The Curse of Notes Everywhere (and the Rule That Finally Set Me Free)

How I went from overwhelmed to in control with one change to my note-taking system

Photo by Xianyu hao on Unsplash

Luke took a note in his paper notebook. It was the name of the colleague to contact to progress in his project. He got it during a coffee break.

A couple of hours later, during a meeting, Luke took notes about the project timeline on his phone using Evernote.

Back at his desk, Luke was writing a project document on his laptop. He needed the name of the colleague to contact. The paper notebook was lost. After a while, he found it. In the rush, he had written an incomprehensible scribble. What was the colleague’s name?

Also, when he tried to retrieve the project timeline from Evernote, he discovered it was impossible. Luke used a personal Evernote account on his phone. It was not synchronized with the job laptop, and the phone was dead. So, no way to get the timeline noted a few hours before.

Argh!

Can you empathise with Luke’s feelings?

I was like Luke.

Unaware of my poor personal knowledge management skills, I thought that it was a matter of tools, and I tried many of them, even simultaneously. The result? The…