The Zettelkasten Method (2019)

For long-running projects, I also use A5 notebooks that are pre-partitioned at a given % (I use 60-70%). The idea is that you go over your old notebook with "odd chicken scratchings", count the number of pages spent on each topic, calculate the ratios and multiply them by 70%*NUM_PaGES. Then you allocate this number of pages in the new (clean) notebook and put tab stickers on each section. I also leave around 4 pages for the TOC in the beginning of a notebook. It's just 2 sheets, but the ability to go back and put an extensive TOC later helps a lot when you refer to a finished notebook. With a bit of patience, you can but together a perfectly ordered TOC in a completely messy notebook (by doing one pass over all notes before writing down the TOC and grouping them by project). I also tried keeping notes on paper and writing down the TOC digitally in my Evernote to keep it searchable.

Regarding spiral binding, I find it too flimsy. If you damage the spiral, flipping pages would cause damage to the pages. I prefer hardbound notebooks. I use fountain pens and previously used expensive paper but since the pandemic I tried Idena [2] and it simply blew me away with its high quality and ink resistance (except for some rare inks) at such a low cost (but I had to give up the dot grid).

Ultimately, I am convinced that all of this has a limit and a Zettelkasten method of sorts is needed for a long-running knowledge base project.

[1]: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B004F69CRC [2]: https://www.amazon.de/Idena-209281-Notizbuch-kariert-schwarz...

[0] https://unsharpen.com/composition-notebook/

I'm not sure I'll stay with that, but so far it looks good. I like the thick paper, the wide availability and the low price. I can reorder stuff, I can take single index cards out, and I don't regret throwing cards away.

Obviously that rigidity has its flaws but not to worry, I'll deal with that later. Or at least thats what I tell myself ;)

I don't have a system though, just a series of OneNote notebooks that I organize when I can get to it.

These are more so notes for personal projects, ideas I have, things I need to do/todo lists, that kind of thing.

The basic idea is to try not to hold everything in your head, because it limits your ability to think clearly if your stressing about not forgetting stuff. I don't know how true that is, but I can say that for me I'm less stressed about something if I know I have it written down somewhere, even if I never come back to it. Its almost like I make it future-me's problem, rather than something I need to deal with now.

I don't think the specific system matters all that much though. The recent popularity of Zettelkasten is not really about systems per se as much as it is about recognizing that being able to refer to other things, or tell what other things refer to the current thing, is valuable. For people who just sort their e-mails into Outlook folders and have never thought more deeply about any of this, it is often a helpful shift in one's mental model.

Taking your question from the reverse perspective, we can say that one does not take notes for at least one of two reasons, either because they think they can afford to forget the information they've already spent time to acquire, or they trust their mind to recall enough of it when they'll need to.

https://xkcd.com/874/

Edit: Apparently not relevant (I still think it is), or someone spends their day doing just this and isn't happy that its being pointed out. Either way, they're not happy

The best productivity tool is interviewing successful people.

But the answer is different for each book. I guess the ones I look in least are the past year books, as I'm still adding to the other specific topic books, but still I sometimes search in them for something. Anyway, they're like gold for me, like the diary I kept 1992-recently – without it I wouldn't have a clue what I was doing or thinking in a particular year. They only increase in value, the longer you don't look in them!

I've been into so many different things, and am only capable of 1 or 2 at a time, so I cycle back to them (a)periodically. Before I had to rely on my memory. (I do have a filing cabinet full of photocopied books and academic papers that I very rarely look into) I did always keep a paper diary, but I didn't put the kind of stuff that would go in notebooks in there.

In the front of each book is a short contents with just chapter names, then detailed contents (thanks to shorttoc package), everything clickable. Or sometimes scrolling through looking at the pictures is faster. So, I can find stuff very quickly.

A physical notepad for meetings, random ideas, test results, that sort of thing. My goal is to write down items when I suspect I'll forget them in the next 30 seconds.

At the end of the day I'll take 10 minutes review what I've done, with the physical notes as a starting point, and log my activity and open questions per project. My goal at this point is to keep enough context to answer the inevitable "WTF was I thinking?" in a few days. Usually just taking the time to outline things means I can remember the key points.

Finally there is a team wiki where I record details per project. Feature wishlist, customer requests, work with other departments, Q&A. My goal here is to make sure my replacement isn't totally lost after I get hit by a bus.