My note-taking process
I capture quickly, with the goal of refining over time. I connect notes with links rather than filing them into super deep folders. The goal is a web of notes I can navigate by association.
Capture
Every note starts in 00 Inbox; nothing here is expected to be finished. Notes then grow through a maturity workflow - I bump a note’s maturity property as it develops:
- fleeting - a raw capture, the default status. It might never grow into anything, and is reviewed regularly to be either refined or archived.
- developing - has references and my own words. Actively being worked on.
- literature - a source restated in full sentences, always with references.
- permanent - completed notes that I’m honestly pretty happy with.
maturity is a hidden note property, so it doesn’t clutter the note or appear on this site. A weekly inbox review surfaces everything still marked fleeting so nothing is quietly forgotten.
Connect with links, not tags
Organisation happens through backlinks and Maps of Content, not tags:
- I link liberally between notes as I write. Autocompletion (via the Various Complements plugin) makes
[[wikilinks]]fast to add, so connecting a new note to what already exists is quite easy. - Topic hubs like Powershell - Map of Content and NinjaOne - Map of Content act as indexes. A note belongs to a topic simply by being linked from and linking back to its MOC.
- A single note can sit under several MOCs at once, something folders cannot.
Folders are kept light
Folders are just a rough home, not the organising principle. Sure, I make subfolders in notes, but this is mainly to ensure smooth navigation on the website by grouping results. I do need to revisit this at some point.
| Folder | Purpose |
|---|---|
00 Inbox | Where notes first land, fleeting by default |
01 Projects | Time-bound work with an outcome |
02 Areas | Ongoing responsibilities (family, work, house, health) |
03 Resources | Reference topics |
04 Archive | Inactive, filtered from most views |
Notes | Refined notes, in light topic subfolders (e.g. Notes/PowerShell) |
MOCs | Maps of Content. |
Thoughts On | Topic journals: one note per topic, dated entries appended |
Weekly | Weekly planning lists |