Micro-notes

I maintain my (extensive) notes in text files. I’ve explored Evernote, Onenote, Google Keep, Apple Notes, and many other platforms. But text files work. I store them as Markdown and sync them on DropBox.

They used to be relatively large files (50-100KB) each, on broad topics. For example:

• todo.txt was a consolidated list of things I had to do
• people.txt was a list of everything I knew about people (addresses, birthdays, etc)
• towrite.txt was a list of everything I wanted to write about
• notes.txt was where I tracked notes about any topics
• … and more

This led to a couple of problems.

1. Searching across files was hard. I wouldn’t remember if I wrote ideas for my next talk in todo.txt or towrite.txt, or if my meeting minutes where in notes.txt todo.txt. I had to open each file and search.
2. Files were getting too big. Editing them on mobile was harder. Scanning them was harder.

So I changed this system a few years ago into micro-notes. These files became a folder. For example, my notes/ folder looks like this:

• time-management.txt has my time management notes
• book-never-split-the-difference.txt has book notes on Never Split the Difference
• eat-food-sleep-exercise-live-healthy.txt has notes on fitness

The folder has nearly 300 files. Here’s a glimpse of the latest files.

Similarly, my people/ folder has details of my discussions with various people I interact with — friends, colleagues & clients.

What made this change possible is Everything, a fast file search tool on Windows that lets me find files as I type. For example, if I’m looking for my notes on SlideSense, I just type “notes s” and it appears on the list.

I usually sort the files by run count (how often I opened them). That makes it easy to re-open the most used files.

It also makes it easier to edit these notes on mobile. I sync the folder on Dropbox, and use IAWriter to edit them while on walks. Dictation is pretty good, so I’ve been using that to take notes too.