On note-taking

modified 20/04/2024 23:01

For the past 2 years or so, I’ve tried various note-taking systems (including obsidian, org-roam, zk). The most important thing I’ve learned is that there’s no such thing as the right note-taking system. It is personal and you’re the only one who can decide if it works or not.

If you commit to any one system long enough, you’ll start to notice patterns in the way you behave and preferences to some things. For example, I almost never look at my notes again after I write them, because I use anki for active recall. Instead, my notes are there to assure that I’m present and active while I’m reading, but after that, I rarely refine or look at them ever again. Your experience and preferences might differ, so it’s only natural that your note-taking will also differ.

I now use org-mode and org-agenda for capturing interesting stuff and scheduling research on it, and pen&paper + anki for doing the actual research, and commiting it to my memory. Here’s what I do:

1. Pen & paper I used to write org-mode notes while reading books and such. But, after I figured out I don’t really need the notes afterwards, I’ve been writing them on paper. I find the medium more liberating (you can draw figures easily, you don’t have to worry about structure etc.), and they can just be thrown away (after I extract the important stuff and move it to anki; see my second point). I have had success using this method for textbooks. I don’t even need my computer – I can just have my ebook and piece of paper near me, and I can concentrate on reading. I only write down what I think is important, and always using my own words. I try not to worry too much at this stage, and, as long as I’m understaing what I’m reading – I consider it a success.
2. Anki After I’m done with my paper notes, I convert what I think is worth remembering to anki cards. This way, I’m assured that I won’t forget the important stuff, and I can safely discard my notes if I have to. Anki is something I’ve started incorporating in my workflow only recently, and, while it’s too early to draw conclusions, I believe it will work better than what I did in the past (that is – nothing). I will come back after a while with my updates regarding this.
3. org-mode When I first discovered org-mode, I started using it for everything (you can see some of the artifacts of this here, for example). Since then, I understood that there are right tools for the right kind of work. I still use org-mode a lot, but the way I use it has changed: I use it for the content on my website and org-agenda, for daily work notes, and for capturing and saving things I find interesting, but should check out deeper later. Taking notes on work-related things has been especially helpful. When I have to work on a task that isn’t trivial or has multiple possible solutions, I find it useful to start by thinking through writing, instead of jumping to code. The advantage of this, (expect understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each and coming up with better solutions) is that this acts as a history timeline of the decisions I took and the reasoning behind the choices that were made. I’ve had moments where having access to such information would’ve helped greatly, and org-mode provides a framework for structuring and quickly accessing this kind of information, which cannot be said of paper notes, for instance.