Over the years I’ve adopted a note-taking system that has now accumulated over 3,000 files, but it suffers from one huge shortcoming. It’s write-only. Ok not technically, but it might as well be in practice. It’s because I never find time to review and read back my notes. I come across a great idea or insight, rush to jot it down so I have some keepsake of it, but then that’s it… the end of the story.
I’m learning that I need a mechanism to bring my ideas back to me.
When I encounter an idea worth remembering, I add it to my calendar as a recurring all-day event. I set the title to a brief catchphrase and in description record my notes, or a short outline, or the key points I want to internalize.
I then set it to recur every month or every 2 weeks, for a few repetitions.
And that’s it. No clunky new app to download or framework to adopt, it’s just finding a different use for the calendar app that’s always been there.
This is spaced repetition without the overhead. The calendar is already a surface I look at daily. I don’t have to go anywhere new or remember to check a separate tool. The idea just shows up. I have it set to a different color so it also “pops”.
One might even call it… gasp … an ad.
One thing I’ve noticed: for me this works best the fewer I add. If my entire month is filled with notes, it may start to feel like tedium, and I’d probably start glazing over things. I like when the event pops up and feels like a surprise, not an expectation. I currently have just two monthly recurring slots, with a hard cap of three. A TED talk I found insightful shows up on the 25th. A video on habit formation tips shows up on the 15th.
See what works for you.
Good ideas deserve more than one visit.
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