One of the challenges I face with task apps is dealing with information overload — the amount of things I need to get done feels overwhelming and I struggle to prioritize what's important.

That's why Amplenote's Task Score system caught my interest. In addition to a few other features in the productivity software, its ability to assign a score to tasks and sort them accordingly gives you a way to filter through your to-do list.

What is Amplenote?

A note and task app for planners

Amplenote is a cross-platform productivity app that focuses on creating tasks from notes and scheduling them using the app's calendar. It has a very specific "idea execution funnel" that it uses in its approach to productivity. This funnel has a series of phases, starting from an idea kernel to task completion.

Its features are aimed around this funnel. Step one is to write and capture ideas, which is what Amplenote's jots — or daily notes — do. The next step is editing these rough jots into more detailed notes, which can also involve categorizing them using different tags. Step three turns these notes into actionable tasks and to-do items. Finally, the last phase is planning and scheduling, where the calendar feature comes in.

While it sounds complex, once you get the hang of the flow, it becomes easier to manage. You can also tweak this funnel to your own style — I tend to condense some of the first few steps.

For example, I can use the daily jot feature to outline a few things I need to do. I can then turn these into tasks and assign them to the right tag. Finally, if needed, I could give them a due date and priority level to add them to my calendar.

Amplenote's Task Score helps you prioritize what's important

You can filter out less important tasks

When you create a task in Amplenote, a few things will determine its Task Score. These factors include how many times you've opened the note with the task, whether you've set its priority as Urgent or Important (or both), whether you set a duration for the task, and whether it's due today. You can also manually edit the score for specific tasks or tasks with a certain note.

Amplenote then automatically sorts these tasks according to their score in the Tasks view. Tasks with the highest score will appear at the top, with lower scores appearing further down. You can also apply a filter that only shows high-value tasks and save a shortcut to this view.

This proves to be really helpful when you're using the app for a wide array of tasks. For example, I don't really want my personal errands to show up with my work deadlines unless it's an important task that needs to get done today.

I find that simply filtering according to tags isn't enough — going to the pharmacy is optional when I need to get a refill on medication I still have, but becomes essential when I've run out. So the Task Score system helps when it comes to prioritizing your to-do list.

Creating tasks from notes has never been so easy

A variety of shortcuts and commands are at your disposal

I was slightly skeptical about Amplenote since it aims to replace so many productivity apps and I've stopped trusting apps that try to do everything. However, I am impressed by how easy it is to create tasks from your notes and add them to your calendar.

The flow for creating tasks caters to a variety of work styles. You can use keyboard shortcuts, Markdown, or slash commands. My personal favorite is quickly typing the tasks, highlighting the text, and then using the toolbar that pops up to turn them all into tasks.

The ability to drag-and-drop tasks into your calendar is helpful when it comes to scheduling time for them.

However, at the same time, Amplenote does sometimes get in its own way. Since there's a lot of functionality in the app, it tries to help you discover this with a bunch of demo tasks. But this can get frustrating when you just want to get started using the app.

Its own video tutorials recommend that you start from scratch to get to know the system, but then when you create your account there's a bunch of pre-existing demo content. While I understand that this can be useful for some people, it's also incredibly distracting and frustrating to have to remove.

One of the drawbacks of productivity apps that I often encounter is that they can be overwhelming. Lightweight tutorials can be helpful, but too much demo content can feel more like bloat — especially when tasks include things like following the company on social media.

Despite this frustration, I do think Amplenote has something appealing to offer, especially for people who enjoy comprehensive task management solutions. The ability to schedule tasks to repeat according to completion dates, for example, is something I'm keen to explore more.

Amplenote helps you keep your priorities in focus

If you need help keeping important tasks in focus, while also needing a place to jot down daily thoughts, Amplenote is worth giving a try. The app has both a free plan and a premium option, along with a variety of plugins you can try out.