Notes Organization

A reader asked me over the weekend if I had a good notes organization method. The answer is yes, I do, a simple one, that I use for work.

My system uses the stock Apple Notes application due to the ability of creating folders. I use Auer Notes as my personal note app, but this application doesn’t support folders.

On Monday, each week, I create a note entitled “Day1 to Day5 month”, for example “13 to 17 May”. I write in that note the list of hot topics that I need to work on, or need to remember. These include any notes from the previous week that are needed for this one. Under each topic I add comments and information as they would happen during the week. I use Apple’s Reminders app to follow up if needed.

I also create a “general” section under the list, and write down all the general notes from the week. Anything that happens during meetings, small todo items, bits of information, and everything else goes there.

On Friday, at the end of day, I move the note to the archive section. The archive is a folder with the current year as its name.

That’s it. Rinse and repeat.

A simple and minimalistic approach to keeping organized.

PS: originally I was doing this with files and folders on the filesystem, using VIM as my editor.

PS2: Here's an awesome, albeit complex, way of doing something similar for journaling.