Summary: I take a lot of notes. They are useful in many ways: they aid thinking, make writing for publishing easier, weaken the load on memory, and allow for unbiased self-reflection on past behavior.
I take a lot of notes. I was taught to take notes at school, but over time it has grown into a very strong habit which I apply to all areas of my life. I can no longer recall a day on which I did not take at least a single note.
Notes are a great extension of memory, a tool for learning. Whenever I hear something interesting, or I have an idea, or I spot something worth learning about (e.g. a person's name, a product or a concept), I am likely to forget that very quickly. So I take a note on my phone or in a notebook, and never worry about forgetting these little things. Next time I review my notes, I may choose to ignore some of them, but information is there. This general approach to collect information in a written form instead of memorizing it is probably my most important takeaway from the Getting Things Done method.
For example, a few months ago I started taking detailed notes from books. Previously it was normal for me to forget most of what I read; I was only able to recall the main thesis of each book. Notes turn out to be a simple way to keep & share the learnings from books. For audiobooks I take notes in a paper notebook. With Kindle, I highlight key passages with the built-in software function. Taking notes when reading paper books is hard. I can't keep a book in my hand and write at the same time; it is impossible on the go. This is one of the reasons I prefer digital books over paperbacks.
Notes are also helpful when I write for others. I have been publishing on a number of topics for several years now, mostly through blogs. Notes are the raw material for writing. They are ideas, observations, questions, sometimes concepts or names to explore further. The more notes I have, the easier it is to pick something and expand it into a good post for my blog.
Writing in general is a great tool for thinking, and taking notes frequently facilitates my whole discovery process. To a large extent, notes guide my learning. Writing not only allows me to record my thoughts, but it also shapes them. I frequently read and edit my notes; I remove things I no longer agree with, add new material, or rephrase statements that just do not sound right. It does not matter whether given text is intended to be published or it is just for my own consumption; notes always contribute to the thinking process. I highly recommend "Thinking on Paper", a book that aptly explains this aspect of writing.
Another use of notes is treating them as a simple diary. I frequently write about what happened on a given day, how I felt about some issue, or what I thought about some matter, personal or professional. These notes are a great tool for self-reflection. As months pass by, they provide an unbiased view of what I really thought and felt in the past (remember that human memory frequently gives inaccurate recollection of our emotional past). That way I can spot spotting trends in my own behavior and act on the ones I find negative.
I will share more detail on how exactly I keep & work with notes in another post.
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