My New Secret Power: Effie

Take your note taking to the next level

Photo by Fabio Bracht on Unsplash

Learning how to write, and write well, has brought me to build skills in many areas I did not realise when I started were associated with writing. One was research. I talk about this here. But the second one, something I’m proactively learning to develop is taking efficient notes.

I was teaching creative writing for 12–13 year old students at a school recently as an extra curricular activity for them. This school was in stark contrast with my own school — we grew up with pen and paper, studied via textbooks and the teacher wrote on the chalkboard. Things have changed now: each kid had a tablet or a computer and the teacher (aka me) was using presentations to deliver their points. But near the end of the two weeks, I happened to glance at the notes one of the students had made in Microsoft Word. My jaw was on the floor.

Those notes were complete with an index, and the entire document was well formatted, each point had a proper sub point and parts of my class were put ins ections, down to quoations of things I’d said during the class — some highlighted becuase they liked it enough. I asked her to airdrop me her notes because they were in actuality so much better than my own. I have always wished I was able to create — not aesthetically pleasing — great notes that I could decipher easily.

I still make notes using a pen and paper. It’s easier for me and I find my hands moving faster when I write things down, rather than type them in an app. But, lately in an effort to improve my own note taking skills, especially for personal projects and the larger work I’ve taken on, I’m taking the time to make the notes on my iPad using an app over writing it in a notebook.

Enter Effie

Recently, I read about different note making styles. There are two styles in there that caught my eye. One is the original jotting down method (or outlining as it’s called) that I’ve been using for years. Another was mind mapping.

I like the idea of a mind map. I have dabbled in a few free apps online previously just to see what it’s like but I haven’t got around to using one that was simple and intuitive for me.

That’s why I was surprised when I first started using Effie. It’s a writing first, note making, drafting application with a simple and clean interface reminiscent of my ever favourite iAWriter with just a few more cosmetic changes that actually work in its favour. But it has one secret feature that I think catapults it over all other note making apps. It allows you to transform your jotted notes into mind maps.

Initial impressions of the software | Screenshot by author

I think in text and excel sheets. Making lists and bullet points comes naturally to me. I make lists, break them into subheadings and even diversify them on an x and y axis in the form of rows and columns. A well formatted excel sheet is what my wet dreams are made of. (This is called the charting method, as I’ve recently learnt.) But as a writing coach, I’m quite aware that not all of us think this way. I’m currently coaching a professor who thinks in power point presentations, using each slide like a card and that’s where she makes her initial notes. Another friend thinks visually and a mind map works beautifully in his case. The interconnection of objects is far more explicit and you also get an bird’s eye view of the entire topic. But whenever I try to build a mind map, I fail. It’s like I’m doing a kind of heavy lifting that is beyond the muscles in my brain.

But Effie makes this entire process effortless. Ever since I’ve started using the software, I’ve started outlining my projects using the outlining method. I’ve never been an outline maker. I always write with an effort to discover my own thoughts. It works better for me. But there are times when what I write is absolute garbage and I have to re-write the whole thing from scratch. Sometimes you have to allow yourself to write garbage to let the good stuff flow. It’s part of the writing process, and I respect it.

Yet, ever since I started outlining my work, something strange has been happening. My outlines are horrible, garbage. But they act as the first draft, my first thought dump where I expel all my simple thoughts so when I actually sit down to write, I write something half way decent, unlike my initial vomit of words. The mind-map and original thoughts are usually discarded, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful to my process. They act as my rough first draft so I can cherry pick the ones I like, all through a well formatted neatly made mind map of the notes I’d first put together.

First draft on the structure of this article | Screenshot by author.

As you can see above, my initial notes are quite different from how this article really flows.

But beyond making mind maps of your notes, Effie is a great all around distraction free, minimal writing software. It works great with markup too. I wrote this piece in Effie as well. I’ve used several writing and drafting apps like iAWriter, Google Docs, Evernote, Apple Notes, Obsidian and Bear. Other than iAWriter — which is still my default — none of the others ever felt natural to use. Google products and I have a kind of enmity that I can’t get over, Evernote sync never worked for me — Apple Notes on the other hand never fails, Obsidian is great for making connected documents and creating a large scale mind map of all those files but I’ve found it has a massive learning curve, and Bear felt like something I’d use but it wasn’t as minimal as it claimed. Effie, compared to other options, is simple to use and with little to no entry barrier and a minor learning curve.

Yet, it is a young software and there are some minor issues with it and a few features that more well rounded softwares already have.

What I hope to see in Effie as it grows

Here’s a wish list of features I hope they incorporate into the software that’ll propel it right to the top amongst the various writing softwares out there.

iCloud Integration

I think is this is my top priority. Effie has their own internal server which syncs between devices, but if I were to move to Effie, iCloud integration will not only help me move all my notes to Effie but make my life so much simpler. At least, this should be an option for users. And while we are giving options, include Dropbox and the others as well. Let the people select their own cloud service.

Focus and Editor Modes

One of the things I adore about iAwriter is their focus modes — where only the line you’re working on is highlight and the rest fade away. This makes working with large texts, be it writing or editing, a breeze. It takes away all distractions, it helps you focus on the words at hand and, usually while copy editing, the errors appear stark and clear.

Shortcut Integration

I use a lot of shortcuts and one of my favourite shortcuts is to create a daily to-do list in the form of bullet points. I’d love to have this go directly to Effie, but currently there is no shortcut support yet.

Floating Word Count

For some reason, the word count is hidden away in a menu on the side on the iPad. While it gives all the details necessary, I’d like to have a word counter floating on my writing page, in an unobtrusive corner. It always helps to keep an eye on that.

Multiple Window Support on iPad

As of right now, you can use Effie with instances of other apps. But what I’d like is to have two Effie notes open in the same instance. Especially given the mind mapping functionality, it’d be great to have the mind map open in one window and the main drafting sheet open in another in split-view.

Mind Map Manipulation

While the software makes neat mind maps, they are static images. You can add a node or edit one, but that’s about it. I’d love to be able to move the nodes and manipulate the mind map once it’s built. Even add some colours to it to make it more visually appealing.

Do I recommend Effie?

Well, yes. It’s not iAwriter, my preferred software of choice. I still write the first draft of books, articles and everything else there. It’s where my hand goes by default. But lately, Effie has made its way into my dock sitting right next to iAWriter — which is saying something.

One of iAWriter’s weaknesses is the file system. It syncs with iCloud which is great, but the inbuilt file browser isn’t neat and I’m often lost. Effie’s on the other hand is quite nice, with icons, and subfolders and card like notes to quickly identify which document you need.

Given its great mind mapping feature, if Effie switches their file system to iCloud alongside getting rid of their subscription model with a one time payment option, I’ll switch over to Effie completely. But until then, it’s going to remain on my dock as another tool in my writing arsenal that does one part of the job like none other.

It’s currently available for Apple and Windows devices but an Android version is in the works. You can download the app for free and take it on a test run here.

Note: This is a sponsored post by Effie. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you enjoyed the above piece, check out my series of articles I’m writing for aspiring writers.

Dear Aspiring Writer


My New Secret Power: Effie was originally published in The Writing Cooperative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Go to Source
Author: Akshay Gajria