Stuck choosing a note-taking app and system? You might be chasing the wrong features entirely…
Introducing Minimal Note-Taking: A Guide to Simplicity in a Distracted World, and a calm, centred and more sustainable way to approach knowledge management...
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.
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)…
What You’ll Learn
The book covers everything the original article does and much more, with anecdotes and analogies to suit each point of conversation, including topics like…
- 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 bare-bones, 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 Book
- Download link sent to your email after purchase
- A practical framework for a simpler note-taking system
- Discounted access to PARAZETTEL Foundations program
One-time purchase. Your download link is sent by email after secure Stripe checkout. Refunds available within two months of purchase; see our Terms.
Got questions? Reach out at [email protected]
About the Author
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 600,000+ views, and a year of videos that have been viewed 65,000+ times.
But I wasn't always seen as an authority figure around this subject...
Before starting 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.
I wrote this book to bring those lessons together. Rather than another template, it's a guide to understanding what makes a note-taking system useful, so you can build one that lasts.
-- Theo Stowell
Frequently Asked Questions
What do I get when I buy the book?
You get the new first edition of Minimal Note-Taking: A Guide to Simplicity in a Distracted World, emailed with a download link containing PDF and ePub formats after purchase.
Why Minimal Note-Taking and not Building a Second Brain + PARA Method?
Fundamentally, they focus on different things. Building a Second Brain and the PARA Method cover the Capture, Organise, Distil and Express side of note-taking and how to do each. Minimal Note-Taking shows you how to build a system you can use to do these things, and how to keep it useful over time.
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 complements them.
Can I get a refund for my book purchase?
Yes. You can request a refund within two months of purchase by emailing [email protected]. Your statutory rights still apply.
Any other questions? Get in touch at [email protected].