Guidelines

After reading several planning/productivity/note-taking/journaling systems, I concluded the motivations (and principles) are always similar. Everybody has goals to achieve by completing tasks that requires knowledge and insights.

In addition, no system is useful when working on the wrong thing. Therefore, planning and reflection must be integrated to any workflow.

This page regroups the best ideas in my readings and the lessons I learned the hard way.

Notes Collecting

What to put into your second brain? Everything that resonates with you. Manage your notes like your music playlist. You probably don’t listen music people think you should but the one that makes you feel special.

Notes Writing

Name your tasks in TODO notes after a verb

Action requires a verb. The verb prompts for completion and helps in estimating the task.

Examples:

• “Laundry” (🤷) vs “Start a load of laundry” (5 minutes 💪)
• “Breakfast with parents” (🤷) vs “Call parents to plan breakfast date” (5 minutes 💪)

Make sure to use the right verb! (Contact Bob 👎 vs Email/Phone Bob 👍)

(Inspiration: To-Do List Formula, by Damon Zahariades)

Notes Refining

Use labels to find notes easily

Examples:

• Use labels #low-energy, #low-attention to identify tasks best done outside your prime zone, when working on your much challenging tasks is not ideal. Using separate labels is preferable to a label #low-motivation since both concepts are not identical.

(Inspiration: The Productivity Project, by Chris Bailey)

Use schemas to impose minimal structure over notes

The NoteWriter is a thinking tool, not an archival tool. The only motivation to keep your notes is to use them later to act. Schemas are useful to ensure your notes stay maintainable.

Caution

Schemas must be used sparingly. You must find the right balance between chaos and rigidity, i.e., between notes that are hard to use (or find) and notes that are too cumbersome to write.

Notes Organization

Classify information

The NoteWriter uses files and directories to organize notes, which means you can very quickly end up with a completely disorganized notebook 😓.

The best system I encountered is the PARA system, introduce by Tiago Forte. Only a few categories is enough to encompass all the information in your life:

• Project: Short-term efforts in your work or life
• Area: Long-term responsabilities (work, health, home, family, …)
• Resource: Topics that may be useful in the future (ex: to advance projects)
• Archive: Inactive items from above categories (simply delete them if your repository is backed by Git)

I use a modified version of this system.

(Source: Bulding a Second Brain, by Tiago Forte)

Caution

Find the right balance when organizing your notes:

• Too much organization = adding new notes is cumbersome
• Not enough organization = searching notes is painful

Use Common Notes

• Create a “TODO: Maintenance List” note with #low-energy, #low-attention tasks you can delay and bulk once per week.
• Create an “Reference: Accomplishments List” note with achievements to remind you how much productive you are.