Joe's Notes

Andys Note Taking

Sep 20, 202410 min read

Source: https://notes.andymatuschak.org/%C2%A7Note-writing_systems

  • Principles

    • You should track how many evergreen notes you write - that should be the key metric you strive for as a thinker
    • The problem with note taking
      • the majority of content focuses around the surface level apps and tools you should use
      • “People who write extensively about note-writing rarely have a serious context of use”
      • the goal isn’t to take better notes, it’s to think better
      • most systems have little to no interaction with your notes over time, letting sub-par note taking slide and never letting you give yourself feedback
    • The work you do should build on itself, one-off note taking and writings should become a part of a process that lets knowlesge build
      • “We should strive to design practices systems which yield compounding returns on our efforts as they accumulate over time.”
      • writing evergreen notes does this - requiring dissection, connections, etc

  • Reading and note writing

    • write about what you read

      • understanding requires engagement, and writing forces sharper understanding
      • you should write evergreen notes as you read - synthesize, connect, dive deep
      • How?
        • Collect passages of interest & your own thoughts
        • Process clusters into lasting notes
      • not just collecting material
        • “having a text at hand does nothing to increase our knowledge” - Tietze
        • collecting material is easy, it hides important materials in a moshpit of random articles
        • alternatively, you could try using a spaced repetition system for a few key details that you don’t want to lose
        • I also wonder if there's some sort of separate system for other frameworks that people provide. That they're not necessarily something I want to add to my PKM, but could be useful. Is there a separate system for managing ideas, vs the things to actually take action on?

    • Do your own thinking while reading, don’t let the writer do it for you

    • “How to collect observations while reading”

      • you’ll want an easy way to collect insights while reading ex. a writing inbox
      • annotations and inline notes don’t have much value, the don’t relate or add up
        • they’re just a reminder
      • annotations aren’t for long term storage, they’re just there to help you remember context while reading
      • “When processing these observations, you’ll want to be able to see the big picture and see clusters of ideas, so it’s helpful to collect annotations in a manipulable fashion.”
        • mind mapping? obsidian canvas connection here?
      • Here’s what Andy is trying:
        • Physical books
          • write thoughts on a slip of paper
          • Mark interesting passages
        • Articles
          • copy & paste interesting excerpts into a single working note in writing inbox
        • Digital books/pdfs
          • In app highlighter
          • export highlights into a working note in inbox to cluster
      • also see:

    • Literature notes

      • purpose: “help you write durable notes”
        • there for later look up
        • links to evergreen notes
        • “create an opportunity to explicitly curate key durable notes associated with a note. This might be important for cutting through the noise, especially if a reference is mentioned frequently.”
      • should be
        • reference specific
        • brief
        • separated from the rest of the system
        • “typically a lightweight synthesis of observations collected while reading”
      • definition comes from How to Take Smart Notes

        • You need to take some form of literature note that captures your understanding of the text, so you have something in front of your eyes while you are making the slip-box note. But don’t turn it into a project in itself. Literature notes are short and meant to help with writing slip-box notes. Everything else either helps to get to this point or is a distraction.

          Fleeting literature notes can make sense if you need an extra step to understand or grasp an idea, but they will not help you in the later stages of the writing process, as no underlined sentence will ever present itself when you need it in the development of an argument.

        • “The archive of lasting notes is the place where you Do your own thinking: you’ve interpreted others’ ideas into your own structure of knowledge. Direct quotes are fairly rare; durable notes are intentionally expressed in your own words. By contrast, literature notes are often mostly the author’s thoughts. They tend to lean on direct quotes, and even when our interpretation is offered, it’s in the context of the author’s ontology and claim system. It’s hard to hear yourself think, so we should clearly separate the space where we do our own thinking from these more direct representations of others’ thoughts.”

    • Processing reading notes into evergreen

      • input: marked passages & notes about your thoughts
      • how to decide what to write
        • “evergreen notes should be concept-oriented”, so choose the key concepts
      • take a step back and get a look at the overall picture
        • cluster scraps into piles and see what emerges
        • or mind map/visual outline
          • Andy recommends you “create speculative outlines while you write”
            • “When you write a new note, add it to one or more outlines you’re maintaining, creating a new one if necessary. Substantially-complete writing projects will naturally emerge.”
      • once you have a sense of the concepts, you write the notes

    • make sure to have a method to capture notes on the go, ex. andy uses an A7 notepad and pen.

    • writing inbox

      • you want to be able to capture one off ideas effortlessly and develop them into evergreen notes eventually
          1. should be quick to capture & separate from evergreen notes
          1. should reliably be drained
          • reduce inputs
          • increase processing, ex create a routine
      • many notes here end up as evergreen notes
        • if after a few passes it doesn’t look interesting, then archive or delete it

    • reading inbox

      • have one spot to capture things
      • don’t auto import
      • processing
        • trash it, doesn’t look valuable
        • read it seriously
        • read it lightly and file in a reference library
        • file in other list (like recipes to try)
      • important feautres
        • easy capture
        • easy reading
        • easy “listing across item type”(?)
        • obvious when something has been passed over multiple times
          • no app really does this

  • thinking and note-writing

    • evergreen notes can help:
      • leaps of insight
      • develop wild ideas
      • increase conversational bandwidth
    • how to use spaced repetition
      • maybe I could add a “last reviewed” date to notes

  • writing and note-writing

    • “executable strategy for writing”
      • focus is to create evergreen notes that allow you to “publish things” more of an editing job than a writing job
      • two main ways of writing
        • bottom up
          • write evergreen notes while reading and thinking
          • when you create a new note, add it to an outline for a piece (or add a new one)
          • eventually, you’ll want to write from one of those outlines
          • write new notes to fill in the missing parts
          • put all of those together for a first draft
          • rewrite
        • top down
          • review your notes on a topic
          • write an outline
          • attach notes to each part of the outline and write new notes where needed
          • put all of those together for a first draft
          • rewrite

  • structure of the notes

    • evergreen notes should be written for yourself, not for anyone else

  • associative structure

Rabbit holes

  • The most effective readers and thinkers I know don’t take notes when reading

    • Link
    • Cal Newport talks about this too
    • So then whats the solve?
      • Should the process naturally evolve? Instead of using someone else’s process?
      • Is there some sort of simple baseline that people use that is a common thread between them all?
      • It’s possible that we just need more effective engagement with the material. More time and space to actually think. It comes down to a balance of not being system-obsessed, rather content-obsessed.
        • The truth is it doesn’t matter what sort of system you have. The more time you spend concerned on the system is the less time you can focus on the content.
        • The technology and system stack is there to serve you. It’s there to personalize the workflow to the way that works best with you.
        • The big thinkers who have messy desks with papers notes and books strewn about, that’s their personal system.
        • Its about adapting the personal side of it to you
    • This is a rabbit hole that I’d like to further think and write about

  • Daily Working Log

    • Andy keeps a daily working log to gather thoughts reflections and scrratch work throughout the day.
      • Keys:
          1. Zero friction capture zone
          1. Natural pressure to “outlive the day” and move into the evergreen system
    • If any thoughts look like they “have legs” Andy will move them up the note taxonomy, ex. into his writing inbox or into an evergreen note
    • The daily log can also be used as a way to create touch points on other notes via contextual backlinks.

  • [Andy’s morning writing practice](https://notes.andymatuschak.org/zVFGpprS64TzmKGNzGxq9FiCDnAnCPwRU5T)

    • Mornings are spent working on evergreen notes, either writing or revising
      • Not for note taking, but for developing ideas
    • Starts with opening up his writing inbox
      • If any strike his fancy, he drafts up an evergreen note about it
      • If his writing inbox is low, Andy pulls in his notepad (on the go capture tool) and fills it with those notes, archiving those which are boring
    • Then thinks through his key creative projects
      • using prompts like
        • “what are the most important unknowns for this project?”
        • “what new ideas am I excited about?”
        • “what are the most interesting things I know about this project?”
      • the responses go in his daily working log
    • If nothing else is sparking interest, he uses the time to write about what he has recently read, things that he hasn’t created evergreen notes on
    • 5 minute breaks every 25 mins, no longer than 2-3 hours working

  • https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z2iRjpFUtRxLXcRfxWAV8ikS17G1y6KAT1q6

    • You don’t have to write evergreen notes about everything you read

  • https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z6GNVv6RyFDewy11ZgXzce8agWxSLwJ6Ub5Rw

  • Andy’s Strategies to hear himself think

    • Wifi off in the morning
    • Daily routine consistency
    • Reminder that https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z2q7U5ZvXeDxXD6vXAbZb9a
    • Meditaition
    • Simple background music
    • Long walks without input
    • His notes are in his own words
    • Regular reflection & planning
    • Forest app on phone
    • No mail or twitter on phone
    • Focus.app blocks mail twitter and distracting sites from 7 to 5
    • Answering email in batches
    • Only one meeting per day

  • Taxonomy of Note Types

    • Daily notes - “ephemeral scratchings”
    • Writing inbox - prompts and incomplete notes to turn into evergreen
    • Evergreen notes
    • Outline Notes
    • Other

      • Literature notes - like outline notes but for others’ thinking

      • Person notes

      • Topic log, taking small topic-relevant bits from a daily log and chronoligically ordering them example

  • Do your own thinking

  • https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z7YL32DPACvqsSZrMpt88X5

    • weekly menu to choose activities from
    • use weekly planning for big picture analysis of projects
    • identify higher order bits to keep whats most important at the top

Further Reading

My action items

  • separate writing inbox from reference inbox

Graph View

Backlinks

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