People who write extensively about note-writing rarely have a serious context of use

“Better note-taking” misses the point; what matters is “better thinking”

Lots of people write about solutions to the problem that Note-writing practices are generally ineffective .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } . The vast majority of that writing fixates on a myopic, “lifehacking”-type frame, focused on answering questions like: “how should I organize my notes?”, “what kind of journal should I use?”, “how can I make it easy to capture snippets of things I read?”, etc.

Evergreen notes

Evergreen notes are written and organized to evolve, contribute, and accumulate over time, across projects. This is an unusual way to think about writing notes: Most people take only transient notes .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } . That’s because these practices aren’t about writing notes; they’re about effectively developing insight: “Better note-taking” misses the point; what matters is “better thinking” .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } . When done well, these notes can be quite valuable: Evergreen note-writing as fundamental unit of knowledge work .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } .

Evergreen note-writing helps insight accumulate

Much of the day-to-day thinking involved in creative work is simply lost, like sand castles in the tide. Ephemerality can actually be useful in low-fidelity thought, but it’s simply an accidental property in many cases. We should do our serious thinking in the form of Evergreen notes .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } so that the thinking accumulates.

Spaced repetition systems can be used to program attention

Spaced repetition memory systems make memory a choice .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } , but the computerized component’s value lies specifically in dynamically scheduling and selecting questions to be reviewed. In some sense, the efficacy of a Spaced repetition memory system .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } comes from its power to program your attention (Programmable attention .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } ). Think: “{cron} for your mind.” ☉

Separate Writing and Formatting

How to get focused

Notes

uncurated thoughts & updates

Reader

Read and highlight anything

Margin - Chrome Web Store

Annotate and highlight any webpage, with your notes saved to the decentralized AT Protocol.

Margin - Chrome Web Store

Annotate and highlight any webpage, with your notes saved to the decentralized AT Protocol.

Margin - Chrome Web Store

Annotate and highlight any webpage, with your notes saved to the decentralized AT Protocol.

Sense of abundance

Expansive, curious, open, unfearful, unhurried. The opposite of Scarcity mindset .NoteLink.Active { background-color: rgba(10, 132, 255, 0.15); } .

A Simple Web Developer’s Color Guide — Smashing Magazine

Laura Elizabeth never found color theory useful when trying to use color in her projects. Somewhat ironically, she’s been finding that the better she got at choosing and using color, the better she became in the theory behind it. In this article, Laura shares a simple color workflow that you can use in your next web project.

Note-taking: A Research Roundup | Cult of Pedagogy

A summary of 8 best practices in note-taking, straight from the research.

Note-ifying all the things (with Boris Mann)

Conversation about note-taking, the overwhelm of tools, and future possibilities. (shortlink:…

Hyperdraft

Turn your text notes into a website.