Taking down notes—whether it's for your own projects or simply trying to remember something for referenve later—is a behavior that won't go away anytime soon.
At work, this can be as simple as writing down a task list, key decisions made in a meeting, or simply brainstorming ideas for a new marketing campaign.
At home, this can be the instructions by your veterinarian on how to care for your pet, a grocery list, or projects you want to get done in the house.
If Your Notes Aren't Personal, You're Doing It Wrong
Notes are written records of information. Whether this lives in a Post-it, or in your iPhone's Notes app, its purpose definition and its purpose doesn't change.
The purpose of any note is as a reference for the future.
Think about it.
You write something down so you don't forget or easily remember in the future.
- your passwords (that you probably re-use over and over)
- journal entries
- next vacation itinerary
Notes are inherently personal.
You write them in a way that makes sense to you (and hopefully to your future self).
The way how and the reason why you choose to write something is a personal decision that can only be described as personal.
A term that closely describes this is resonance.
You heard or saw something that resonated with you, and that is why you wrote it the way you did.
If you are taking minutes or transcripts, which is word for word, you are doing it wrong.
I'd bet that you are probably comlaining that you're not getting any value from it.
And that's because it's not personal.
What you wrote didnmt resonate with you.
So, here's my advice: stop.
Think about what you value. Think about what is important. Ask yourself why multiple times. This self-reflection is key to taking effective notes.
Why I Switched from BuJo to Obsidian
A few years ago, I wrote about my 7 years of Bullet Journalling. Check it out. You'll see my stacknof Moleskine notebooks throughout the years.
But after the pandemic, I completely switched to digital notes. I first transitioned to Agenda, then now to Obsidian.
There are two main reasons:
- Remote work
- PARA system
Remote Work Permanence
I realized I won't ever go back to an in-office role. Since before COVID-19, I had been working remotely for my freelance business. When the pandemic hit, remote work became the norm for companies around the world.
This shift changed the way organizations operate entirely. While remote work (globalization of talent) was already a thing before, this was mainly as a supplement to shortages.
But the pandemic accelerated this shift and has now become a strategy to attract and retain talent around the world.
That shift, and my decision to never go back to an office, is the turning point.
I then started figuring out how I can improve my notetaking.
This led me to the PARA method.
The PARA Method of Notetaking
The PARA Method, developed by Tiago Forte (not affiliated), is a simple way of thinking about and organizing your notes.
PARA is an acronym that stands for projects, areas, resources, and archives.
At a high level, here's what they mean:
- Projects: stuff you're actively working on. have end dates.
- Areas: roles and responsibilities you're managing over time. usually don't have an end date.
- Resources: topics you're interested in that may be useful in the future.
- Archives: completed or inactive items from the other three categories.
Pretty simple, right?
Combined with Getting Things Done (GTD) concepts and task management, you reach an entirely new level of sophistication amd simplicity.
I'll write more about this some other time.
For now, I invite you to read more about these if you are unfamiliar.
Digital Notes Solves the Discovery Problem of Analog Notes
Have you ever said to yourself, "I knew I wrote this down somewhere."
The biggest problem of analog notes is discovery—finding information you wrote.
Digital notes solved this.
Sure, there are solutions that actually try to bridge this gap.
For instance, Livescribe is one I particularly used before.
You simply have the pen record the audio (e.g. a meeting or a lecture). Then, you take your usual
notes on a special paper/notebook.
Later on, you can sync the pen to the phone/computer and your notes will show up. It will
create an audio and actual notes. Then later on if you want to review something? you tap a phrase or term, then the audio will
hop to when you wrote that word/phrase.
Anyway, that was before. I haven't kept track of the company but it was pretty cool.
But the key point is searching for your notes is the most difficult and persistent problem in analog methods.
Obsidian Solves This Issue and More
I found out about Obsidian during my research and fell in love with it. Sure, it took some tweaking and time getting used to, but it's really worth it.
I'm using it mostly for it's basic functionality.
If you decide to go down this rabbit hole, there's an entire community around personal knowledge sysyems (PKM) and a lot of people really customize their Obsidian.
As for me, I remain practical.
I use it and apply the PARA method.
I have basic templates for meetings and project notes. I add details like agenda, attendees, action items, etc.
It's a combination of administrative details and what resonates with me.
Then I use the basic features of Obsidian such as internal links and search as needed. I won't dive into that but it's a neat feature to help find relationships among your notes.
Private by Default
Perhaps the most crucial benefit that I didnt anticipate is that my notes here are actually mine. They are private by default.
This means that all the notes are stored locally. The company doesn't even know what I put in the app.
Contrast this with other popular notetaking apps where you won't be able to use it without any Internet. This means that your data is actually with them. Of course these companies would say they won't check or snoop or have access into your data and other notes, but I wouldn't count on it.
Notetaking im the AI Era
Perhaps another benefit that I got when I transitioned to Obsidian is that the way you write notes is using markdown.
Markdown is a simple way of styling notes (versus HTML or other markup language).
Why was markdown a benefit?
Because it allows me to write better prompts in AI.
I can also read and understand the output better because that is how it is displayed across the different LLMs.
In addition, it reads far easier when using it as an input (knowledge base, attachment, etc.).
Other formats, for example, docx or gdoc have a ton of formatting on them that may not be seen visually but is present in the code.
Which leads me to another benefit in this AI era—smaller file sizes.
Smaller file sizes mean less tokens used.
Less tokens used mean more context can be added, longer conversations, and overall
improved quality.
That's my current setup right now. I think this will last for a couple more years but we shall see. With the pace at which things are developing,it's really important to start flexible.
How about you? What's your current setup like today? Are you thinking of changing things up soon?
