📥 Captures

Captures are similar to ✅ Actions in many ways, but are unique as there is no notion of completion. You cannot complete a capture; instead, you process a capture.

Consider the Stuff at the very start of the workflow diagram. This could be anything - a thought or idea that’s been running through your mind, a website/article you want to read later, a cool gadget you’re considering buying, a restaurant you thought looked good, something you want to bring up to someone in your next conversation, the list goes on and on.

Many of these thoughts aren’t actionable, or it isn’t immediately clear what the action is. Instead of letting them remain in your subconscious and constantly remind yourself of them or risk forgetting them, captures are a great way to free up your brain for more productive thinking.

The Inbox displays all unprocessed captures

You can process a capture by doing any of the following:

• convert it to an action
• trash/delete it
• defer it by setting a reminder for a later date (i.e. tickler item)
• store it in a someday/maybe list

Why are captures useful?

Unlike many task management apps, Yata allows you to create, store and manage non-actionable items. This encourages you to “capture” your thoughts in an unfiltered manner, without the cognitive burden of fleshing out the thought in the moment or the psychological effect of having “incomplete” tasks that actually aren’t completable.

Of course, if your thought is already actionable, simply create the action and skip the processing that you’ve already done! Creating a capture just to immediately process them adds an unnecessary layer of complexity.