Why doesn’t the shiniest new note-taking app or system ever stick long-term?
You’d have thought after the fifth one in a month that we would stop trying. Because there’s a better way to take notes…
Through simply picking up and dropping note-taking methods and systems, without understanding what makes a note-taking system work, we’re getting the wrong end of the stick.
Instead, we should learn what stays consistent underneath all of these popular systems and templates that make them ‘work’, and use these ideas to build a personal system of our own, at a pace and complexity that suits us.
This is Minimal Note-Taking.
What you’re going to learn from the book…
- How Minimal Note-Taking sets you free from being chained into any specific app or system, so that you can do your best work in whatever actually works, not whatever you’ve been told you can use.
- What Minimal Note-Taking looks like - it doesn’t always have to be minimal, it just has to be the simplest method for our use case.
- How to build a system that follows the Minimal Note-Taking principles, and maintain it in a sustainable way, throughout your life, no matter what you end up doing.
Minimal Note-Taking: A Guide to Simplicity in a Distracted World (Pre-Order)
$13.99 $6.99
- Take advantage of the pre-order launch price (this weekend only)
- Inside emails and updates throughout the production and publishing process
- Access to the book to read and listen to, the second we publish (Projected to be Q2 2026)
Questions? Book content requests? Just want a chat? Get in touch with Theo at theo@parazettel.com.
Comments on Minimal Note-Taking
Here are a couple of things the original readers of the genesis article of Minimal Note-Taking had to say about the idea (click to enlarge)…
About Theo
I’ve been creating on the internet for three years now, and teaching about note-taking and PKM for two-and-a-half. This has included over 150 articles about the topic, that have gained 500,000+ views, and a year of videos that have been viewed 40,000+ times.
But I wasn’t always seen as an authority figure around this subject…
Before going starting to study in university, in 2022, I was confused and without direction when it came to taking notes and managing my knowledge.
Eventually, over time, I discovered Obsidian (the app that fitted the best at the time), and started building up healthy habits around note-taking.
Over the three years of university I solidified these strategies and started sharing them. People resonated with what I was saying, and PARAZETTEL was born.
It’s time now to make a full resource about note-taking in general - rather than a template, I want to provide a timeless and future-proof understanding that will stick with you and guide your knowledge management for life.
Questions?
Why Minimal Note-Taking and not Building a Second Brain + PARA Method?
Fundamentally, they focus on different things. Building a Second Brain + PARA method cover the Capture, Organise, Distil and Express side of note-taking and how to do each.
Minimal Note-Taking will show you how to build a system you can use to do these things, as well as keep it fresh and capable sustainably.
The entire thing is the framework around how to approach building and keeping a simple and effective note-taking system, rather than being prescriptive as to what method you should use to do it.
Or you can read all of them! Tiago Forte’s books were pivotal for my understanding, and Minimal Note-Taking is going to be complementary to them, rather than competing.
When will the book be published?
I’m aiming for Q2 2026, around May-June. Of course there are a lot of unforeseeable things that could happen, but I’m not trying to make this complicated. No publisher, no podcast tour. So all being well, this date should stand. You’ll be updated regularly with progress alongside your pre-order.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, although the launch price of pre-orders isn’t going to come back, ever. I’ll give you your payment back if somewhere down the line you decide you don’t want the book anymore!
Any other questions? Get in touch at theo@parazettel.com.