[To-Do's Day] Upgrade Your Note-taking System
Hey Reader,
The April theme for To-Do’s Day is note-taking. You can also think of it as note capture, developing ideas, and communicating those ideas via written word, audio, or video.
I’ll start with the endgame and why developing a system for ideas, i.e. note-taking is the most important productivity practice I’ve started in the last few years.
Each week we will cover a specific element of note-taking and idea development. Here’s the schedule…
- Welcome and Capture (this week)
- Note-taking Strategies - April 11
- Refine and Develop - April 18
- The Lifecycle of a Note - April 25
As a bonus, I’m also hosting a free training on April 25th to answer questions and show you real-time examples of note-taking systems. No signup or link yet, just keep an eye out.
Sponsor Shout-Out: The ability to capture, develop, and communicate ideas is a core trait of effective leaders. One of the newsletters I'm currently reading about this is Admired Leadership, with practical one-minute lessons each day. Learn about Admired Leadership and read more at the end!
How to upgrade your note-taking
I’ve always been a good note-taker… or so I thought. I highlight books, write in the margins, sketch ideas, take copious notes at conferences or watching keynote talks online. I have physical notebooks filled with notes and untold gigabytes of digital notes from the past 20 years.
But most of it isn’t very useful. I was only capturing the fast version of the note and failed to expand it to an idea building block. Are you the same? Most people are. We are really good at capture but fall short on interpretation. But we’ll talk about that more later…
What most people call “notes,” Sönke Ahrens calls a “fleeting note.” Using whatever tool is most regularly available for capture, write down the fleeting (or fast) note as a reminder of what’s in your head. It’s simply to capture the seed of the idea itself, the spark. That’s all there is to it.
There’s not a specific capture tool I recommend — the rule is to optimize for speed and access. For many people that will be the phone and whatever notes app is included (Apple Notes for example). In the past I’ve also used Evernote, Bear, and Drafts. I switch between a notes app on the phone and using a Field Notes pocket notebook to capture a fast note.
At first, try to only have a couple ways to capture. The less you have to think about the better your capture habit will be. In fact, please don’t optimize everything. Action with time to review and summarize is better in the early stages and will help you better optimize a system plus you’ll have a capture habit!
This is why I recommend starting with pen and paper - it’s fast and isn’t distracting the way a phone is. How many times have you pulled out your phone to do something only to be distracted by a notification? Countless! Keep it simple and capture in the lowest friction method possible.
To help you with more visual examples, watch this video on my YouTube channel. In this video and the coming emails, I’ll share the secrets of note-taking nerds that will help you build a personal database of ideas to pull from at any moment.
Happy capturing 🎣
Matt
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