How do you take efficient notes?

obsidian / markdown

cron job to git pull/push

There are numerous PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) frameworks available such as PARA method, and resources like books, courses, and Obsidian vault kits. However, in my opinion, it is better to create your own framework. You can start by organizing your thoughts, projects, daily notes, and tasks. If you notice a recurring pattern in your notes, you can create templates. Utilizing Graph view and Dataview plugin can help you identify the emerging structure, allowing you to make incremental improvements until you are satisfied.

Unlike SaaS tools and even VSCode, Obsidian has exceptional speed, and using hotkeys/shortcuts is crucial. To learn more about using shortcuts, I completed the Obsidian Flight School course[1].

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1. https://www.linkingyourthinking.com/obsidian-flight-school

The trick to notetaking is to filter quickly and to use just enough structure to get through each project. Unless you are literally maintaining an archive, you aren't taking notes to be a librarian. Most of the things you could copy, you don't need to copy. The things you want to memorize, you want to dwell on artistically. So instead of copying those things legibly, draw them as a blind contour sketch. That transfers the "whole thought" into muscle memory, instead of atomizing it into the discrete symbols.

For shorter term written notes and research documents, I use spreadsheets. They are grids. Grids help organize things into nice cellular chunks. They can contain lots of asset types. I don't actually need the other spreadsheet functions, but if I did want to search my notes, I could export a CSV and write something to quickly filter through it. If I need a cloud spreadsheet there are options, but I've been alright with LibreOffice Calc.

If I only access the notes occasionally(e.g. financial records) or there's a need for intensive ideation then I have a paper spiral notebook. Again, I use grids as a way to add some organization - I got a bundle of A5 grid notebooks off Amazon so that I feel like "I have storage to waste". I also use a color multipen, and most recently I've added sticky notes to the arsenal. The point is to have some hierarchies and categories just already there by default - by position, by color or styling. The sticky notes are currently used as project to-dos that I can remove when done - thus when I look through those books I have a view into just current tasks, and done tasks - not things I said I'd do and didn't. If I need to share, I take a photo.

For on-the-go use I also keep a dollar store bound notebook and two pens(a multi and a fountain) in a fanny pack. I use a binder clip to close it flat and prevent dogearing, and I also keep sticky notes available in a tiny case I found at Daiso.

Notetaking bleeds into home/office organization too. You want to have duplicates for things and pre-divided space so that more of your projects are kept together - tools and notes available without a moment of "where did I put the...". Anything that turns into an unorganized pile with no "reset" state is calling for a space divider or binding of some kind, whether that's something small like a binder clip or manila folder, or large shelf storage, file boxes, etc. Electronic often becomes a huge hindrance for this kind of spatial organization by turning into a dependency gatekeeping information access behind an OS, apps, etc.

Sometimes there are units of info that you want to cross-reference - "plan A vs plan B", "section 2" and the like. For this you can invent short identifier codes or nmemonics. Then as the need arises you can decide how you want to collect and archive them.

Wouter Groeneveld's book "The Creative Programmer" [1] talks extensively about note taking in one of its chapters and suggests a worflow mixing handwriting and using digital tools.

1. https://www.manning.com/books/the-creative-programmer

I use plain-text files stored as markdown to write notes. I have the note taking program open all the time. I revisit and refine my notes often as needed. I dump thoughts that distracting me from my current activities. I write often and it helps keep me grounded. This feels simple and efficient for me.