The Utility of Tot
This is part two of a series on note-taking in 2025. The series list is available here.
There was an app awhile ago that had a simple premise: screenshot your home screen and share the screenshot with the world. That app (I believe it was "homescreen.me") is long defunct now, but the idea was sound because of the boom of iOS apps that allowed you to customize your Home Screen and may it your own led people to do some really cool things. I don't think I jumped on the trend at the time, but now, here I am, sharing my home screen with the world.
I beta test a lot of apps (see my recent write-up of Walk The World); as such my iPhone home screen changes frequently to align with current needs, apps I am testing, and general interest. However, my dock changes very infrequently and some of it is, at best, muscle memory that keeps me from changing things. However, the apps that sit there are my most heavily used, as well.
Safari and Messages need no introduction, so I will focus on the other two apps in my dock: Tot and Forever ✱ Notes. Today, I will focus on Tot.1 I recently posted on a surprise update to my favorite little app (Tot) and got some followup questions about how I use it in my daily workflows.
I have been following the work of The Iconfactory since they were literally an "icon factory" for Mac and were building ways to change the system-level icons to better suit your personal aesthetic. Since that isn't really a thing anymore, they have filled their time mostly with design consultancy for other app developers. That being said, when they take the time to release their own apps, you should know that it means they believe in the product and the itch that it scratches. Over the years, I have used the majority of the apps listed on the page linked above plus the ones that aren't listed because they are now defunct (RIP Twitterrific).
As such, I was turned onto Tot basically right when it released. Right around that time, I was looking for a scratchpad app that would be fast at handling quick thoughts; I was beta testing a number of options, had used Drafts for a long time because of its extensibility, but knew that whatever app I used, it had to have a system behind it, so that it didn't become another dumping ground. The constant need for additional attention was the main reason I didn't use Apple's Notes app in this way; back in the day (and even now), it was too clunky for quick capture and every time I added a note, getting the note back out again was a non-trivial process.
I needed something that could capture quickly in the moment, but would also allow me to come back to it and get that information back out again just as efficiently. Other icing on the cake included: cross-platform/device and sync, Markdown support, text formatting/format clearing, and export capabilities. Enter Tot.2
Without becoming too much of an infomercial, Tot is a single-window that is thoughtfully-designed for each of its platforms (all the ones made by Apple), has simple formatting controls, super-fast sync, Markdown and Shortcuts support, exporting, etc. It has seven color-coded "dots" or spaces that each have their own personality; a toolbar with glanceable information about the text it contains; and easy access to formatting and exporting tools. The dots are also directly addressable via Shortcuts which comes in handy if you have a system for how you want to use differently-colored spaces.
I have come to use each dot for different parts of my work and they hold information I need as long as I need it, but what matters most is this: Tot is always there to grab a piece of text, so that I can move onto the next thing. This has become especially useful when I am unsure how to use or categorize something in the moment. Examples include, that AI output that I may not actually need or that phrase that will make AI just a little bit more thoughtful in its response; that idea for a different approach to a recipe I've made 100 times; that random list of the 50 states as a temporary checklist for the license plate game; or those language acquisition resources that seemed important in the moment but I had no structure for at the time.
These are all things that I could use any number of notes apps or text editors for, but they aren't fast (meaning at my fingertips), they don't sync (at least not simply), or they create a file that is dropped somewhere I may never find again. Sometimes, what you want is an app that takes a lot of that guesswork out of the equation; that is what Tot does. Sometimes, you want an app that is better designed, more stable, and more clearly scoped than 90% of the apps out there; that is what Tot is.
Tot may not be for you and your note-taking process, but it is definitely for me and it earned a spot on my dock (on three different devices) because of it.
