How to Write Magnificent Notes
by johnataylor · 56 things on Twos
- Resources (Adapted)
- Source: Mindhacker by Ron & Marty Hale-Evans
- Hack 17: Write Magnificent Notes by Lion Kimbro, pages 83 - 93.
- Twitter: Lion Kimbro
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- Priority Features
- Your aim is to develop a note system that aids in the development of thinking
- Speed in writing new entries;
- Fast search which allows you to extend thoughts;
- Proximity: Easily accessible and relational notes;
- Scalability: Over time, as notes grow, you need to be able to quickly locate the notes you need;
- Adaptability: Your life is a living system; Your notes reflect your life; Living things adapt and change; So must your notes;
- Comfort: Your interactions with your medium, paper or digital, must occur smoothly and naturally so that ideas can emerge;
- Ability to accommodate pictures and diagrams. Many of our thoughts are best expressed graphically;
- Portability, durability, and security: You need to be able to have your notes accessible at all times, and your notes should be safe from prying eyes and protected from loss.
- Lion Kimbro originally developed these ideas for a paper-based system, and presented them in the book Mindhacker in 2011.
I think the progress of digital note-taking technology in the subsequent 12 years has made the phone one of the best note-taking devices.
Paper can still be an efficient tool, but your notes run the risk of loss, and a paper-based system loses out on security.
- Notes in Action
- There should be room for emergence. Digital notes provide this.
- Work with what is forming. Connect new notes to preexisting, related notes.
- These are your notes, so your brains must make the connections. Don’t trust in backlinks or AI to do the thinking for you. They are helpful tools, but this is your thinking.
- Indexes or Lists: Make indexes as you go, so that you can quickly find what you need.
- Search is so advanced nowadays, that indexing might note seem important, but as thoughts mature, a consistent emergent structure is helpful (PARA, Life Areas, Maps of Content (MOCs, etc.).
- A Few Tips
- Use color: Emphasis in notes is important. Bolds and italics help summarize thoughts, but color can help highlight key thoughts even more.
- Clearly separate and note the thoughts of others that you are building on. A consistent method of metadata might prove helpful.
- Examples:
- Example 1: Metadata within a note:
- Source: Mindhacker
- Type: Book (Podcast, Documentary, etc.)
- People: Authors: Ron & Marty Hale-Evans; Collaborator: Lion Kimbro
- Location: Pages 83-93.
- Key Thoughts: Highlights from “Hack 17: Write Magnificent Notes” summarized and updated for digital use.
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- Kimbro offers advice to use colored pens in a paper notebook (85).
- I summarize this as “Use Color for Emphasis”.
- Example 2: Separate Source Thought from Original Thought:
- “My recommendations for the basic note-taking framework include the following:
- A multicolored fine-tip pen
- A notebook about the size of your hand
- Roughly 120 leaves of relatively thick paper” (Mindhacker, Kimbro, page 85).”
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- In the digital age, the smartphone meets the requirement for a notebook the size of your hand 🖐️
- It has unlined space, so allows for the emergence of notes
- And most notetaking apps provide the option of color for emphasis
- Use tagging sparingly but frequently to connect somewhat related notes
- Create tags for frequent topic/areas (e.g. my-thoughts, topic (notetaking), person, etc.)
- Remove a note tag if you later decide a connection isn’t necessary
- Use tags to create a list/folder/index for related notes
- Create spark notes. Up to one-line idea seeds that you record in a hurry, which you may or may not develop later.
- Don’t worry about structure at first. Keep it minimal, and allow structure to form as ideas emerge.
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- Final Thoughts
- There are many good notetaking apps that will allow you to write magnificent notes.
- As you can tell, Twos meets many of the requirements, and it’s free.
- It’s the one I recommend. To sign up and get a free feature click this link:
- https://www.TwosApp.com?code=jat