It just happened. I needed to open a link I found on my computer… on my phone. Fast.
Yes, Apple’s Continuity exists. It’s great. But 1 in 20, maybe 1 in 50 times, it flakes. Or it’s just slow enough for my (probably too impatient) brain to start chanting:
“Come on. Come on. COME ON.”
So what did I do? I sent myself the link on iMessage. Opened it on my phone.
Done. Not polish. Not perfect (not even close).
Just feral efficiency.
Scramble
This happens a lot. Not just with links, but with the kind of tiny, throwaway stuff that feels too insignificant to file into your perfectly curated second brain system. Too fleeting to write it down at all.
- The water you just remembered you had to log.
- The bake time for a snack you’ll forget in 12 minutes.
- A 6-digit 2FA code your browser (and messaging app) refuses to auto-paste.
And then you’re scrambling.
You don’t want to face-unlock, swipe-swipe-swipe, pick the right app, and gently tuck it somewhere “organized.” No. You want a pen. One pen. Just one! Pen, pen, pen… Where did they all go?! Quick, Amazon. Reorder. Which pens did I like again? Crap. What was the thing I was supposed to write down before this whole pen nonsense!?
I've learned to (try to) pay attention to these unexpected and "seriously-don't-need-this-right-now" kind of moments. If you pay attention enough, with whatever little patience you have left, you'll notice a signal. The subtle realization that you don’t need a better tool. You need a faster trick.
Systems
On macOS, apps like Raycast solve this with Clipboard History. (There’s plenty of apps like this). But clipboard managers only exist on your computer. Life happens everywhere else.
So I’ve built my own little “life clipboard.” Three go-tos for tiny, temporary notes:
- Send myself a message.
- Scribble in my pocket notebook.
- Write it on the back of my hand.
That’s it. I don’t overthink it. In fact, I don’t think about it at all. I just grab whatever’s available. If I’m offline, the phone’s out. If I’ve got no pen, my hand is fair game. Instinct decides.
Don’t overthink your systems. Your tricks. I remember spending hours carefully scaffolding the perfect series of intricately connected Notion databases and dashboards. Thinking that this… This very impressive and basically automated thing will fix all of my mess. I mean, that's what the folks on YouTube said!
And… it didn’t. And somehow, I didn’t learn. I tried again. And again.
All those dashboards now linger as digital abandoned ruins in the Shadowlands of my Notion account. Structures that couldn’t survive the scramble, when instinct decided instead.
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Sidenote: No shade against Notion. I think it's great! I use it almost daily for a very specific kind of notes that I take. It's just that everything else… doesn't work for me. But that's just me. Back to the post
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Whether you’re DM’ing yourself or doodling on your arm, the point is this: have more than one way to catch the little things.
Because the tech will glitch. The tools won’t always be there. But your techniques? Those carry you anywhere.
That’s real Continuity. A scrappy little feature of your everyday lifeOS. It’s you, catching yourself in the scramble.