Note-Taking III: System Architecture

Taking notes is like many other tasks: it isn’t always fun, and it requires motivation to get started.

The first step is understanding why you want to take notes. Clarify how this practice aligns with your goals and what benefits it will bring. I’ve already written about Why taking notes is important, but here I want to focus on something different: how to organize and structure ideas.

Once you begin, the inevitable questions arise: what to write, when to write, and how to do it. Let’s explore these dimensions.

What and When

There are a few different moments when you might be willing to take notes. And there are a few other moments when you should take notes. The thing is that what you're writing about will be a decisive factor to the time it will take you. So let's go through a quick set of examples (not an exhaustive list, because I can't foresee what are your needs).

Quick notes — more like reminders — can be taken at any time. They serve as a prompt for something bigger. There's this thought you wanted to capture so that you don't forget it during the current activity you are performing. Write it down quickly. These notes, don't have any structure, and they are more like Post Its (I see you coming up with categories, paper colors, pen colors, etc. but don't go that route for this type of note: you'll send them to the trash soon).
Quotations of something you read or listened to. These might have some structure, but without extra context or some comment from you, the original idea might be lost, and the quote might be used in weird contexts. These require a bit more of time to structure them and to add your comments and context where you read / listened to the quote. Here you might start with a quick note and develop it later, or you might add all the information at once. Just know that it will take you more than a few seconds if you want to do it properly and be able to use the information correctly later.
Meeting notes. These are to be taken during the meeting. They aren't the meeting minutes, but they should cover what matters to you. If you're in charge of the minutes, then you have the difficult role to decide if you'll document everything, specific items or just what was in the original agenda. If you're not that person, take your notes for yourself, and later you can add the “official” meeting minutes to your notes, as reference to other things. Being selective is important because you shouldn't be acting on everything all the time (I've thought about the 1-2-1 meetings here…).
Complex notes and ideas development. Here it is where the magic happens. But where time investment is required. Start these when you'll have enough time to either complete it or deliver a good chunk of work. This is where you'll have many doubts about the best approach, methods for organizing your notes, etc. but it is also where you'll see more benefits in your note-taking journey. Once you feel ready, “this is the way”.

Principles

The best tools give you freedom to adapt your structure as your thinking evolves. Over the years, a few principles have guided me:

Design from outcomes: Start with the result you want. Ask yourself: What information will I need? How will I query it later? How should it be organized?
Preserve metadata: Keep essential details (date, source, tags, properties) inside the note itself. Think of metadata as a library card: it classifies, organizes, and ensures you can find and reuse the note later.
Write, don’t just copy: Use your own words. Don’t rely on clipping or pasting. Writing forces you to process information and make it yours. If you're going to use AI, don't let it should everything alone, use it for grammar review, reordering ideas and sentences, etc. but use your own words so that you can find things later. It must be your text, not someone else's (AI included) text.
Observe yourself: When writing about your own work, use the second person, as if you were documenting your actions from the outside. This helps you stay objective and avoid self-judgment.
Create templates: Once patterns emerge, design templates to standardize your notes. Like Word templates, they save time and ensure consistency (e.g., always capturing creation date, source, or context).
Separate content from presentation: Focus on the information first. Keep layouts simple so your notes remain portable across tools. Appearance can come later.
Use the right toolset: No single app does everything well. Combine specialized tools — note-taking apps, diagramming tools, calendars — and integrate their outputs.

Evolving Your System

Your note-taking process will change over time. Templates, tools, and structures will evolve. That’s not a flaw: it’s a sign of growth.

The key is ownership: your notes should reflect your thinking, not someone else’s system. When tailored to your needs, they become a powerful asset, helping you learn, create, and make better decisions.

And, if possible, design things to be tool agnostic. I mean, so that what you are reporting upon doesn't lock you with a single tool that one day will be out of the market. Think on keeping the information available to you, accessible everywhere you need it. And compatible with multiple tools.

Other references

In other posts, I’ve shared different approaches to note-taking in digital tools. Most of these examples focus on Obsidian, but the principles can be applied to many platforms (and software, such as vscode and emacs). They originated as answers to Reddit questions or standalone posts, and may provide you with additional insights. Posts on Reddit are static, while posts here might be updated and improved.

Exploring these resources will give you a broader view of different strategies and patterns you can adapt to your own workflow.

I've also written some articles about related things. Here are some of them: