# My note-working method **See Also:** [[PKM]], [[Zettelkasten]]. %% TASKS - [ ] Old version is very clumsy. Rewrite it. - [ ] Look for other notes that should link to this one. - [ ] This might be worth posting to Medium when it has matured. %% - Having spent some years working on and off on this CPB as well as my "private" vault, I think I should approach this note by reflecting on the way I've developed my two vaults. - Reasons I create, add, or change notes: - Comments on clippings: I find an interesting/meaningful passage and want to note a comment on it. - My note requires context, so when saving comments, I need to capture the passage that stimulated my thought and the source of the passage. - Random thoughts: When I spontaneously think of something noteworthy, I put it in a "fleeting" note for future consideration. - This includes linking the note to at least one other note, usually a general subject area. Sometimes, though, I forget. - Reviewing/refining notes: - Fleeting notes must be cleaned up, clarified, and properly linked to other notes. - Old notes need to be revisited for possible updating. - All notes need to be reviewed and tweaked. - Refactoring old notes: - My natural tendency is to write a note that has multiple ideas in it. These are *molecular* notes. - Such notes need to be refactored into multiple atomic notes. - Expanding on existing notes: - An important aspect of this is reviewing linked mentions and explicitly adding why the mention exists. - Connecting notes to other notes and topics: - New notes need to be connected to existing notes. ## Old version - Relates to difference between [[atomic notes]] and [[molecular notes]]. - "**Note-working**" is what I call the long-term work of refining the content of notes. - General concepts: - 2025-04-02 - I don't like the type labels below. - I think better names might be: atoms, molecules, and compounds. - **Topic notes** are top-level notes (typically very general); subject-based hubs. - **Idea notes** are bottom-level notes (typically very specific). - **Subtopic notes** are any notes between Ideas and Topics. - I have very few preconceptions of what shape the hierarchy will have. - Exceptions: a note named `[[Science]]` is obviously a topic note; a notes named `[[Bannon, Frum, and pointless debates]]` is obviously an idea note. - Steps (tasks below can happen asynchronously, on different schedules, when I'm in different moods): - Task: capture - Capture an idea in a note. - Add general topics (e.g., "systems", "philosophy", "design", etc.) to the note. - Dataview queries in topic notes ensure that the idea note will appear under "Related Notes" (basically the same as linked mentions, except Dataview query result items already in the page are removed from query results, so I know which mentions aren't yet used in the page). - Task: review topic notes - Review the "related notes" in a topic note, looking for natural groupings of idea notes and subtopic notes. - In the Topic, arrange the related notes explicitly in nested lists capturing the connections between ideas more explicitly. - Below is a sample of what part of my `[[Philosophy]]` page looked like on 2024-08-04: - ![[Pasted image 20240804122647.png|600]] - Each chunk can be thought of as a Subtopic - or as atoms in a molecule. - This lets me establish subtopics, but also "claim-based notes" (the title is the claim, and the content provides support for the claim; e.g., "Good philosophy requires good language facility"). - Task: refactor atoms out of molecules, and molecules out of compounds. - The molecule note gives me an overview that lets me decide whether the arrangement of atoms is good. - Once I'm satisfied, I can split the molecule's atoms into their own notes, leaving linked mentions in the topic. - Task: review related atoms and molecules, looking for new molecules and compounds.