notes on notes
I'm not big on more formalized "knowledge management" systems. I find they're too fussy and take up too much time to maintain. I end up spending more time on maintaining and extending the system than actually using it.
Guiding lights
- Keep notes concise and clear.
- Use a casual [[voice]].
- No hierarchies.
- Prefer grouping via tags. More organic, removes the need to put something in a singular category.
- Don't take notes when taking action would be better.
- From personal experience, I learn and remember better by applying knowledge and figuring things out as I go. May be different for other people.
- Don't over-complicate things.
- Some people need formalized systems. Some people don't. Know which works best for you.
Notetaking modalities
| Mode | Purpose | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | Get an idea or some other information (a link, article, document...) recorded with the expectation of taking that idea and doing something with it later | Message myself on a chat app, handwritten notes, Scratch files |
| Working | Caputered information must now be given context. Provide that context by making connections between the information and what you are using it for. | READMEs, source code comments, drafts, written analysis and notes on the information itself. |
| Sharing | You have used the captured information within a particular context to accomplish something. You now have a unique interpretation of the captured information that (may) be useful to others or your future self. Sharing gives you an opportunity to refine your interpretation(s) for the benefit of others. | Public websites, wikis |
Scratch files
My main tool for capturing information is chat apps. I can easily message myself virtually any piece of information/media that I want to process later. This isn't a great solution for lnger-term, "journal-style" notes, though. The reason is that I go back through my messages to myself and delete things that I've already processed. If I run across a message that I haven't processed, that's either a reminder that I need to a) act on that message or b) that message is no longer relevant to me and can be deleted without worry. This inbox-esque feed (and my "inbox zero" approach to curating it) has worked really well, just not for longer-term notes.
For such notes, I've created just a regular .txt file that I leave open on my computer. I call it "scratch". In this file I jot down whatever I want to: notes, links, any plain text is fair game. I've come up with a loose formatting system so I can split it up by day, mark things as completed, and so on. This was loosely inspired by things like .plan files and Org Mode, but I didn't want any predefined syntax or need for special tools. Maybe at some point I'll formalize something, but for now a plain old text file is working just fine.
[update 06/27/23] I haven't been using my scratch file for nearly 2 months at time of writing this. Instead, I've been writing my notes/reflections down on a legal pad. I appreciate the physicality of putting pen-to-paper, and I can really separate the digital domain from the "analog" (can't put links into my paper notes, really). This means the physical notes stay more on-topic as reflections on my internal state, emotions, and goals. I still capture resources through chat apps (that still works quite well for me), but the place where I distill those resources down and mix them with my interpretations/experiences is on paper.
References and Readings
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From E.L. Guerrero on merveilles.town
- (1)
This came up during a skillshare about how to use Obsidian at the residency: hierarchical vs non-hierarchical note-taking apps and re-thinking how I organise and make connections between thoughts. It was mentioned that hierarchical hints at harmful structures and perpetuates those harms, and they wondered if their approach to note-taking is commandeered by capitalist aims to quantify everything.
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I’ve been so hung over needing structure that the idea that we don’t need it boggles my mind. More thoughts on decentralised note-taking: remove (artificial) boundaries between topics and thus a different sort of prioritisation; allow for ideas to sit next to each other, or have a flat structure without having anything belong to a particular project or goal; link thoughts by terminology rather than structure.
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Backlinks