There's plenty of threads here that talk about what tool works best for notes. I want to know what kind of notes are you taking down and how you're organizing your thought.
Not an answer but could you share some past threads you mentioned, discussing tools people use? I'd love to compare notes, so to speak.
As for me I've got a note for random thoughts, acts as a dumping ground, and other notes titled by categories for organising into later.
The thing with note taking is it's so reflective of how people think, so it's not always easy to adapt exactly to what others suggest. But still worth looking at and getting ideas.
I use EditPadLite because it has a tabbed interface and save my notes as client-name-website.ext-notes.txt. Then when I'm done with the notes, I toss them.
These notes usually consist out of code I want to save for a bit to study it further, bits of CSS I've fiddled with in Developer Tools and still need to implement, or some notes I've written down during the occasional phone call I have. I use it as a second brain, because I can't remember all that stuff anymore now that I'm about to hit 40.
- for text, trees, list/table data, local and global URLs/references
- using dead-simple tags
But above all: don't use anything to organize your thoughts
You will not figure things out better using outlines or mind-maps or blog entries or ontologies or equations or chats.
Think your thoughts until they are compressed from mud to diamonds.
Then their structure and media will be clear, and the unending task of conveying them to others can begin. You'll find organization is driven not by author but by audience.
IDK if it's what you're looking for but I'll share some of my stuff.
The specifics depend on what I'm doing, but still I find that I return to the same structural patterns a lot, I developed what I call a "Unified Experiencing Template":
I use this for notetaking, organizing new learning projects, hobbies, and other contexts.
The Current Position section generally encourages me to move items from the log up into a more structured position of understanding or momentum. This also helps to work around the trap--subjective taxonomy or journal format? You can end up with both and in a lot of cases that's really what I'm looking for.
I have a script that parses files for +crp to help me keep up with whatever I'm working on / thinking about.
I also take notes in the to-do list zone using my Task BATL format (profile) using elements like time estimation, so this format shows up in my notes really often:
- FF xsc (5m)
- F-x xsc Hydrate (1m)
- F-x xsc Eat a pop-tart (1m)
- F-x xsc Go for a hike (3m, get camera ready)
- VV xsc (15m)
- V-/_ xsc Watch some more of the film you checked out on Hoopla (15m)
- TT _sc (?)
- T-/_ _sc Email to schedule the call for Monday
- T-/_ _sc Plan next 2-3 steps for backup changes
The first items, FF, are comfort- or body-support items. VV would be items related to ongoing development of personal interests and values. TT would be work or more normal / boring checklist items.
The xsc / _sc indicates whether I've got the next step's time estimated and/or schedule blocked out for the item.
Other note-taking stuff...if I'm taking notes, the format, amount, and organization method also depends on the output-format's (speaker's, presenter's, book's, etc.) psychology and how it relates to my intake-psychology, but that's getting into weird stuff.
If I'm in a hurry I take notes on paper in shorthand or on a digital device in shorthand. l cg f cr would be "oil change for car" etc. My handwriting for this is kind of a mix of Teeline, Gregg, Ford, Japanese, and some of my own stuff.
I also found that sometimes what's needed is just the "expression of information" similar to the expression of feelings. Saving the notes is not so important. What's important is getting it out. So at these times I'll journal by writing shorthand on my lap while sitting, chest while hiking (holding my shoulder bag strap) etc. Similar to Ted Nelson's anywhere-keyboard but without the keyboard. And the notetaking product of this is more like an idea, resolution, or summed-up organization of things.
Paper notebook(s). It's always open on my desk, next to my mousepad. I only have to move my hand a few inches from my mouse to pick up the pen and start writing.
Everything goes in there, in chronological order. In the morning I write the date at the top of a page, check my calendar, email, and Slack, and jot down some to-dos for the day.
After that anything goes - meeting notes, brainstorming, quick research, etc. It's not terribly organized or fancy - it doesn't need to be. I just write things down in the order they come up during the day.
Anything that needs to be shared or collaborated with others goes into a Google Doc or some digital form, I take a bit of time to convert my quick notes to something meaningful that will make sense to someone else.
I very rarely need to reference notes older than a couple of weeks. If I do, it usually doesn't take that long to find based on rough date - I have a stack with my old notebooks in a drawer.
I also use BBEdit with a million unsaved documents (well, 175 right now). I use it more as a scratch pad than actual note taking - drafting a longer message or email, manipulating some text I'm moving around, and so on. Nothing that needs to be persisted for long.
- I have a Gitlab project in which I make issues + update wikis frequently. Issues are for concrete ideas/tasks. Wikis are for collecting ideas / bookmarks / etc.
- I have a few notebooks with various purposes. One's for practical sketches / problem solving (like math). One is for ideas for the various games I have in my head. One is for visual art.
- I also have a gamedev folder in my iPhone notes just in case. I've started using it less since I can just use Gitlab on my phone.
Paper notebook on the go. Usually field notes sized that fits in my pocket or shoulder bag. Sometimes a big sketch book size is I “need” more space.
Fleshed our notes go in Tinderbox. 4-5 times a week I’ll journal or condense my thoughts. Not very consistent though - some weeks it’s 1-2 times. Other weeks I write daily or multiple times a day.
Use Orgzly on the phone. Orgmode/orgzly somehow fits my needs like a glove. I feel like the app is nearly perfect.
I sync the flat files with keybase e2e encrypted git via termux command.
I try to make note taking "pipelines" also - trying to ensure I dont just dump notes on a pile and forget about them but that there is a process/habit/location for me to pick all notes up again later for use. I rearrange/reorg the notes with a view to this pretty regularly.
I shove them all in an archive folder once Im done with them.
Just checked my EverNote stats for me to comment here. I have 1500+ Notes spanning more than 10 years (since 2011). I have 18 notebooks as major categorization of work-company-A vs ideas vs bookmarks vs project-x .. etc. I use this daily, for tasks, snippets, basic todos both work and personal, and attach rich media (screenshots, code, links) in most notes.
Syncing is also what I'm after and all my devices have EN: macs at home and work, my spare windows laptop, tablets and smarphones (Android). Principle: if its for my personal consumption, I usually put it in my EN, but work stuff are in GDocs/GDrive for shareability. I also limit putting in my notes any sensitive info and credentials, at the very least, for sanity and security purposes, as I have a KeyPassXC for that. I also don't use Evernote specific groupsharing/tasks/other features; it's just the sync-all-my-notes-across-my devices. Syncing works best in their desktop apps for the most part, but buggy in Android (dups, conflicts). Paying $2+USD/mo for this so im not complaining. But it could be better.
Very similar to what I have done. It's very powerful to have a lot of notes in one system like Evernote. Mine goes back to 2006. Likewise, I don't use it for document collaboration or any of the sharing functions – just personal notes synced.
Nowadays I create one note per day. I feel like I take a lot of notes – 500-4,000 words a day.
What balloons the size is I often find myself more in a transcription mode when I'm having critical conversations or interviewing people. Remote work makes this easier.
I've also developed a small number of short-hand annotations. eg. "(" for my inline thoughts, "[" for questions or topics I want to get to in a meeting.
Logseq has been great. As an outliner with backlinks, it makes it easy to take notes with minimal effort put into structuring while still being able to find and group related notes. Queries are awesome for filtering todos by subject. Local storage is great for security / privacy. Can't recommend it enough.
Most of my notes are in the form of bulleted lists that either:
1) Describe some task that needs to be completed.
2) Describe a set of steps needed to complete some task.
3) Summarize a topic at a higher level.
If I need to write something more descriptive and/or with complex visuals, I usually think of it as writing documentation as opposed to note taking, and use tools such as jupyter notebooks
I noticed that I were creating .txt file "new file 1" "new file 2" on desktop.
To write down some small things or clear up some commands for command line.
So I realized I will need such a file basically every day and now instead of creating such file ad-hoc, I create one in the morning. When I need to remember something or copy-adjust-paste I do it in that file.
Some days are left empty some days have hundreds of lines.
I don't organize it besides "archiving" each month/year.
Since it is all in single directory I just use VS Code on it and search with it. But I am not tagging or anything just searching plain text, old commands, names of servers functions I might have adjusted. Most of the stuff I can click around for last 7 days and find what I needed.
I keep my life notes in plain text in a directory called "notes", usually formatted with markdown. I rarely render the markdown but I still find it useful for structuring my notes. I also incorporate a very lean take on getting things done (GTD). I host it on github and sync it between devices with syncthing.
My main requirement is that it should be very easy to start writing the note. This means not many decisions to make first (deeply nested directories or tags), and not being bound to a certain application or having an internet connection.
Plain text is great because it's small, portable, and I like being able to use grep against my note directory to find things.
basic structure:
- One file per year for a basic daily log in (log/2022.md) this is where I do at least half of my notetaking and journaling.
- a few GTD files in the top level, in.md, next.md, somedaymaybe.md
- a projects directory, prj/, which has a sub directory for various projects, these can be small stuff that take weeks, or longer things
- a list directory, lst/, which has lists of thing, example: books to read, groceries to buy, etc.
- a reference directory, ref/, for storing things that I'd like to remember but aren't active projects or notes that I expect to add to often (those should be projects or just go in log/), example: a recipe
I've been doing this for a few months now and I am liking it quite a bit and expect to stick with it. The biggest headache is getting syncthing to work with ios so that I can reliably have my notes on my phone, open to suggestions on that.
I have too many ideas and too few resources to actually implement them. So I deliberately do not write down my ideas, otherwise I will be distracted easily (I have heavy ADHD and it is very difficult for me to prioritize between ideas to work on).
If some idea is really important, it will come again, and again, and I will have to start doing something about it. Otherwise, it is better to forget it. Just writing something down is the best way for me to never get back to it, I have a lot of ideas written down in Evernote like this, I call it my “cemetery of ideas”.
I have very intricate systems for reminders, documents and events (I have to set up 3-4 reminders before any event, otherwise I’ll happily ignore it). But writing down plain notes never did any good to me.
I'm journaling/free-writing to get extended/detailed ideas down that I've had, which consists of a bunch of text files in a directory that sometimes end up combined in subdirectories, often refer to each other, and are frequently appended to/refined.
But the main thing I'm doing note-wise is that first I read a thing through once, trying to carefully understand, but not necessarily commit to memory, everything before I move on. Then I read through it a second time trying to phrase every fact I encounter as question-answer pairs that go into a spreadsheet to be imported into an Anki subdeck for that thing.
This works in a similar way live (like meetings and phone calls), but I'm taking notes with paper and pencil, and later extracting the facts from them for Anki.
Things of only temporary importance get lumped into an "ephemeral" subdeck, where cards get suspended/deleted with extreme prejudice.
I do an hour to an hour and a half of Anki every morning. Might sound like a lot, but half of it is Spanish, and at least 15-20 minutes of it is done while shitting, so it's not like I would have been doing something else.
If I don't get up to an hour/hour-and-a-half, I add new cards to review until I get there. I also add new cards to review at other times of the day if I'm bored and want to kill five minutes.
I've been told this is similar to the Cornell Method, but with a lot more review.
YMMV: I use something called low-key Anki where the only buttons used are "Again" and "Good."
I actually take my time because of something I heard years ago - that it's the hurrying that does damage down there. My shits are actually pretty healthy, but I just take my time, don't strain, and don't hurry things. If I don't have 15 minutes to shit, I'm overscheduled.
You use sounds very, very close to mine. I also put so much information into Anki - it makes me look like a superhuman to recall some keyboard shortcut or Python function or algorithmic technique or RFC. Definitely has affected my employability - two of my last three gigs were from recommendations. Anki is my superpower, and I'm not shy to tell about it.
Notebook and pen. No app can beat it for long term notes. If you need to take photos of the pages and save those on a note taking app such as Evernote.
OP specifically stated they aren't asking about what tools you use, but rather "what kind of notes are you taking down and how you're organizing your thought"
For a bit I was using vimwiki. I really liked it, however, getting it to work with images was a huge pain in the butt. So lately I have been using Obsidian. It allows me to use vim mode, paste images, and also write notes in md format.
It took me many attempts to adopt Obsidian, but eventually, now I am hooked.
The key for me was Daily notes (see Periodic Notes plugin) + Tasks. It allows me to write freely while using todo-like bullet lists to remember the upcoming tasks.
I'm planning for more extensive use but one step at a time...
76 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 79.3 ms ] threadPersonal projects and ideas?
School notes?
Recording what goes on at a work meeting?
As for me I've got a note for random thoughts, acts as a dumping ground, and other notes titled by categories for organising into later.
The thing with note taking is it's so reflective of how people think, so it's not always easy to adapt exactly to what others suggest. But still worth looking at and getting ideas.
These notes usually consist out of code I want to save for a bit to study it further, bits of CSS I've fiddled with in Developer Tools and still need to implement, or some notes I've written down during the occasional phone call I have. I use it as a second brain, because I can't remember all that stuff anymore now that I'm about to hit 40.
It just works, everywhere in Apple Ecosystem.
- saved in git
- transformed by pandoc (and some filters)
- for text, trees, list/table data, local and global URLs/references
- using dead-simple tags
But above all: don't use anything to organize your thoughts
You will not figure things out better using outlines or mind-maps or blog entries or ontologies or equations or chats.
Think your thoughts until they are compressed from mud to diamonds.
Then their structure and media will be clear, and the unending task of conveying them to others can begin. You'll find organization is driven not by author but by audience.
The specifics depend on what I'm doing, but still I find that I return to the same structural patterns a lot, I developed what I call a "Unified Experiencing Template":
https://pastebin.com/hvRutW9u
I use this for notetaking, organizing new learning projects, hobbies, and other contexts.
The Current Position section generally encourages me to move items from the log up into a more structured position of understanding or momentum. This also helps to work around the trap--subjective taxonomy or journal format? You can end up with both and in a lot of cases that's really what I'm looking for.
I have a script that parses files for +crp to help me keep up with whatever I'm working on / thinking about.
I also take notes in the to-do list zone using my Task BATL format (profile) using elements like time estimation, so this format shows up in my notes really often:
The first items, FF, are comfort- or body-support items. VV would be items related to ongoing development of personal interests and values. TT would be work or more normal / boring checklist items.The xsc / _sc indicates whether I've got the next step's time estimated and/or schedule blocked out for the item.
Other note-taking stuff...if I'm taking notes, the format, amount, and organization method also depends on the output-format's (speaker's, presenter's, book's, etc.) psychology and how it relates to my intake-psychology, but that's getting into weird stuff.
If I'm in a hurry I take notes on paper in shorthand or on a digital device in shorthand. l cg f cr would be "oil change for car" etc. My handwriting for this is kind of a mix of Teeline, Gregg, Ford, Japanese, and some of my own stuff.
I also found that sometimes what's needed is just the "expression of information" similar to the expression of feelings. Saving the notes is not so important. What's important is getting it out. So at these times I'll journal by writing shorthand on my lap while sitting, chest while hiking (holding my shoulder bag strap) etc. Similar to Ted Nelson's anywhere-keyboard but without the keyboard. And the notetaking product of this is more like an idea, resolution, or summed-up organization of things.
Everything goes in there, in chronological order. In the morning I write the date at the top of a page, check my calendar, email, and Slack, and jot down some to-dos for the day.
After that anything goes - meeting notes, brainstorming, quick research, etc. It's not terribly organized or fancy - it doesn't need to be. I just write things down in the order they come up during the day.
Anything that needs to be shared or collaborated with others goes into a Google Doc or some digital form, I take a bit of time to convert my quick notes to something meaningful that will make sense to someone else.
I very rarely need to reference notes older than a couple of weeks. If I do, it usually doesn't take that long to find based on rough date - I have a stack with my old notebooks in a drawer.
I also use BBEdit with a million unsaved documents (well, 175 right now). I use it more as a scratch pad than actual note taking - drafting a longer message or email, manipulating some text I'm moving around, and so on. Nothing that needs to be persisted for long.
- I have a Gitlab project in which I make issues + update wikis frequently. Issues are for concrete ideas/tasks. Wikis are for collecting ideas / bookmarks / etc.
- I have a few notebooks with various purposes. One's for practical sketches / problem solving (like math). One is for ideas for the various games I have in my head. One is for visual art.
- I also have a gamedev folder in my iPhone notes just in case. I've started using it less since I can just use Gitlab on my phone.
Fleshed our notes go in Tinderbox. 4-5 times a week I’ll journal or condense my thoughts. Not very consistent though - some weeks it’s 1-2 times. Other weeks I write daily or multiple times a day.
I sync the flat files with keybase e2e encrypted git via termux command.
I try to make note taking "pipelines" also - trying to ensure I dont just dump notes on a pile and forget about them but that there is a process/habit/location for me to pick all notes up again later for use. I rearrange/reorg the notes with a view to this pretty regularly.
I shove them all in an archive folder once Im done with them.
Syncing is also what I'm after and all my devices have EN: macs at home and work, my spare windows laptop, tablets and smarphones (Android). Principle: if its for my personal consumption, I usually put it in my EN, but work stuff are in GDocs/GDrive for shareability. I also limit putting in my notes any sensitive info and credentials, at the very least, for sanity and security purposes, as I have a KeyPassXC for that. I also don't use Evernote specific groupsharing/tasks/other features; it's just the sync-all-my-notes-across-my devices. Syncing works best in their desktop apps for the most part, but buggy in Android (dups, conflicts). Paying $2+USD/mo for this so im not complaining. But it could be better.
Nowadays I create one note per day. I feel like I take a lot of notes – 500-4,000 words a day.
What balloons the size is I often find myself more in a transcription mode when I'm having critical conversations or interviewing people. Remote work makes this easier.
I've also developed a small number of short-hand annotations. eg. "(" for my inline thoughts, "[" for questions or topics I want to get to in a meeting.
reMarkable for scribbles and ebook highlights (which can't sync anywhere)
Pocket for a black hole of bookmarks
1Password for serious important document storage
Notion for corporate collaboration
Apple Notes for grocery lists and on-the-go thoughts
Roam Research for when I want to actually store and remember things
1) Describe some task that needs to be completed.
2) Describe a set of steps needed to complete some task.
3) Summarize a topic at a higher level.
If I need to write something more descriptive and/or with complex visuals, I usually think of it as writing documentation as opposed to note taking, and use tools such as jupyter notebooks
https://coverclock.blogspot.com/2008/07/daily-organization.h...
I noticed that I were creating .txt file "new file 1" "new file 2" on desktop. To write down some small things or clear up some commands for command line.
So I realized I will need such a file basically every day and now instead of creating such file ad-hoc, I create one in the morning. When I need to remember something or copy-adjust-paste I do it in that file.
Some days are left empty some days have hundreds of lines.
I don't organize it besides "archiving" each month/year.
Since it is all in single directory I just use VS Code on it and search with it. But I am not tagging or anything just searching plain text, old commands, names of servers functions I might have adjusted. Most of the stuff I can click around for last 7 days and find what I needed.
My main requirement is that it should be very easy to start writing the note. This means not many decisions to make first (deeply nested directories or tags), and not being bound to a certain application or having an internet connection.
Plain text is great because it's small, portable, and I like being able to use grep against my note directory to find things.
basic structure:
- One file per year for a basic daily log in (log/2022.md) this is where I do at least half of my notetaking and journaling.
- a few GTD files in the top level, in.md, next.md, somedaymaybe.md
- a projects directory, prj/, which has a sub directory for various projects, these can be small stuff that take weeks, or longer things
- a list directory, lst/, which has lists of thing, example: books to read, groceries to buy, etc.
- a reference directory, ref/, for storing things that I'd like to remember but aren't active projects or notes that I expect to add to often (those should be projects or just go in log/), example: a recipe
I've been doing this for a few months now and I am liking it quite a bit and expect to stick with it. The biggest headache is getting syncthing to work with ios so that I can reliably have my notes on my phone, open to suggestions on that.
If some idea is really important, it will come again, and again, and I will have to start doing something about it. Otherwise, it is better to forget it. Just writing something down is the best way for me to never get back to it, I have a lot of ideas written down in Evernote like this, I call it my “cemetery of ideas”.
I have very intricate systems for reminders, documents and events (I have to set up 3-4 reminders before any event, otherwise I’ll happily ignore it). But writing down plain notes never did any good to me.
(tl;dr ADHD sucks)
My only notes are very simple stuff like doctor appointments, taxes, etc...
I'm journaling/free-writing to get extended/detailed ideas down that I've had, which consists of a bunch of text files in a directory that sometimes end up combined in subdirectories, often refer to each other, and are frequently appended to/refined.
But the main thing I'm doing note-wise is that first I read a thing through once, trying to carefully understand, but not necessarily commit to memory, everything before I move on. Then I read through it a second time trying to phrase every fact I encounter as question-answer pairs that go into a spreadsheet to be imported into an Anki subdeck for that thing.
This works in a similar way live (like meetings and phone calls), but I'm taking notes with paper and pencil, and later extracting the facts from them for Anki.
Things of only temporary importance get lumped into an "ephemeral" subdeck, where cards get suspended/deleted with extreme prejudice.
I do an hour to an hour and a half of Anki every morning. Might sound like a lot, but half of it is Spanish, and at least 15-20 minutes of it is done while shitting, so it's not like I would have been doing something else.
If I don't get up to an hour/hour-and-a-half, I add new cards to review until I get there. I also add new cards to review at other times of the day if I'm bored and want to kill five minutes.
I've been told this is similar to the Cornell Method, but with a lot more review.
YMMV: I use something called low-key Anki where the only buttons used are "Again" and "Good."
> and at least 15-20 minutes of it is done while shitting
One of things I understood too late is what a proper shit takes 2-3 minutes at worst, I just used that time to be alone with my things and thoughts.
YMMV, of course.
... yes.
Of course in the previous comment I talk about a... proper shit, when everything works. But again, different folks have a differnt needs.
Becoming a parent is what finally made me realize how wise it is to tack a couple extra minutes on your poo-time.
Check it out at https://obsidian.md/
The key for me was Daily notes (see Periodic Notes plugin) + Tasks. It allows me to write freely while using todo-like bullet lists to remember the upcoming tasks.
I'm planning for more extensive use but one step at a time...