☄️ Actionable Notes

A colleague reached out for some advice, saying "I need to nail down a consistent way to stay on top of my stuff."

Don't we all!

They have some core habits in place, but physical notes are stacking up, with key info and tasks getting lost in the literal shuffle.

I thought about my own journey and reflected on what's worked and what hasn't. I try to distill practices down to something simple and memorable (e.g., Got a task? Close the loop!) so they actually do get put into practice.

I've experimented with a bunch of different note-taking systems and structures, but one specific principle I've stuck to for many years has helped me keep track of things, no matter where or how I'm jotting things down.

Broadly, I see notes as falling in two categories: action items and reference material. They're often commingled, so the question is how you separate them in the moment and for future access.

On Action Items

Whenever and however you're taking notes, use some type of visible marker to identify action items, separating them at a glance from anything that falls into the first category. It could be a highlighter, a bolded star, a underline…anything that makes it jump off the page. Just be consistent with your notation, so all action items pop out at once.

Then, similar to following through on the overall loop-closing process, you need to have some type of system that checks those action items embedded in notes and inputs them into your to-do system. A easy suggestion is to have a "closeout / shutdown" task at the end of every day to spend a few minutes scanning your notes and ensuring you've pulled out and properly categorized all the action items.

Then, it's up to your system to take it from there. If you have a reliable practice of working through your to-do list, you should be set. If you don't, well, that's another story.

This doesn't necessarily solve the "notes everywhere / paper hoarder" scenario, but it does reduce the likelihood that you are missing some type of core action item spread throughout those notes.

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On Reference Material

Y'all know I'm a fan of my offboard brain. All my notes go to one place (Obsidian) and I can query them easily whenever I need to pull up a piece of information. It's vital for my workflow, for example when I have an annual call with a major donor and need to quickly remember what we talked about the previous year.

If I followed step one, my notes become less essential because I know I've already pulled out the action items. The notes then exist as a sort of enduring reference material, ideally easily searchable and accessible from all devices. It's all the background, context, or info I might need down the road, but didn't need to do anything with in the moment.

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This exchange with my colleague made me wonder: what other challenges are folks running into that I might be able help with? What struggles do you have with productivity? What systems could you use some advice on building?

If you've got a question or a thought, shoot me a line at ryan@twobitrye.com, or drop it as a comment below.

Just remember: three-dimensional productivity is about a lot more than checking things off your to-do list.