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Why you should care about where you put your notes

Deciding where to put your note

Do you struggle with finding the best way to organize your notes? Have you been lured by the promises of a shiny new note-taking app only to find yourself in a bigger mess than before a few months later? If so, you are not the only one. Many people have fallen for the hype of a new note-taking app only to realize that it does not solve their problems. They feel frustrated, overwhelmed, and stuck with their notes – and start looking for a shiny new alternative.

In the article, The Fall of Roam, Dan Shipper explains why he stopped using the Roam note-taking app. Roam allows users to create bi-directional links between their notes, creating a network of interconnected ideas. It sounds like a great solution for organizing your notes, and many people have praised Roam as a game-changer for their learning and thinking. However, Dan claims that one of his main reasons for abandoning Roam was that he constantly felt the pain of not knowing where to put his notes. Roam did not solve his core problem, and he quit using Roam.

Where do I put my new note?

Dan suggests two solutions to the problem of not knowing where to put your notes: Better search and automatic (AI) organization of your notes. However, I disagree with Dan’s premise that not knowing where to put your notes is a problem that needs to be solved by an app. In fact, I believe that consciously deciding where to put your notes is an important part of the note-taking process and that you should not skip it. Here are some reasons why:

  • Deciding where to put your notes helps you organize them.
    When you take notes, you are not just transcribing information, you are also interpreting it, analyzing it, and connecting it to your existing knowledge. By consciously choosing where to put your notes, you are also choosing how to categorize them, relate them to other notes, and structure your knowledge. This helps you create a mental map of the domain you are learning about and makes it easier to recall and apply your knowledge later.
  • Deciding where to put your notes helps you remember them.
    Research on memory shows that one factor that influences how well we remember something is the context in which we learned it. This includes the physical, emotional, and cognitive context. By deciding where to put your notes, you are creating both a physical and cognitive context for your notes, which will serve as cues for retrieval. Putting your notes in a physical box, a folder, or a branch in your outliner or mind map creates a physical context (location), and putting your new note with related existing notes puts it in a cognitive context (knowledge).
  • Deciding where to put your notes helps you review them.
    One of the best ways to improve your learning and retention is to review your notes periodically. When deciding where to put your new note, you are forced to review existing notes in your system. Which existing notes does this new note relate to? In what way? This process of reviewing and comparing notes is essential for creating meaningful connections and associations between your notes. It helps you integrate new information with your existing knowledge and identify gaps, contradictions, or questions that need further exploration. It also helps you to consolidate your memory and recall your notes more easily.

No pain, no gain

Bi-directional linking creates a network of your notes but can also create a mess of your notes. It does not eliminate the need to consciously decide where to put your notes and how to structure them in a way that makes sense for you. You still have to think about organising your notes to suit your needs and goals and how to access and apply them when needed.

  • Pain
    You learn the most when learning is effortful and when you make the learning relevant to yourself and your existing knowledge.
  • Gain
    Instead of taking the easy path, you should welcome effortful thinking as a way to enhance your learning and deepen your comprehension.

Deciding where to put your notes should not be avoided but is a skill that needs to be practised. It is a skill that helps you organise and remember your notes better. It makes your note-taking process a learning process, not just a data-collection process. I suggest you care about where you put your notes and use a note-taking tool that supports your decision-making, not the ones that try to replace it.

Resources

Related posts:

  1. The knowledge worker
  2. The history of the Zettelkasten Note-taking system
  3. Magic Words by Jonah Berger [Summary]
  4. Pen to Paper or Keys to Pixels?