How applying a minimalist philosophy to note-taking stopped the information overwhelm.
My journey into minimalist note-taking starts here.
I don’t take many notes these days. My workload, hobbies, and learning
haven’t slowed down either. So, why have I significantly reduced the
number of notes created each week? To answer this, I need to explain
what was happening before I made the changes, as well as why I had made
the changes I now follow.
Enter note-taking or note making alongside the
word ‘app’ or ‘PKM’ (or whatever word you can think of in this space),
and you will quickly see people online advocating for their favourite
productivity app. Their staple in organising and distilling information
each day is paraded as a badge of honour. More noticeably, Notion and
Obsidian are the hot contenders to take this throne of note-taking.
Some users even stir the pot and proclaim their shiny new tool is the
best note-taking/making tool on the market. It will make you more
productive, didn’t you know? (insert sarcasm here). Cue the flurry of
responders with the affirmations what app is the best and why other apps
suck, etc.
I, like many others, have fallen for the endless loop of searching
for a great note-taking tool. I have tried too many to admit. Both money
and time have been spent on this endeavour. Just this year alone (three
months — Jan to March 2024), I have used Apple Notes, Twos, Craft Docs,
Anytype, Notion, xTIles, Supernotes, OneNote, Upnote, Obsidian and
Workflowy. That is a lot of apps to play around with. In reality, I only
need one app, but I wanted to test out what each of them had to offer.
Furthermore, I wanted to see how my way of capturing, organising,
distilling and expressing was compatible with these apps.
As you can imagine, these applications all have their strengths
and weaknesses. Some apps were stronger than others. For me, I put
offline-first apps at the front of the queue. The reason for this is a
productivity hack I have used for six months where I disconnect my
MacBook from the internet. I get fewer notifications, increased focus
and an impressive battery life on my MacBook. Furthermore, the
always-connected approach weirds me out. Why do apps and services want
to persistently track everything I do? Talk about creepy.
Information enlightenment
I was in the middle of a weekly reflection when I realised I had taken
over 3000 words of notes in the space of five days. That’s a lot of
notes for something that was not a blog or report. I thought to myself I
would probably not access these notes in the future. What is the point
of writing them?
I’m done with finding the perfect app for my notes. My information
is spread across an array of apps to the point I couldn’t tell you where
something is. I sat down and looked at the situation. I sat down, saw
the mess, realised what I needed to do (it was recorded in my notes) and
set out to divide my information between three apps. This way, I could
focus my attention on the structure and approach I would take with each
of the three apps.
By being selective, I have eliminated the need for a super
note-taking app. My information is now mostly split between three apps.
I have a blog coming out soon with apps I use every day, but I will
mention three of them now with the addition of one I use occasionally
for specific use cases.
The Trio of ‘Takers
Twos App — used every day as my digital bullet journal. Just like a bullet journal, the entries are short and to the point. The quick capture is perfect for my use case. Any thoughts or ideas go into a list called 00 INBOX. I am using it more for work these days than for personal use. It’s a free piece of software with the option to buy PRO features. To be honest, you can unlock the features by gaining coins through tiny daily onboarding missions. I’ve got a few posts and a YouTube video of how I use Twos at the bottom of this post.
Planning out my day in Twos app.
Apple notes — used for capturing/accessing home, personal, financial and family-related content. Projects around these listed areas remain in Apple Notes. Apple Notes offers me the best of everything I need at zero cost (apart from hardware). Subtle integration with the other Apple services has made Apple Notes a pleasure to use. I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate the OCR and Apple Pencil capabilities.
Apple Notes helps me manage my personal notes and responsibilities.
Upnote — Here is a note-taking app that has made a significant impact. All my coding, teaching and blogging material goes in Upnote. Contextually, this is where I go to create. I made a one-off payment of £24.99 nearly two years ago. I haven’t regretted that decision. Upnote is overlooked. Recently, they have added workspaces, meaning I can separate my personal and work-related notes. Even better, I can lock those workspaces, so no-one can access them. The web clipper is handy for capturing entire webpages. Apple Notes isn’t perfect. Upnote bridges the gap, especially when I want to access notes on other platforms.
I can capture my coding notes and add code blocks.
As you can see, I have reduced my subscriptions to zero. When I was paying for software, I felt obliged to use the software, and it was done so aimlessly. I am currently evaluating what I use because I would like to reduce my app stack further. The fewer apps I have, the better chance I have at mastering them.
Changing my attitude
I thought to myself — if I stop taking notes (or limit them), I have
fewer things to organise and more time to do other things I value.
Essentially, the need for a shiny new tool is no more.
Extreme as it may sound, I have applied the same principle of less to my
digital life like I have for my possessions and finances. I aim to
record as little as possible without losing clarity in what I am doing
each day. No notes, no problems. I have to be realistic here. There will
be many times when I need to record information for my future self and
my legal obligations at work. However, I have broken out of the bind to
record notes for the sake of recording notes. I very rarely refer to
them or utilise them in a way I find helpful, anyway. What I am trying
to say is I am exceptionally good at sophisticated procrastination. I am
changing, though. Less but better I need to remind myself.
What does it look like?
I am stricter on what I capture. Since I decided to approach note-taking
and note-making through the lens of essentialism, I have found myself
suffering from less decision fatigue over what to record. I ironically
took notes on how to take better notes. I had been approaching the topic
wrong for decades.
Selective note-taking lets me focus on capturing key points, main ideas
and concepts without the need to transcribe everything I read or think.
Most notes are snippets of information in bulleted fashion. This is my
minimum viable product of note-taking. If I can use pictures to support
the notes, I will. Do I need to tell you how many words a picture
paints?
If the average person has six
thousand thoughts per day, how many of them are ideas? Do we really
need to capture them all? I feel that secure ideas will re-emerge if
they carry any weight. In the past, I had a tendency to capture every
idea and let it sit, abandoned, somewhere in a random folder in a
forgotten app somewhere. That has changed.
If the idea is a recurring thought, I will place it in my folder called
00 INBOX within the Twos app, and it is tagged with #owls — oozing with
loveable sparks. If that so-called spark does not prompt any further
action past thirty days of incubation, I simply delete it. No archive
treatment. No collecting dust in the inbox. Ruthless is my middle name.
Owls are not exclusive to Twos. It is simply the frequently captured
location of choice.
Books
I don’t enjoy taking notes on the books I read. I want to enjoy the
experience of reading it. If I do take notes, they are actionable and
help me by point of reference. Book notes are the only notes I actually
search through for more than three times a year.
When I am reading a book, it tends to be in the evening to wind down.
Reading is a mindful process for me. I would rather not be racing with
ideas and thoughts, taking notes before bedtime. Instead, I bookmark the
page, add a little comment to myself and review it on Saturday.
I will outline the key ideas or concepts in the Twos app. If I want to
pad the information out, I will transfer the information to Apple Notes
where I can add additional images, sketches, articles, PDFs, and audio
snippets I have recorded. Still, I do this with the minimal amount of
information.
Fun with folders
I would occasionally get giddy with throwing handfuls of attachments
into my notes apps. Again, with my new approach, I am utilising the good
old file explorer (or Finder) to store attachments. My files stay in
folders, not notes. All references to them get recorded in their
respective note-taking app. For example, the Twos app does not support
attachments (yet), so I record where a certain file is on my work’s
server. I reference to the file without saving it to the notes app. The
exception is Apple Notes where I store specific receipts, recipes,
manuals in PDF form and photos as reference to a project.
The approach has reduced the amount of file storage I need in my notes
apps, too. There’s no need to worry about going over storage quotas.
Pages in Upnote and Apple Notes run quicker. I can focus on the context
of the notes without being distracted with what is attached to the note.
So far, I have not come across any problems. Both apps are fast with
synchronising and I haven’t experienced any loss of data or duplication.
The minimalistic approach to note-taking will take time to nurture.
Of course, it is early days in my approach to note-taking. I am sure
there’s some kind of flaw to what I am doing. I need to experience that
for myself. Likewise, I genuinely love the minimalistic lifestyle and I
feel so much better for it. In one month, I have seen how much calmer I
am when it comes to taking notes. There’s no pressure to make things
perfect. I have more time to act on my information. Less time is
occupied, pondering on what to record and how to act on it.
I feel I have broken out of the shackles of switching between so-called
productivity apps. The feeling is liberating. A principle during my
coding course has taught me a lot — KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). I
intend to stick to it.
Moreover, I feel more present with what is going on around me. I am
spending extra hours, here and there, with my family. My son appreciates
the time to spent playing football, basketball or any other activity
that genuinely exhausts me.
I hope this post resinates with some of you. Have you done anything to
capture less and live more? What strategies have you used? I am
interested in finding out about your experiences.
