I tend to format my plaintext notes as markdown to add a small amount of organization. I also have some light folder/file organization to break things into categories/topics/days, depending on what it is. That gives me a nice clean slate to work from each day, but lets me pick up where I left off on more long-term stuff. Finally, I push it all to a private Github repo so I can get to my notes easily from wherever I am.
Overall this system works for me for several reasons. First, I hate pretty much every note taking app out there. Second, I like having control over my files. Most importantly, though, I don't actually need to write notes all that often, and this way of doing things is convenient. When my brain is so crowded I need to overflow some thoughts or tasks for the day/week somewhere, this system is there. When I'm managing it all in my head just fine, I don't have to worry about keeping notes up to date, and I can count on my own system not to send me a push notification bugging me about it.
At some point, either your jobs novelty will wear off or your memory will just degrade.
what happened to me is the lack of novelty in day to day and long term plans created a lot of unreliable data. having done a task multiple times, recalling the latest event details became a mixed bag of questionable facts.
I still have the same capacity but now because I had such a great capacity it's redundancy causes issues.
This reminded of the memorable Sherlock Holmes quote. Hopefully it is good advice for those of us who are a bit younger.
"His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
“You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.”
“To forget it!”
“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System!” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently; “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”
'Tis a lovely quote... though I believe our memory is less like an attic and more like the eponymous house in Mark Z. Danielewski "House of Leaves".
It is not a fixed size, but it grows and shrinks, and you might find it still houses long lost or useless memories, while somehow being too full to store the name of the person you just introduced yourself to.
I... what the hell man? I'll turn 40 within the year. The only thing about my brain that's degraded is I sometimes find myself in the pantry with no idea why I'm there. I attribute that more to having 4 kids between the age of 7 and 14 who think I'm their personal assistant half the time. I don't see that getting better or worse in the next 10 months. But whatever, thanks for kicking off a thread of bad assumptions about my mental capacity, age and (this one's not your fault but sometimes you don't know how big the snowball will be when it reaches the bottom of the hill) overall character.
I am currently enduring a home builder who seems to think he doesn’t need to take notes. He has made so many errors and has had to do so much rework that he’s run out of time to fix legitimate problems.
His belief in his ability to retain information way exceeds his ability.
Understanding and accepting my own constraints and limitations helped me to become far better at what I do. People who don’t take notes make me very anxious. (This includes waiters).
Even if your builder took notes, he would still have errors and omissions. In my experience with builders (and many other areas), it is my job to make sure they do their job. Notes or no notes. Same with waiters.
Remind them when they inevitably forget. Unless they remember, then they get tipped more. I hadn't thought of following them to the kitchen....maybe next time. ;)
I get that you’re joking but the underlying point is that there’s only so much you can control without doing the job yourself.
With the builder - yep, told him we don’t need the stud wall. Met him every morning to discuss issues and progress. I start taking notes and sending them post meeting. Did not talk about stud wall because it’s no longer being done. 2 weeks later, stud wall appears. Sigh. Ask him to remove stud wall.
He tries makes me feel like it’s my fault, but fails.
I spent a lot of time in middle management. I simply got used to tirelessly repeating the same thing over and over. I don't do any of the work, just the reminding/nagging. Is it foolproof? No. But generally the major things are done right.
I just moved into a remodel that I checked daily for a year. The major stuff is done (mostly) right, but things inevitably went wrong. In particular when new staff or other crews were involved.
Stay the course. Even if it's your fault (which you can never admit as it will cost you), you need to correct him.
This hits hard. As I've gotten older I've accumulated a lot more complexity in my life. Finances that I need to take seriously, properties, family stuff, a decade+ of depth in my career... it takes a lot to keep track of everything, and to make it legible when you come back to it a year or 5 years later.
My guiding principle for good note-taking is whether they can be understood by someone who has no background on what I'm writing about because that person will be me 3-5 years from now.
You make notes, organize them a little, make sure to back them up/synch. them but you don’t make notes for everything? How bizarre. Now let me berate you for being (apparently) young.
Overall this system works for me for several reasons. First, I hate pretty much every note taking app out there. Second, I like having control over my files. Most importantly, though, I don't actually need to write notes all that often, and this way of doing things is convenient. When my brain is so crowded I need to overflow some thoughts or tasks for the day/week somewhere, this system is there. When I'm managing it all in my head just fine, I don't have to worry about keeping notes up to date, and I can count on my own system not to send me a push notification bugging me about it.