I felt out of touch with publishing content earlier this summer, so I returned to the root of what might be wrong. This meant addressing my note-taking, idea development and creation mechanisms to see if there were any improvements to add.

Although I’m very happy as a whole with the system I’ve been using for the last three years to take notes, I realised that as the projects and other work that I take on evolves, it would be ignorant not to evolve the system that I work in along with it.

In fact, I talked about evolving PKM systems in a past piece, so it was about time that I took some of my own advice. That’s one problem I face — I get so caught up in directing my attention outwards that I sometimes forget about directing it inwards. And I’m not pretending I don’t have problems and inefficiencies when taking notes. I mostly focus on creation and building rather than keeping my system tidy but too much of this over too long calls for a change…

There’s an idea that when you build a system, a business or any other type of work vehicle, you spend most of your time working ‘in’ that vehicle. Sometimes, though, you have to work ‘on’ the vehicle just to make sure it stays functional and efficient.

So that was what I was doing recently with my note-taking system. The process worked by simply taking some time to journal, mindfully thinking about where I wanted to take things — where I wanted to (and still want to) be in the future, the type of work I wanted to be doing then and the type of work that I’d have to do to get there.

Once this was done, I had clarity to come up with the different improvements to my practice that I might have to undergo to make this transition from the work that I’m doing right now to the work that I’m aiming for in the future.

Here are some examples of such changes I’ve made in the past…

  • I used to take daily notes, then I started journaling on paper so I archived my daily notes in Obsidian. And then I brought them back once and only once I’d come up with a simple way to integrate them properly into my workflow without them taking up space in my mind.
  • Another one — an original one at that — I added an inbox and a shortcut to make very quick notes of anything that came to my attention throughout the day. Now it’s not part of the original PARA system that I base much of PARAZETTEL on but it was definitely a change that needed to happen to take my knowledge management up a level.

An important point to note is that I don’t make changes and alterations to my systems the instant I think of them (at least I don’t very often), especially if they come to me in the middle of work. This is because when my mind is on a difficult task, it can wander and start inventing problems for me to alter the note-taking system in order to solve.

(News flash, these problems don’t exist and the best thing to do is to continue working on the difficult task you’ve set yourself initially.)

I can make a note of something if I think it’s a good idea, then execute it later when I’ve had time to think. Very rarely, if ever, do I come across a system-breaking change that I have to make to fix my system in the present moment.

So just hang fire on making constant adjustments. Wait until you’ve got some spare time to take a moment and think about your priorities, then make the change if you still think you need to make it. You only need a short period every once in a while to ‘work on the system rather than in it’, tuning into the ideas I’ve shared before about minimal note-taking, where you only do something to your system if you think it’s going to be an overwhelming benefit to how you work.

A shorter piece from me today but something that if you can get the hang of you’ll find really useful. Trust me.

You don’t need to make anywhere near as many changes to your system as you think you do right now. Instead find it in yourself to put your head down and do the hard work or get up, go outside and disconnect for a bit.

Thanks for reading!