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I've always been the kind of person who has taken a lot of notes.
Up until a few years ago I hardly ever reviewed those notes again.
And I'm not the kind of person now who religiously reviews every single note and carefully organises them away in my knowledge systems.
But I do enjoy the process of reviewing my notes these days and it comes down to four key principles I've developed. I think they'll be helpful if you also struggle to review your notes on a regular basis:
One of my biggest productivity, motivation, get shit done hacks is to make everything feel easy.
When things are easy you don't need motivation or discipline.
So to make the process easy I make sure that all of my notes are in one place and easy to access. This means I'm not wasting time collecting notes from all sorts of places. Instead I just open my spark file and get into my review process anytime.
To make this happen I worked to build a simple capture system:
1. Easy To Get Things In. All my capture processes get things into my system with the least amount of fuss possible. Usually within one or two clicks or taps.
2. A Plan For Every Situation. It's all well and good to have a great system for capturing notes while you're at your computer. But what about when you're out and about? I have a capture plan for all the main situations I find myself in:
By knowing how I will capture notes in different situations I'm not caught off guard and writing a quick post it note that isn't part of my system.
3. Automatic Organisation. Make it as easy as possible to get all of these notes in one place without any extra manual organisation from your side.
I like using tags if your note-taking system allows for this. That way you can dump a lot of things in and find them with a simple tag search later.
With a good capture system all of my notes are easily accessible at any time. If I have a few minutes in between meetings I can easily bring up my spark file and do some quick reviews.
When I'm ready to review my notes I like to switch my brain into a different mode of thinking.
Instead of sitting at my desk in work mode - I like to review my notes on my iPad while sipping coffee on the lounge on Sunday mornings when the sun is streaming through my windows.
Switching devices and workspaces switches my brain into a different mode - a different way of thinking.
I think most of us see the act of reviewing our notes as a very serious 'work' activity. And I'm pretty sure that's why so many of us avoid it.
Instead I like to be in a more exploratory & curious mindset when I review my notes. This helps me to be more creative, make better connections and find interesting ideas.
It also makes it much more enjoyable.
A simple switch in device or place can make all the difference when it comes to reviewing your notes.
I think the biggest mistake we make is treating every note in our inboxes in the same way. But they are not all created equal. Some are urgent, some can be dealt with later, some we can literally ignore.
So I view my review process kind of like a triage centre.
Just like in an ER - I have a large volume of information coming in and my initial job is to assess each item and assign it into a category where I can deal with it in the appropriate way.
I have three main triage categories when it comes to notes:
1. Urgent. Anything that needs actioning right away. As in if I don't deal with it there will be dire consequences.
2. Up Next. Any notes I want to work on next. These might be ideas I want to write or explore. They go into my Up Next pile and I can work on them during my writing periods.
3. Later. Notes that aren't particularly urgent or inspiring but that might be connected to a project or another idea that I might want to review later.
By spending time doing a bit of triage I can deal with each note in the appropriate way.
One thing I remind myself often of is: you are probably going to capture far more notes than you ever have time to seriously review or process.
And that's OK.
The modern world is drowning us in information. So every level of your note-taking should be another chance to filter and whittle down the amount of information that you are keeping for yourself.
Think of your review step as a distilling process where you are continually condensing your notes so only the most potent of them make it to your permanent knowledge library.
Reviewing your notes doesn't have to be a stress filled activity that you dread doing every week. By following these principles you can actually create a process that you enjoy (and look forward to).
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