Tools for note taking

Summary: In the last post I explained what I use notes for. Today I give you more detail on what kind of information I put in them and what software I use to keep notes, as well as a text file format I adopted to keep the notes organized.

The kinds of information I keep:

• to-do lists. Examples: errands to run, bills to pay, things to learn about, videos to watch, interesting web links to follow. Sometimes detailed, project-specific to-do list is necessary to move the project forward effectively.
• notes to self like "tell person A about B because he/she might find it interesting"
• active projects & priorities for them (consequence of learning the Getting Things Done method and exploring some other time management techniques)
• observations about my own behavior & emotions (a.k.a. personal diary)
• what my acquaintances said or believe in, based on our conversations
• feedback I received from others
• thoughts on what worked or didn't work in certain life situations (a kind of self-feedback)
• rules of behavior I consider worth adopting (more on these rules in a separate post)
• knowledge extracted from conversations / trainings / books; detailed book notes for some non-fiction books
• things that might be very cool to experience in the future, e.g. volunteer in a poor country, start a local community workshop for kids, fly a plane, or visit that cute girl I met in Beijing last year
• ideas for products, business or society improvement
• questions I would like to know an answer to, some examples: How could we turn every person with a cellphone into a participant of scientific experiment (source of data points) in important fields like medicine, economics, psychology or energy? How much time people waste every day by dealing with ineffective post office and government agencies that have poor procedures, and what realistic changes could be developed to minimize that waste so the whole country becomes more productive? What makes me think that what I consider a waste of time (like watching tv news) is indeed waste of time for other people; evidence?

Tools I use for note taking, with emphasis on GMail and Google Docs due to their accessibility from any place in the world and apparent reliability: 

• Gmail: I sent short emails to myself with notes and links; the ones I want to keep & process later are then labeled appropriately (e.g. 'blog' if it's a candidate for a blog post). 
• Google Docs: I keep one main document where I add all new notes regardless of their kind; I also have a couple satellite documents, each focused on one kind of information or specific one topic. 
• mobile phone: AK Notepad is a good Android app. It is fast, simple, reliable and free. It has a useful "Share this note" feature which allows for very quick emailing (useful since Gmail is my main online storage area for text aside from Google Docs)
• occasionally, a simple text editor on a laptop if I don't have an internet connection
• ietherpad.com is an interesting tool, offspring of EtherPad. It was intended as a realtime online collaborative text editor, but I use it on my own. The reason is that it records the text as it is being typed, character after character, and allows the user to "replay" how it was being typed in form of animation. Very fun and revealing of my own writing process.
• paper notebooks of various sizes to take notes when in town, in a training, or on the bus. Typing on touchscreen mobile keyboards sucks. Voice input on Android has too low quality to be practical.

You may wonder why I use standard text editor instead of specialized software. I tried lots of different note-taking and to-do list software like Evernote, Remember the Milk, GMail Tasks or products built by 37 Signals. I find them all inadequate. They are too tedious and too slow to use for the high volume of notes I maintain. Since I no longer distinguish between short "to-do" items and all the other kinds of notes, most of the features of these software tools are useless. In contrast, a simple text editor is flexible and efficient. It can keep a to do list, priority list, and tags (labels) for the items if necessary. Keeping a hierarchy is possible with nested bulleted lists. Headings make creating visual groupings easy. Text can be formatted as needed; copying and pasting always works; rapid editing of multiple items requires minimum keystroke overhead.

Text document by itself is not great for organizing the notes though. I am experimenting to work around that. If a document I keep becomes large, it is hard to keep track of what is a to do item, what needs to be tackled soon, what is just an idea etc. just by looking at the screen. In order to contain that chaos of a file consisting thousands of lines of text, I adopted a simple tagging system. Most entries in a document are single line items, so I add tags (labels) at the beginning of each line:

todo, money: some bank errand to run
productivity: some rule how to be more effective at knowledge work
feedback: John said I should take things less seriously

A colleague of mine, Mathieu, wrote a script (thanks!) that extends Emacs text editor such that I can filter the document by any tag within a few seconds. When I do this, all non-matching lines disappear. I can then keep adding or editing the lines I want to focus on, which rarely extend beyond one screen. Very useful tool. 

I am now working on extending that concept of editor with filters and tags such that the items are persistent (more like a database) and shareable, but still can be worked on as a text file for efficiency. The goal is to build a good knowledge collection and sharing tool. If you are a software developer who values tools like delicious.com and you would be willing to help me develop such an online tool, I will be delighted to show you what I got so far. Let me know.

I review the todo-style notes daily, and the other ones every few weeks. I remove the ones which are no longer relevant, but the main document only grows over time. When a lot of material on a certain topic accumulates, I usually create a separate file just for that topic, and invest much more focused effort into that area.

To summarize, the mindset I adopted is that in order to learn effectively and keep my commitments to people I need to keep good notes somewhere. Writing things down while they are in my working memory is the best way I know not to forget the best ideas, and promises I made. Having them in one place is practical, as suggested by David Allen in Getting Things Done method. Most notes turn out to be useless later on, but the cost of taking them is so low compared to the value I derive from them that it's a no brainer.

Comments

[Igor]

It's a bizarre experience to read about other people's struggles that mirror exactly these of my own.

I am not as advanced as u r though. Used to try some sophisticated tools (i.e. TreeDBNotes) but it never worked. Currently using:

- general private todo list in the lightning add-on to Thunderbird
- few text files with a topic-specific todo lists
- one text file with work-specific todo list
- frequent and random notes on paper that I try (and often fail) to manage and order on a regular basis

A one very effective trick I use on a daily basis: in the morning I write down 5-7 things that I want to accomplish that day and cross them out as I progress. Useful, motivating and gives a lot of satisfaction.

U also have this wonderful sensation down your spine when you remove sth from the todo list as 'done'? Or should I consult a doctor? :>

[Jakub Petrykowski]

Funny: I am introducing the same morning to-do list routine that you described. I am not very consistent with it yet, but for the past few weeks I tried it and I am getting a lot done.

If I put this list on a computer, I give it the heading "Dayplan". It is intended for things that are not scheduled, and are thus prone to rolling over to the next day, which is exactly what I want to avoid.

I am using paper post-it notes more often though, and yes, I derive significant pleasure from crossing items off the list. This feeling is not as strong when doing it on a computer.

The reason I even started this routine was that if I have a day that's mostly free, it's all to easy to procrastinate and only do one of those things as an excuse to oneself.

[Jo]

I am a Post-it notes person! I write everything from errands to work project-related notes on them and derive immense satisfaction from crossing them out (occasionally with a bright red marker just for the heck of it) when a specific task is completed. I cannot do that if I write electronically, unless I print out the list. The downside about Post-its is that IF I lose them due to carelessness or ... a strong wind, I will not be a happy camper.

As for things that recur often enough (eg. going off on a trip to somewhere), I have drawn up a vacation planner word document for myself where I list down things I have to do/bring before going off on a trip somewhere: inform work supervisor, exchange foreign currency, bring passport/visa documents, carry numerous electronics aka camera, phone, laptop, plug adapter, respective chargers etc. - it's amazing how electronic devices occupy like 30% of your backpack these days and etc. This way, I do not even have to think what I might forget when I start filling up my suitcase each time.

[Jakub Petrykowski]

@Jo, how many post-it notes do you have on a typical day? :)

I did exact same thing for travelling - a document with typical list of things I take. Took me a few years to realize I always take pretty much the same stuff and I shouldn't reinvent it every time I got for a short trip :)

Same thing with all the personal electronics. Like Igor wrote, strange to see others have exact same problems and in this case even exact same solutions :)

[Jo]

I have 3 post-its (5"x3") on my work desk now, and 2 more at home. One of the latter post-its is to remind me what I have to buy from grocery store tomorrow. So it's an important one :o)

Re: vacation planner doc. Great minds think alike, hehe, took me quite a while to hunker down and itemize the things too - likely prompted by the inconveniences caused (and frustration that ensued) when I occasionally forget my cell phone charger, toothbrush etc.