I've never gone back and logged old notes but I did start doing something that's worked well for me... I log, "stray thoughts". I put these in a physical noteb

I've never gone back and logged old notes but I did start doing something that's worked well for me... I log, "stray thoughts". I put these in a physical notebook but Google Keep or Apple Notes works just as well. Anything goes and everything goes in the same place. At the beginning of my day, I "translate" my hastily written thoughts into more complete notes in a flat text file. Each thought is written on a single line in a way that I could read and understand it out of context. I use hash tags to categorize and to link other ideas (by line number). I also created a biblio.txt file that has URLs, names, book titles, and other references in it. I use curly braces to link a note to a reference. Example: Pencils are longer lasting than pens. #324 #327 #writing {26} The real magic happens when I use my text editors search feature to research all my previous thoughts about something in my flat text file.