Some people like an 'exobrain' that they can browse when feeling creative. Many productive people have some sort of journaling system, whether it's post-it notes stuck to their fridge, or even a basic TODO list on their phone. I would be lost without the Notes app on iOS.
Typically I write notes when I'm falling asleep and my mind races. For some reason my best ideas happen at night, not when I've had my coffee in the morning when apparently people are at their 'peak'. But then I can execute on those notes I wrote last night when I'm full of energy so it's a win.
My personal wiki resembles the one in the article. I used to use Dokuwiki, but then I switched to Bookstack. Making an export/import script was easy.
Everything is selfhosted so you don't have to depend on a third party company. And I take daily automated backups ofc.
I do similar things using Trello (for todo’s), Markdown files (for more complete info), Ponder (my own browser based scratch pad), and a notebook for Stray Thoughts (for capturing thoughts at bedtime or throughout the day).
The problem with all these systems that certain people lose focus by using them. And focus is the key to success.
Yes, some successful people use these systems. But there is a single variable that is common for all successful people: focus.
When I was using Evernote I was not able to finish a single thing... blog posts, call for coffee, read something, etc.
I'll say that for me, I hopped across note and productivity apps until I switched to emacs/org-mode. It has not made me wildly more productive, but it has (or can have) any feature other programs offer, so there is no productivity FOMO when I learn about new programs.
Having infinite digital paper - maps the one thing that worked for me A4 5mm Square Paper and a pen.
I know it's locked into Apple, etc..., but being able to draw notes on the iPad, quick type notes from my iPhone, or type (and search) across all of those from my Mac is what finally made it 'stick' for me.
Notion looks interesting, but too flexible can often be a problem. The danger is it's easy to slip into the thought that organizing equates to getting things done.
It’s really close to the utility of paper with few of the downsides, the one thing I miss is resistance when using the pencil, I keep thinking about a remarkable 2 because they apparently have a closer to paper feeling but they cost as much as a new iPad does and the iPad is a more capable device generally.