[HN Gopher] Notes against note-taking systems
___________________________________________________________________
Notes against note-taking systems
Author : Tomte
Score : 162 points
Date : 2022-10-01 20:11 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (sashachapin.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (sashachapin.substack.com)
| mindaslab wrote:
| I use a text file to take notes. It works perfect.
| low_tech_punk wrote:
| From neuroscience perspective, it is the _Anticipation_ of the
| task that releases dopamine, not the "Doing" of the task, hence
| the appeal of all the productivity porn.
|
| And as a corollary, it could be the _Anticipation of difficulty_
| in tackling a daunting task that makes you avoid it, rather than
| the actual difficulty in tackling.
|
| So, the best way to getting into the flow state and getting
| things done (pun intended) is to force yourself to just do it.
| athenot wrote:
| > So, the best way to getting into the flow state and getting
| things done (pun intended) is to force yourself to just do it.
|
| And also reducing as much friction as possible. For me, that
| means, reduce temptation to style and ultra minimal note
| categorization.
|
| * New Note in my OS's default, no-frills note app.
|
| * Start typing.
|
| * Done.
|
| I can always search it later with keywords. Getting it out of
| the brain is already an immensely feeing act, anything else is
| bonus.
|
| (I do some post-notetaking categorization but it's not
| systematic and I allow myself to just leave it in the default
| bucket of uncategorized notes.)
| all2 wrote:
| Minimizing friction has been the game-changer for me. I don't
| avoid easy-to-do things, I just do them. If I can pre-load
| getting rid of friction I do.
|
| For example, a meal plan generator was an expense I justified
| because it grossly simplified meal-planning and shopping.
| Removing that bit of friction made me much more likely to
| stick to my plan to more healthily.
| itsmemattchung wrote:
| Did I over-engineer my note-taking process? From the outside,
| probably. But I've tweaked my system overtime so I spent less
| time fiddling with it and more time writing and producing
| creative work.
|
| I take lots of notes using Obsidian and organize the notes by
| tagging with keywords. Overtime, the notes clutter the entire
| system and I find it difficult to keep track of the notes.
| Instead of abandoning this particular tool -- moving from one
| tool to the next deludes us into thinking its a tooling problem
| -- I decided to track some key metrics[0] around my note taking
| system, the metrics serving as a feedback loop.
|
| Ultimately, my goal of note taking is not to take notes: it's to
| publish writing. To that end, I've designed a note taking system
| that I consider to be as simple as it can be.
|
| [0] https://digitalorganizationdad.substack.com/p/sparse-
| keyword...
| smm11 wrote:
| I'm not smart enough to understand what I just read, but I've
| been using OneDrive for years. I have a notes file for each week,
| and tag each thing I write down. I also have a traveling notes
| file, for projects that are new, in progress, and expiring.
|
| Accessible from Win, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. Nothing to
| install or maintain.
|
| When bored I might open the third week of March 2018 and see what
| I was interested in, and my mindset.
| itintheory wrote:
| I'm using OneNote also, but with daily notes, organized into
| monthly sections. This worked well for about a year, but became
| somewhat cumbersome. Fortunately the only way I'm ever using
| notes older than a week or two is via search anyway, so it
| doesn't really matter that much.
| c7b wrote:
| > I am waiting for any evidence that our most provocative
| thinkers and writers are those who rely on elaborate, systematic
| note-taking systems.
|
| How about this?
|
| > My notebooks aren't a record of my thinking process. They are
| my thinking process. (Richard Feynman)
| dopu wrote:
| _elaborate_ being the keyword here. Taking notes is not the
| same thing as constructing a zettelkasten system with which to
| take notes.
| [deleted]
| smegsicle wrote:
| i always took that to mean that _writing_ them was the primary
| thinking process, but it 's certainly not clear from just the
| quote
| personjerry wrote:
| I think we conflate two types of note-taking: 1.
| List-style notes of things we need to remember 2.
| School-style notes of information and ideas
|
| I think the former requires a tool, but nothing particularly
| sophisticated - Apple Notes for example with its search indexing
| is fine
|
| I think the latter we write only to stimulate our brain to
| process information and learn better.
|
| I think there is a discrepancy where a lot of tools attempt to
| make Type 2 notes more "convenient", i.e. to trying to somehow
| make them an extension of our brain, but the truth is that it's
| like hacking a hard drive to work as fast as a CPU register --
| retrieving and working with information is always going to be
| orders of magnitude slower than working through your thoughts in
| your brain.
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| I think this is it. I have a single markdown file for all my
| casual notes (1), and a folder structure for my permanent notes
| (2). Notes of type 2 are the most valuable long-term, and it's
| worth the time to select what to store, and to structure it
| right.
|
| I'm always on the hunt of my ideal open source, lightweight,
| non-cloud, cross-platform, mobile-friendly hierarchical note
| taking app, but I know I'm asking too much, maybe I'll never
| find it. Meanwhile I use plain text editors.
| bbkane wrote:
| I use gitjournal.io to sync my folder of markdown notes
| between PC and phone. I wrote about my little ensemble of
| editors and tools at https://www.bbkane.com/blog/how-i-take-
| notes/
| cogitoergosome wrote:
| Org-mode on Emacs checks all those boxes. The only issue
| might be the learning curve of core Emacs.
| bastijn wrote:
| ...Getting lost in learning org-mode is a fantastic way to
| avoid creating things...
| redavni wrote:
| Came here to say this. I have a highly evolved note taking
| methodology/snippet setup(common MAC address prefixes
| etc)/auto-insert timestamp every line that I use VS Code for.
| If I spoke to someone 15 months ago, I can tell you who and
| the exact time/day and some shorthand notes about the call.
|
| These notes are invaluable.
| volume wrote:
| That sounds more powerful than Lion Kimbro's version
| (https://users.speakeasy.net/~lion/nb/book.pdf). You should
| document it!
| DelightOne wrote:
| > non-cloud & cross-platform
|
| Small question: how do you expect "automatic sync" to work
| "between platforms without a cloud"?
| kristjank wrote:
| Syncthing :)
| DelightOne wrote:
| Ahh.. so you want to only sync locally between devices..
| or you want it to support your special cloud-protocol so
| you can run your own cloud-server... . But wouldn't the
| second part be cheating, not naming it cloud-based?
| projektfu wrote:
| Syncthing with Wireguard/Tailscale is not exactly local,
| not really "cloud".
| itsobvioushuh wrote:
| Syncthing
| gigel82 wrote:
| Different people understand different things when talking about
| notes and note-taking.
|
| I use a self hosted Trilium Notes instance for organizing tidbits
| of information like todos for work/home, lists of products for a
| planned purchase, tiny bash / PowerShell scripts that do a
| particular task that I don't do often enough, links to stuff I
| want to eventually read and so on.
| vinay_ys wrote:
| > When something can be like work or like play, never make it
| work.
|
| So true!
| the-printer wrote:
| The commonplace book is a very valuable concept.
| arkitaip wrote:
| We need to have a conversation about how most of these tools are
| about coping with anxiety, stress and information hoarding rather
| than handling complex work. I sometimes mess around Trello more
| than I do real work but at least I've stopped introducing new
| tools into my life.
| ChildOfChaos wrote:
| Yes, I sometimes spend way to much time in Trello, it's the
| only app/system i've ever stuck with.
|
| Sometimes I can spend much longer than I would like to admit,
| 'figuring things out' writing things down, going through a lot
| of thoughts then organising it all into Trello, only to find
| out, it was likely what I already knew anyway and despite the
| feeling like i was missing something or needed something extra,
| that wasn't the case.
|
| However, it does help me process, massively, mentally, although
| it might not increase my productivity as much as I feel like it
| should, it does help me make sense of everything and the world
| and therefore able to actually go do things without feeling so
| confused or if i'm doing the wrong thing all the time etc which
| allows higher productivity as a by-product.
| weakfish wrote:
| The fantastic book "Four Thousand weeks: time management for
| mortals" touches on this in depth.
| temende wrote:
| As an avid note-taker, I don't think any of this is un-true. I'll
| just say for myself I do it because I find note-taking genuinely
| enjoyable and meditative. I agree that if you're trying to
| optimize the professional "ROI" of note-taking you'll find the
| returns fade away pretty quickly. But I do it because it's fun,
| not because of the supposed ROI.
| kzrdude wrote:
| I just need a way to both have a thinking note taking system,
| while also not letting todo items get lost.
|
| My best thinking note system is just a notepad for handwriting,
| but todo items disappear very quickly in there, which is not
| ideal (but sometimes it's good, that things naturally slide out
| if they are less important.)
| larve wrote:
| Any article that pretends to know what the right way of taking
| notes (say, "This is known as a commonplace book, and it is about
| how detailed your note-taking system should be unless you plan on
| thinking more elaborately than Leonardo da Vinci." in this
| article) is missing the point.
|
| People think differently, people have different purposes and
| goals, people have different constraints on their time, their
| memory, their field. Can you procrastinate on note-taking? Sure.
| So can you on writing, and publishing, and building an audience,
| and writing papers, and doing the dishes.
|
| Can people have a fantastic creative output by just opening a
| blank page and jotting down their thoughts? Sure. Can other
| people write great books with an elaborate notetaking system? Of
| course. There are plenty of people out there with terrific,
| obsessive note-taking and reference systems, Kubrick being one of
| the prime examples.
|
| As someone with what looks from the outside to be an
| overarchitected note-taking system (
| https://publish.obsidian.md/manuel ), it is a system that works
| great for me, and it is a system that makes me more creative and
| helps me discover ideas I would have never been able to
| articulate without. I used linear sketchbooks where I would write
| and draw whatever for years, filling hundreds of notebooks, and
| it came nowhere near my obsidian setup in terms of output and
| effectiveness.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Thanks for sharing! I dig your vault.
| Swizec wrote:
| > it is a system that works great for me
|
| The dig is that many note-taking enthusiasts work for the
| system rather than the system working for them.
| asdfasgasdgasdg wrote:
| It's possible for both things to be true. Perhaps for a rare
| few a more elaborate system is required, but for most it is a
| hindrance. A piece of advice doesn't need to be totally
| universal to be useful.
| awinter-py wrote:
| the point about salience is important, _but_ people differ in the
| quality of their memory
|
| stephen king used to be anti notebook ('writer's notebook best
| way to immortalize bad ideas'), then later in life was like 'oh
| my memory is no longer good, I write things down now'
|
| jk rowling (skilled in her craft if not public relations) has
| file cabinets full of organized creativity -- calendars for the
| days of the year, vast collections of ideas for names
|
| my sense is that most visual artists have sketches and prototypes
| (including da vinci), but this is 0% my area. I suppose you can
| argue that a sketch is 'the thing' and not notes for the thing
| naillo wrote:
| I find writing things down in a notepad (that I barely ever look
| at again) helps with retention and reduces it looping in my brain
| as much (relieving it to think about and process new things).
| Anything more complex than that (e.g. notion) is probably
| overkill/productivity reducing.
| ravenstine wrote:
| That's my essential philosophy with note taking. I tried
| different note taking apps and having lots of structure and
| organization in favor of just using Notes.app on macOS and just
| sticking any random notes or written things in there with no
| actual plans on coming back to those notes. If I _do_ , I use
| the search feature and hopefully I provided enough detail in
| the target note. And if I didn't, well then maybe what I wrote
| down wasn't that important anyway.
| aappleby wrote:
| My note-taking system, basically the same since college:
|
| 1. Write down every nontrivial observation in a flat text file.
|
| 2. When that file gets longer than a few pages, transcribe it
| into a new file while leaving out or combining or rephrasing
| everything that now seems trivial.
|
| 3. Repeat until you've either memorized everything or don't need
| the info anymore, then delete the notes.
|
| In retrospect this is similar to spaced repetition, but with a
| subjective "this feels trivial now" interval instead of a fixed
| interval.
| samsquire wrote:
| I've been journalling computer ideas out in the open since 2013
| using GitHub as README.md files.
|
| I create a new GitHub repository when I get to 100-300 entries. I
| number the entries with markdown headings and a title that
| captures the thought.
|
| The reason I create a new repository is that I try only announce
| my idea repositories when they're complete. I want people to come
| back and not miss entries I add throughout the week.
|
| I am up to 450+ entries purely by writing whatever idea comes to
| mind. I do not have a process. I add to the end of the journal.
|
| Why do I recommend this approach? The journal and notes can be
| modified on any device that has a web browser since you can use
| the GitHub web interface on Android, Windows, Mac and Linux.
|
| GitHub has a hidden feature of a table of contents on the top
| left of the README.md so you can jump to different ideas. GitHub
| also creates named anchors for markdown headings so you can link
| between ideas. I do this to refer to previous ideas.
|
| IntelliJ also has a markdown editor so I also use that.
|
| The more you journal and write the more inspiration you shall
| have. The more you try the more you get. So I strongly recommend
| my approach, just get something on the page and stop worrying if
| it shall be perfect. The value comes from writing and rereading
| and editing your thoughts.
|
| One benefit from using GitHub is that you don't need to learn how
| to create a post each time you come to write so it can become a
| habit.
|
| See my profile for links.
| munificent wrote:
| This point is so good and so important:
|
| "Getting lost in your knowledge management system is a fantastic
| way to avoid creating things. Or calling that friend you're
| estranged from. Or doing anything else even mildly threatening.
| It's also a fantastic way to convince yourself that
| unpreparedness is what's between you and creative work. If you
| believe you're unprepared, know that you will never transmute
| into the perfectly prepared person that you think exists in the
| future."
| nextos wrote:
| But if you do it well, it's the opposite. Luhmann, who came up
| with Zettelkasten, is known to be one of the most prolific
| scholars in the last century.
|
| Zettelkasten was essential for this. The thing is that his
| original system was incredibly simple. I think that's what
| people are missing. Plain Org or Markdown files on a Git
| repository are a great way to mimic Zettelkasten. You don't
| need more and restrictions are actually very liberating.
| dumpsterlid wrote:
| Org mode is so incredibly powerful but also so painfully
| beautiful in it's simplicity if you dont go overboard with it
| colordrops wrote:
| Too close to home
| oliverbennett wrote:
| I always framed this more as 'the tools will not save me'. A
| better pen won't make me a better illustrator, no
| system/framework/methodology will take in garbage and spit out
| gold. But, in retrospect, I think I should partly blame seeking
| a foolish level of preparedness. I'll try to recognise/abstain
| from this 'preparbation' in the future.
| cube00 wrote:
| This explains why project managers spend their days hiding in
| JIRA
| xani_ wrote:
| "Just write it anywhere with as light structure as possible"
| works just fine with modern search methods
|
| "A directory with a bunch of markdown files" is pretty portable
| too and there are few apps making that a bit easier.
|
| I do divide "just a random notes" from "cheatsheets I use for
| stuff I use rarely enough to not remember" but that's about most
| organization. Just a descriptive title and working search
| function is enough
| examplary_cable wrote:
| I believe there's a sweet spot between note-taking as a
| procrastination cope and adding actual value. As in, storing
| important insights that might trigger more insights in a
| different context(future).
|
| The value of note-taking is undeniable, it's like a new "layer"
| after the neocortex where your memories are not exponentially
| decaying by the lack of usage. So utilization is not the sole
| factor for recall.
|
| If done well note-taking be be considered "externalized
| cognition" where you instead of holding everything in your brain
| and treat as a storage + compute. You just compute. Anything
| important will be there in your notes. This allows you to have
| more "mental energy" to actually draw connections between things
| instead of struggling to remember them. It's like the beta
| version of neura-link or other intelligence-augmenting
| technologies.
|
| I'm working on such a thing right now [1] It's like
| roam(outliner) but also have a HTML(plain text, stable) Engine
| for you to build more things inside of it.
|
| [1] https://github.com/ilse-langnar/notebook
| hyperrail wrote:
| I'm having some trouble understanding what note-taking systems
| the author is attacking. There are some hints:
|
| > _Getting lost in your knowledge management system is a
| fantastic way to avoid creating things._
|
| > _All of the above applies to reading books about note-taking,
| taking courses about note-taking, and watching videos about note-
| taking._
|
| > _I am waiting for any evidence that our most provocative
| thinkers and writers are those who rely on elaborate, systematic
| note-taking systems. I am seeing evidence that people taught
| knowledge management for its own sake produce unexciting work._
|
| It sounds like Mr. Chapin is referring to formalized techniques
| or processes for format and organization of notes. But he doesn't
| give any examples, and I'm not familiar with the ones he hints at
| - I've never watched any YouTube videos on note taking or read
| any books on organizing your thoughts.
|
| When I was in college, I took detailed notes in paper notebooks,
| and still do so occasionally when I'm sitting in a lecture.
| Otherwise, I send narrative emails to myself, write more
| business-style notes in Microsoft OneNote, or doodle in a small
| memo pad. It's clear to me that this is not what he means by a
| "note-taking system," but what is?
| AlanYx wrote:
| I think the author is largely setting up a strawman. He's
| alluding to various structured notetaking methodologies
| (presumably, elaborate wikis, zettels, concept maps, etc.) but
| then says those methodologies are fine if you're doing
| detailed, real research work. But honestly, isn't that the only
| type of person who uses these things? Who would spend all this
| time building a giant structured notebase just for bits of
| information of personal interest, with no real application in
| mind? Most people would lose patience quickly.
| yellowapple wrote:
| I suspect that's the author's point: unless you're doing
| detailed "real" research work, you probably don't need or
| even really _want_ the myriad tools optimized for the sorts
| of structured notetaking and mindmapping and whatnot that
| such "real" research work entails.
|
| Said point resonates with me quite a bit. It's always
| inspiring to see people with elaborate Org-mode setups or
| what have you to maintain every last detail of their lives,
| and being the disorganized and forgetful hot mess of ADD and
| possible undiagnosed depression and/or anxiety that I am,
| it's tempting to think "wow, if I just adopt this complex
| system with these cool tools then I'll be able to actually
| get my shit together and not be a complete fuck-up" - and
| every time I give into that temptation, I learn the hard way
| that a complex organizational system only really works for
| those who are already prone to self-organization, and doesn't
| magically turn chaos into order - and then I'm sad again.
| harterrt wrote:
| Probably he's referring to zettelkasten systems.
| labrador wrote:
| Chapin isn't against note taking. Chapin is arguing that any note
| taking system should be kept simple so administering it does not
| becomes a clever way to distract yourself instead of doing real
| work. Note taking could be procrastinating, in other words.
|
| I get the point. Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld
| keeps a small paper journal in his pocket for jotting down notes.
| An extreme example of note taking is probably the guy who spends
| all his time trying to photograph and video tape his vacation to
| the point that he isn't actually "present" to enjoy his own
| vacation.
|
| tldr: Be careful your note taking doesn't interrupt and degrade
| your creative "flow" and resulting output
| bboylen wrote:
| I agree with the author in not being a fan of huge note-taking
| systems.
|
| The areas I have found notes useful are short term to-do lists,
| and notes that store links to things I want to read/buy/etc.
|
| Anything more than that and the operational overhead becomes too
| annoying to deal with for me
| oxff wrote:
| > systems
|
| exactly.
|
| let your own organization and system just spring up on its own
| mountainb wrote:
| This doesn't make much sense. If your notes are just going to
| inform something that is low stakes that will not be reviewed by
| anyone for accuracy, then it's perfectly serviceable advice. For
| the vast numbers of note-reliant professionals who need to be
| able to cite accurately to sources, this advice is childish.
|
| Do you need someone else's system? No, and I didn't even know
| that this "problem" existed before reading this. The advice ought
| to be amended to encourage readers to build their own note-taking
| systems that make sense for them in context. Another useful
| nugget of advice is to tailor the note-taking style for the task.
| A freestyle method is certainly appropriate to support an off-
| the-cuff speech to colleagues, but isn't appropriate for academic
| or legal research.
|
| The notion that structure is somehow bad is also not salient when
| the body of research becomes very large. If you are working with
| research from 100 different books or drafting a legal argument
| that cites 50 different cases, statutes, and other sources, then
| it really helps to have some structure in your notes so that it
| is easy to browse and search through them. When a mistake due to
| sloppy notes is on your ass and will have bad results for
| everyone relying on you, then making it "like play" rather than
| "like work" will only have catastrophic results.
| itintheory wrote:
| I don't know the author, but it sounded like advice geared
| toward creative writing , not necessarily factual or technical.
| munificent wrote:
| The author literally said:
|
| _There are serious reasons for systematic note-taking: perhaps
| you need to summarize the literature on some element of the
| mitochondrial background radiation of early childhood
| geography, or something like that, and you have to keep track
| of a million references to do the thing at all. If your note-
| taking system is adapted to a specific context of use such as
| this, then you're working._
| edding4500 wrote:
| I wrote a little reply on that[1]. I don't think that a tool is
| ever to blame. Sure, some tools suck and can be a source of
| distraction. But human beings need tools to capture creativity
| and transport them into real life.
|
| [1]: https://papierplan.de/blog/on-notes-against-notetaking-
| syste...
| jrm4 wrote:
| Yes. Love this.
|
| Here's the observation I've made in getting lost in these rabbit
| holes:
|
| Remember what the computer is good at vs what the human is good
| at. People like us get drawn to systems that try to replicate
| what the human is good at, but _we 're so much better that many
| of these things are pointless._
|
| Specifically, I'm thinking about note-taking systems that, for
| example, generate fancy looking dependency graphs. They may have
| some use, but your human brains is WAY better at this task of
| "making immediate connections between disparate ideas."
| greentext wrote:
| Don't conflate procrastination with note taking systems.
| Heyso wrote:
| I take notes of (almost) everything I work on. What links I went
| to, screenshot or snippets of relevant information, current
| thought. The structure is simple, a folder for the project, and
| one .md file per day.
|
| It helps me think by writing thing down, free brain memory space
| and reduces browser tabs number. It gives me an history of what I
| tried put earlier to solve my issue. It also give me something to
| say if anybody ask what I have been doing these past weeks or
| months (employer, recruiter). Finally, if I ever get a similar
| bug, I have a good chance to find some help from my past self
| with ctrl-shift-f. I write my notes with webstorm.
| bigmattystyles wrote:
| I've been using Obsidian for a year or so now. I only take notes
| for meetings / planning agendas for meetings ahead of time - I
| also have the notes automatically committed to git on the hour. I
| actually got inspired to do this by James Comey's well documented
| use of contemporaneous notes. I don't know why I'm not important
| - in fact, what I need to look for in obsidian is the concept of
| having notes `expire` after a bit. In anycase, all these articles
| about note taking are always about how they work (or don't) work
| for the individual author of said article. It doesn't mean it's
| the right solution for you. Take what does work for you and
| abandon the rest without giving it a second thought. This comment
| included.
| meltyness wrote:
| As an avid Obsidian fan, and donor:
|
| #Wednesday #BeforeAHoliday
| fredgrott wrote:
| Yet we hear stories of famous music stars using said note taking
| systems and touting such things as the reason for their success
| in song Writing, from my generation Steve Tyler for example.
| WJW wrote:
| Without a count of how many aspiring songwriters used the note
| taking systems but did not make it, that is likely just
| survivorship bias. Based on this single data point there is no
| way to distinguish between whether Steve Tyler succeeded due to
| talent, due to how hard he worked, due to luck or due to his
| note taking system.
| dboreham wrote:
| Also Seinfeld.
| ChildOfChaos wrote:
| Not sure exactly what you are referring too, but just a
| little Anecdote about something else that the internet seems
| to love about 'Seinfeld'
|
| The Seinfeld technique, basically doing something every day
| and then marking an X on the calendar, this is apparently
| what Seinfeld used to become such a big star, if you google
| it, you will find thousands of articles about it and
| productivity YouTubers talking about it.
|
| Even James clear one of the most popular authors in the field
| references it massively in his best selling book Atomic
| Habits.
|
| Except that isn't the case. It's nonsense. When asked about
| it Seinfeld himself, barely remembered it, it wasn't
| something he did, it was just an off-the-chuff remark he gave
| to someone asking about how to get into comedy once, not his
| magic secret formula that the internet seems to think it is.
| dctoedt wrote:
| > * just a little antidote about something else that the
| internet seems to love about 'Seinfeld'*
|
| Nit: Anecdote, not antidote.
| ChildOfChaos wrote:
| Thanks, I always get words wrong when I am tired /
| spacey.
| deckard1 wrote:
| yep. It's curious how it was attached to his name. Maybe a
| bit of the Mandela Effect going on.
|
| Regardless, I can personally vouch for the method. It's so
| stupid but it worked for me. Draw a grid on a piece of
| paper. Mark an X on the next available square every time
| you do the thing you want to do (i.e. create a habit for).
| And there is exactly one rule: Do not ever break the chain.
| Ever. Don't do it you stupid dumbass! Not even one day. No
| cheat days. Nothing.
|
| The psychological or chemical reward for marking that
| stupid X seems to be enough to motivate you to change
| behavior. Might be because this method is so simple it's
| fool-proof. It's one rule. You can't rationalize your wait
| out of it.
| larrywright wrote:
| I use an app called Streaks on my phone to do this. It's
| a powerful motivator for whatever reason.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| > -It's not that I advocate for no note-taking. I just strongly
| believe in keeping it as elementary as possible, such that the
| note-taking itself doesn't become the thrust of the endeavor.
| Leonardo da Vinci kept all of his notes in one big book. If he
| liked something he put it down. This is known as a
| _commonplace_ book, and it is about how detailed your note-
| taking system should be unless you plan on thinking more
| elaborately than Leonardo da Vinci. Taping a bunch of cryptic
| phrases to the walls is also acceptable, or keeping a shoebox
| full of striking phrases on a jumble of papers, as Eminem did.
| Silverback_VII wrote:
| I not sure if the brain is really able to distinguish between
| what is important and what is not in a world where there is heavy
| competition to hijack people's brains.
| jerf wrote:
| I mostly endorse this, but as I recently wrote in reply to
| something else [1], I also have found great value in writing
| things down to get them out of my head. In that case I was more
| talking about blog-post type things, but it includes notes for
| work and such.
|
| So what I sometimes do is a hybrid model: I take the notes, thus
| satisfying my brain that the thing is no longer something it
| needs to chew on... and then basically discard the notes. Not
| quite literally, I don't literally chuck them in the trash. I
| might keep them around for a while in case I do need something
| out of them. But they don't contribute to my "to do" list,
| metaphorical or literal, much at all.
|
| Yes. Every once in a long while, something falls through the
| cracks that I should have picked up. But the reality is that _for
| me_ , YMMV, this approach is a huge net positive. I am able to
| constantly re-evaluate what's important right now without a lot
| of mental baggage, and usually, when I'm in the moment deciding
| what's important in this moment, I'm _vastly_ more accurate in my
| assessment than I would have been trying to prognosticate a month
| ago.
|
| [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32984424
| munificent wrote:
| I believe the author would agree fully with this model. They
| aren't against writing as thinking, they're against focusing on
| your note-taking system _as a meaningful artifact in itself_.
| And especially against it as an elaborate distracting one.
| jerf wrote:
| Agreed; I consider it an elaboration on what personally works
| for me, not disagreement.
| sailorganymede wrote:
| I fully agree with this article and that's why I have a note
| taking system. I recognise I have my best ideas spontaneously but
| a solid note taking system is what helps me pull specific details
| of what I am trying to do from my past experiences. That being
| said, it took tons of time before I settled on something that
| worked for me and I could say: No more optimising. Work time,
| let's go.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-10-05 23:00 UTC)