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There's a kind of busywork in note-taking, list-making, organizing, that can often feel like you're getting something done, but is a kind of procrastination. T
by gdubs 3y ago
There's a kind of busywork in note-taking, list-making, organizing, that can often feel like you're getting something done, but is a kind of procrastination.
Then, there's real value to taking notes that for me is most pronounced when I write them with a real pen and paper. I may never actually go back to these, but the act of writing them down solidifies things for me. Things like WWDC sessions, online courses. The value is the act of deliberately recording. There's a kind of brain/physical connection that happens.
Ultimately, intentionality matters. There are some projects where the note-taking itself is the point. The notes are the end product; you're producing something like a catalogue of thoughts. Hypercard.
But, it's easy to get lost in that if what you're really trying to achieve is 'over there' somewhere. It can be a way of avoiding the work entirely.
- xwowsersx 3y agoI share the same perspective. There's a notable subculture dedicated to meticulously refining their note-taking, to-do lists, and other organizational tools. It appears that communities like HN and various tech circles tend to have a heightened interest in this, which makes sense since tech enthusiasts often enjoy fine-tuning tools just like writing scripts for tasks. However, akin to yak shaving in programming, there's a parallel phenomenon in personal productivity tools. While I appreciate Obsidian and similar tools (though apparently not as much as the next guy), it seems somewhat futile to invest excessive energy in crafting the perfect organizational system, as in reality, most of what we jot down or bookmark goes untouched. So, while it may feel productive, as you rightly noted, it can often be a form of procrastination.
- JohnFen 3y ago> there's real value to taking notes that for me is most pronounced when I write them with a real pen and paper. I may never actually go back to these, but the act of writing them down solidifies things for me. Yes, this is me. I've gone through all sorts of ways to "improve" my note-taking, including various note-taking apps. But they all actually reduce the value of note-taking for me, because the valuable part of note-taking is that act of taking notes itself. If I'm not writing them long-form by hand, as opposed to tapping or typing, that value is eliminated. An exception to all of this is when attending lectures or presentations -- in that setting, taking notes always reduces my comprehension of what it being presented, because I can't take notes and listen at the same time. For me, it's similar to photography -- if I'm taking photographs of a place or event that I'm at, the act of taking the photographs removes me from that place or event and I can no longer fully take it in.
- nottorp 3y ago> but the act of writing them down solidifies things for me Did that in uni when cramming for some exams. Writing (a good part of the course) by hand in the days prior to the exam helped a lot.
- epiccoleman 3y agoThis is the secret of professors who tell you can bring a cheat sheet to an exam. The trick is that making the cheat sheet helps you study. I had a few teachers who would twist this a bit by saying "you can bring a single note card" or similar. Once you've had to figure out how to stuff a calc-exam's worth of help into a 3x5 card, you'll damn sure know more than when you started! I'll often make myself little docs or cheat sheets for some onerous process at work, and again - getting to the point where I have a doc that's foolproof even on my stupidest mornings does a lot to make sure I know the material well.
- brightlancer 3y agoMany of my classes prohibited bringing notes but scratch paper was always permitted, so we'd spend the first part of an exam doing a "brain dump" onto the scratch paper. Similarly to building a note sheet, if you can write your notes out from memory, you know the material well.
- vlark 3y agoYes, this exactly: sometimes I don't write things down to review them later, but write them down to remember them now.