Why almost none of your notes actually help you.

You have notes that once felt important.

A line from a book.

An idea that hit you while walking.

Something someone said in a meeting.

A recommendation.

Something you wanted to do.

You wrote it down.

And for a few seconds,
you felt like you'd never lose it.

But that's not what usually happens.

You don't lose it.

You save it.

And you never open it again.

Write.

The problem isn't that you take too few notes.

It's not even that you take too many.

The problem is that most of them
give you no reason to come back.

A note that just says:

“Talk to Marta about the project”

works fine today.

Three weeks from now, you might not remember:

what project it was,
why you needed to talk to Marta,
or what you were trying to get out of that conversation.

The note is still there.

But it's stopped being useful.

Pick a note you haven't read
in the last month.

Before opening it,
write down what you think it says.

Look.

Now open it.

Read it.

And answer these three questions:

What did I actually want to remember?

Why did it seem important?

When might this be useful again?

Decide.

Now decide one thing.

Does this note deserve to survive?

Not everything you write down deserves to stay.

If it doesn't mean anything anymore, delete it.

If it still matters,
give it a reason to come back.

Do.

Open idazery.

Create a Note, or open one you already have.

In today's entry, add:

“I want to remember this because…”

and reference the note with [[...]]

And then:

“This could be useful when…”

You don't need to write an essay.

Two sentences are enough.

Because a useful note isn't the one you save.

It's the one you can find,
understand,
and use when it matters.

See you next Sunday,

Jesús
idazery.com