on keeping notes

i’ve tried every note-taking app. here’s what actually works for me. 🧠

the problem

most people (including past me) fall into two traps:

1. no system — notes everywhere, nothing findable
2. over-engineering — spending more time on the system than the notes

both lead to the same outcome: you stop taking notes.

what works

after years of experimentation, i landed on a simple approach:

capture fast

when something’s interesting, write it down immediately. don’t organize, don’t format. just capture.

# 2026-01-25
- learned about X
- idea: Y could work for Z
- link: https://...

review weekly

once a week, spend 15 minutes:

• move important stuff to permanent notes
• delete noise
• connect related ideas

keep it plain text

markdown files in a folder. that’s it. no fancy apps, no sync issues, no lock-in.

my setup

notes/
├── daily/        # quick captures
├── permanent/    # refined notes
└── projects/     # per-project docs

the best system is the one you actually use.