How To Create An Elite Note Taking System

It starts by building a second brain to free your mind

“My note taking system is perfect! - Foolish Person

Note taking is a skill everyone knows about, but is not serious about. Most white collar jobs now require some form of notation in order to keep up with the various meetings and ideas that spawn out of the daily churn. Susie needs the TPS report tomorrow, a planning meeting results in a goal to migrate a data center service to the cloud and we need detailed tasks written out, or you need to prepare a PowerPoint on sale figures for some execs by noon tomorrow and you need to include key data figures to satisfy them. All these things are on you to track, handle, and execute on in your daily job while not missing critical details as time goes by. How does one keep track of all this madness while also managing personal projects, achieving fitness goals, managing a family among many other things?

You need a system to live by that not only handles this chaos, but improves your productivity!

Jotting down notes on a legal pad or putting sticky notes on a computer monitor is something, but it’s not a system.

The System I am talking about is your own note taking and task tracking solution that you build and foster over time. Notes and tasks are highly correlated. Tasks often require notes to execute, where as notes are generally helpful, but their value is truly unlocked when applied towards a unit of work, such as a report, book, video, or blog. Building these two together will allow you to get a strong grasp on all the work you must do in life while also having the knowledge easily recalled when needed.

So why build this? The System creates a second brain for you that removes information overload and places it into a neat and organized repository that you reference on the fly without needing to rack your brain. It’s too easy to forget tasks especially if you have multiple contexts you work within (personal, work, side project, volunteering, etc..). Anytime new info or tasks come up, you put it into your note application, apply the proper metadata and state, and now the progress of the item lives fully within there. This not only releases stress on your mental state, but also gives you the power of technology to further enhance your productivity. Combining your real brain with your second brain allows you to accomplish much more in an organized fashion.