My personal note about note-taking
In the past, I did not pay much attention to note-taking. It felt like one of those ubiquitous things we don’t even need to talk about. Nowadays, it’s one of the most powerful tools I have at my disposal. When I look in retrospect, I’ve come a long way to be as satisfied as I am today. Although I feel very positive about my current framework, one key requirement is flexibility. It’s what makes it remain relevant, helpful, and up to date throughout the years. Today I want to reflect a little on how I have worked out this skill so far. ¹
Like most of the people who were students during the analog years of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, notes mainly were copies of information. My first notes were mostly rushed dumps of blackboard words and highlights that the teacher presented. We had to collect it. Otherwise, reviewing it before the test was impossible. You had one chance only to access it. These notes were primarily mechanical, intending to help my brain remember stuff and reinforce the connections that needed to be used at the appropriate time. I know today that many techniques exist to make better use of this kind of note, from Flash Cards to the Leitner System. But for me, after the test, I’d never got back to those writings.
During my consultant years, notes were mere drafting vessels. I had notes for everything: meetings, org charts, business proposals, problem mapping, talks, architectural discussions, and so forth. This effort made me spend piles of notebooks, note pads, post-it notes, drafting paper, and whiteboard pictures. In common, it was all disposable again. Because, in the end, most of it became an end “product” like a report, a meeting minute, a UML diagram, a use case, or a story. I had very little attachment to them since most of the work was based on frameworks like RUP, PMBOK, Scrum, and others.
But something started to bother me, especially when I started using GTD. Over time, It would be common to repeat some set of tasks. So I began to create a personal database of checklists that would evolve with me. These checklists represented the compiled learnings from my experience, helping me not have to re-learn what I already established work. But they did not carry much of the context of what happened. Most of the time, the documents that were the output results of my notes were either inaccessible or not a clear representation of what I was thinking at that moment. Adding to the mix, I rarely returned to those documents and reviewed that valuable information.
Back then, I was still skeptical of what notes were worth storing, so I began with what I believed was most helpful. My first note was a monthly journal entry that compiled my impressions and learnings from that month. I called it a retrospective. I’d go back every month to review them and look back in time to check what I learned and evolved. That worked quite well for me until I got in touch with the idea of Zettelkasten. Like many of the good ideas that come by me, I dismissed it immediately. It seemed too generic, and the hyped Roam Research did not appraise to my taste.
After the subject knocked on my door a few more times, I decided to give it a go. At first, I tried Notion, but I decided to study more on the topic when it became limited. Not only the original ZK movement but also the famous PARA and Second Brain. I finally migrated to Obsidian and have been using it since then. My way to go with ZK was to start small with my task lists (GTD), my monthly journaling, and a few templates. Now, Four years later, I have almost 1k notes, a bunch of plugins, and templates. I feel like I’ve achieved a nice system that I keep on reviewing and improving over and over with ease.
I do not consider myself a role model of personal organization, but I feel like maintaining things tidy helps me keep my life in balance. I feel much more on track with my things and topics with this improved note system. Raging from the strategy for my organization, projects I’m tackling, the people I’m leading, and my personal feelings. Having it all segregated felt right in the past, but now I can see it all connected and making sense. And this togetherness is very helpful in helping me see my life as a whole and act upon it.
It must seem overwhelming to look at all this fuss for just a simple note. I’m not here advocating that everyone should try it, but if you feel the need, remember, It all started with a simple doodle on paper, and now it’s a whole system. Take your notes seriously, but not too seriously 😜.
- ¹ I may talk a bit about how I’m doing things in another post in the future. I didn’t want to cram too much information here.
