these go-to spaces for different types of content:

• Ideas (🌩️): This is my digital brainstorming space. Whenever I have a spark of inspiration, it goes here. I review this notebook regularly to develop my ideas further.
• Writing (📝): This is where I develop longer-form content, like blog posts or articles. It's great for capturing thoughts that need more elaboration.
• Questions (❓): I use this notebook to jot down questions that come up during the day. It helps me keep track of things I need to research or ask about later.

4. Search Actions

These actions from the Search Actions group allow me to quickly search various platforms directly from Drafts:

• Google Search/DuckDuckGo Search: For general web searches. I often use this when I need to fact-check something I've written or to find more information on a topic.
• YouTube Search: Useful when I need to find video content related to my drafts, either for research or to include as references.
• Dictionary.com Search: I use this for quick definitions or to find synonyms when I'm writing.
• Amazon Search: Handy for product research or when I want to check details about a book I'm referencing.
• IMDb Search: Great for when I'm writing about movies or TV shows and need to check details.
• GitHub Search: As a tech enthusiast, I often use this to look up code repositories or programming concepts.
• AI and Modern Browser Search: I'm currently looking for reliable actions for Perplexity (current iOS version only opens Chrome instead of the native app), ChatGPT, Claude + web search, Arc browser, and other modern search tools. If you have any working versions or come across good implementations, please let me know!

5. Date and Time

These actions help me keep my drafts organized and manage my calendar efficiently:

• ⏰ Insert Date & Time: I use this to add timestamps to my notes, which is crucial for tracking when ideas were conceived or when certain information was recorded. I've cleaned up the JavaScript action (available on request via Twitter).
• 📅 Fantastic Event Parser: This action converts natural language into calendar events. Simply type your event details in plain English, and it will create properly formatted calendar entries. Here are some example inputs:

  Important meeting tomorrow 9am-11am /work alert 30min at Office
  Dinner sunday 7pm for 3h /private at Joe's Pizza 
  Workshop Feb 1-3 /work at San Francisco
  Call with Jim today 5pm

  The parser recognizes:

  • Title: Whatever isn't a special command
  • When: today, tomorrow, weekdays, or dates
  • Time: 9am-11am or 9am for 2h
  • Calendar: /work, /private, etc.
  • Alert: alert 30min
  • Location: at [place] or in [place]

  Each line creates a separate event, and you'll get a preview before anything is added to your calendar.

• ⚡️ Quick Task Scheduling: I use these iOS text replacements for quickly blocking off tasks on my calendar throughout the day:

  /ts → 30 minutes today at 
  /tm → 90 minutes today at 
  /tl → 320 minutes today at 

  These shortcuts help me rapidly schedule short (30min), medium (90min), and long (320min) task blocks without having to type out the full duration each time.

6. Things 3 Integration

These actions bridge the gap between my note-taking in Drafts and task management in Things 3:

• Move to Things: This action sends text on selected lines to Things as new tasks in the Inbox. It's perfect for quickly converting ideas or notes into actionable tasks.
• Create Project in Things: When I have a larger initiative that requires multiple tasks, I use this action to create a new project in Things directly from my draft.
• Add Checklist to Things: This action is great for when I've created a checklist in Drafts and want to transfer it as a task with subtasks in Things.

7. Additional Resources

Here are some essential resources I use to enhance my Drafts workflow:

• Drafts Action Directory: A community-driven repository of actions. I regularly check this for new and improved ways to automate my workflow.
• Drafts Automations Guide: An excellent resource for learning how to automate various aspects of Drafts.
• Infinite Journal Action: This is one of my favorite actions that helps maintain an organized journaling system within Drafts.