A practical prescription on System

Quick capture – first step

The first step of knowledge building is encapsulation of the idea, thought, event or whatever intrigues your mind.

Aim : To capture noise from various sources (digital/flash cards) for filtering out information and knowledge.

Why : Saving valuable information from the world while maintaining a quality vs quantity ratio.

Principles of capturing information :
1. Should effortless – Cognitive load of the task should be minimum
2. Fast – Thoughts are fleeting.
3. It should minimise Context switching
4. It should minimise Zeigarnik effect

Tools for analogue capture

FLASHCARDS

Restrict each card to a single idea or thought.
This helps with clarity and separates chaff from the wheat. It is easier to process the information later on.

3X5 inch cards fit easily into pocket or wallets. I use them with either Kurutoga Mechanical pencil ( the are smooth as butter) or any uniball pen Preferred pen or Micron pens

NOTE : Links are amazon affiliate links that i will earn pennies from. Support my schizophrenic rants. 🙂

Kurutoga mechanical pen is probably the best pencil i bought.

Tools for digital capturing

Internet has opened the doors to information highways, today you can access any book,article,lecture at a tap of finger.

There are variety of things to capture.
– Twitter threads
– Articles and blogs
– Podcasts
– YouTube/lecture videos.

I am an iPad user. It is my primary device for productivity

Double tap of screen for accessing quick notes is a game changer

My preferred app is MATTER

1. I can share any link from browser or mobile for reading it later. Browser extension works as a reader on desktop.
2. It is also a good digital reader – the highlights that you make on any articles are automatically synced to your note taking app. I have mined synced to both notion and obsidian.

Other app that i use is ONENOTE

The browser extension works flawlessly and it is cross platform

Why analogue tools are better than digital tools

Why you should choose analogue vs digital methodsAdvantages of handwriting vs typing – this is a research article on the topic.

1. Writing is deliberate.
2. Effortful so you will be ruthlessly selective in what you save.
3. The process will be immersive instead of litany of links that you ‘You might read later ‘ i.e is never.