Productivity on Janusworx

Note to Self, Cal Newport’s Minimal Notes System

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 16:35:56 +0530

My old-style slow notetaking process.
Replaced now with Elipsa Annotations, which then move along with my thoughts into Org Roam Notes.
Click to see bigger

Cal Newport recently did a deep dive on his podcast, on a minimalist note taking system for various areas of your life.
Video’s on Youtube, if you want to watch. It’s called A Productivity System To Remember Everything You Learn.

It matches, what I’ve organically been doing all these years.
And I was really happy to see it structured and rendered so well.
So I wrote and paraphrased and jotted it all down below.
Note: These are my mangling of Cal’s words, not what he actually said. The audio/video above should give you exact specifics.

Why?
#

Minimal Friction
#

too much friction with other systems
friction in work that matters is ok, is good, is perfect. McPhee & Caro! But for most other things, not needed.
- Cal goes on to verbally list what McPhee does, but my notes are better.
- In a nutshell, friction slows him (McPhee) down in a way that’s beneficial, that lets him do his best work
Notetaking does not need such friction. When information is coming at you, your time to act + energy to think are limited
Friction stops you from taking action. That information could then be lost
- For e.g. a complicated note taking process when reading a book, might stop you from getting into the book or ever keep you from reading the book altogether.
Your system should therefore reduce friction, so that you can capture as much information as possible quickly, efficiently, painlessly

Outsource your brain? No!
#

When it comes to things that matter, stuff should live in your brain. So that stuff percolates into your value systems and mental models and you evolve!
Your brain needs to be part of this curation process. Your brain needs to build hooks. To remember the big things. For accuracy and precision, details can always be looked up.

The System
#

For Books (the Corner Marking Method)
#

If there’s somethng interesting on the page, mark the corner fo the page (dog ear with pen) and then …
- Mark up the thing that interest you! Simple marks in the margins. Put a box around text. Checkmarks next to a line. Curly braces next to a paragraph to remember
- Occasionally write a short note, to help you remember the context, or to tell yourself what it reminds you of, or is there any other place where you’d find this useful?
Barely slows you down. Does not get in your way. Does not prevent you from reading
Then when you go back to your book, and look at your dog marks and then look at stuff you marked on those pages? You will in a few minutes, reconstitute all the ideas from that book.
Bonus: One “shortcoming”? You need to remember! Oh that book? That was the one that had the interesting ideas about such and such
- That is not a problem. This is the one bit of friction that is useful. It allows you to use the gist of what you learned from the book in the schemas of knowledge that I am constructing and modifying and growing in my head. So that’s not really a bug, rather a feature. In English? It helps me build better Mental Models!
- You become a better reader

Projects (Professional and Personal)
#

Where do notes relevant to a project go?
Store notes relevant to a project in the location where you will one day work the project.
- I do this on a personal level too. Everything is where my mind says, I ought to look for them, not where they “ought to be.” Which is why my keys are next to my Minnie mouse plushie and my flash drives live in an old, soup bowl.
So when it comes time to do the work, everything that you’ve gather is all there for you to use.
Duplication is ok. (If there’s too much duplication, which happens rarely, I organically figure something out)
Bonus: Whenever you add something new to the pile, you always encounter your old stuff and it keeps refreshing a mental picture of the project in your mind and helps create new mental grooves

Ideas about Life? Your values, your inspiration, you want to do something with and in your life
#

Keep a fancy, awesome, cool, aspirational notebook!
A fancy pen you like
Basically whatever you used when you started your journey? You wrote notes, you made headlines, you had marginalia in your pages, you did everything by hand. Just use the classiest things you like and can afford, to give it heft and meaning.
Your life has few ideas, important as they are. Easy to keep track of them in a notebook
You want the form to matter.
Digital notebooks? They’re cool too, if you like them.
All you need is semi regular review and process
- A good lazy way to do it is when the notebook fills up
- Review and copy over the summaries of everything good and lasting and important
- See what sticks

Feedback on this post? Mail me at feedback at this domain

P.S. Subscribe to my mailing list!
Forward these posts and letters to your friends and get them to subscribe!
P.P.S. Feed my insatiable reading habit.

Note to Self, Bookmark Your Work, Coda

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 10:24:45 +0530

courtesy Liniers, Comics Kingdom
click to enlarge

With all the hullabaloo yesterday, on how you’d go about organising your day, and things to let go of, and marking your place, I forgot the overarching Note To Self.
Please remember. Never lose sight of what’s important.
Never forget why you’re doing all of this.

Note to Self, Bookmark Your Work

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 08:34:05 +0530

This started with a note to self on leaving breadcrumbs, and ended with a stream of consciousness journey on how I reached this conclusion. So what I’m trying to say, in a slightly rambling manner, is that this is a slightly incoherent, rambling post.

Courtesy, Delgrosso, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, on Flickr

I’m running my days now to slow, daily, consistent tiny amounts of progress.
And I am seeing results. When there are so many demands on my time, prioritising them and then doing them slowly yet consistently is yielding fruit.
While I certainly enjoy the deep dive, full of focus, lost in work sessions a lot more, I have too much life happening to allocate that kind of time and attention to everything.
The first thing I did, when I kinda-sorta revamped the way I went about my days¹, was to drop as many hot potatoes as I could, and then d-d-d-ed all the small yet important things in my life.
And then came to the sobering realisation that the rest of life just had to be done and dealt with. Even things I don’t like.

A couple of pieces then had to fall into place, before I gained some semblance of sanity and progress.

I can’t do it all. Some things, important things even, will fall through the cracks. Somethings that I really want to do, will get pushed to someday/maybe and some will just never get done. I have to make my peace with it.
Knowing what I am giving up, the things that I am doing? They better be worth it.
Making the time to think this through, and having mental muscle to do the thinking² helped.
Everything does not have to be good and perfect. Good enough, is good enough.
Yes, stuff is hard and unpleasant, but then you have a blessed life. There are so many people with hard lives. Suck it up. And go do something about it. Deal with it. Leaving stuff unattended in the recesses of your mind, is a sure way to rust and ruin.³. At the same time, while you are hard and focussed on the work, be kind to yourself. Find that balance.
Alright, mentally set. Now how do I go about the doing?
By doing as much or as little as you can, depending on how you prioritise it.
By doing it consistently. Set a schedule. Hit it.
If you think you don’t want to do it, do 10m regardless.⁴ And then move on.⁵
If interrupted, deal with the interruption. Come back. And continue.
Dealing with interruptions does not mean giving in to it. It means figuring out just what it is, and figuring out what to do about it. Most stuff can be jotted down and scheduled for later. Make sure the significant folk in your life know what you are up to, so that they know when they can expect you to be present and when you are off doing your own thing.⁶
Doing stuff this way is slow. And that’s ok. If your life permitted focussed deep work, you’d be doing it. But that’s not how it is. So find islands of focus. And do the best you can.
Do the best you can, does not mean going all out. Slow, sure, steady. That is your drumbeat. Slow, sure, steady. Unflustered. Calm. Measured.

So what happens once you do this? And what hiccoughs did you run into? And what do you do about it?

Stuff gets done! It doesn’t look like this ought to work, but it does.
Leaving stuff undone, putting things down for the day, causes lots of mental turmoil.
Also whenever you go back to stuff, there’s a lot of going back before your minds grasps where it was at, and only then does it go forth.
And that brings me to the crux of why I began writing this dastardly note in the first place.
Log. Summarise. Review!
1. Log how long you take for your tasks. Don’t judge yourself. Just dispassionately do it.
2. Every time you think you’re done with something for the time being and are putting it down? Spend the time to write down what you did and what future you needs to be doing. Create bookmarks. Give directions. Do this no matter how tired you are. No matter how shitty the note.
3. Review. This is the most important bit. Review at regular intervals and at various depths.⁷ And only then make your plans accordingly. Daily time logging & summarising leads to daily review leads to a better sense of what is done, how far you’ve come, what to change, where to swerve, what to do next, and where to go. Review, gosh darn it. Review!

It’s been working well the past three months. It’s reduced a lot of friction, and quite a bit of time. It makes it easy to get into the swing of things.
I’ll come back in six months and write about how it went.

it was a slow, gradual process. ↩︎
Thank you, meditation practice! ↩︎
oft used phrase in the Cosmere ↩︎
be as foul minded and potty mouthed and grumpy as you want. But do it. ↩︎
unless you get into the groove. ↩︎
if you are busy doing work all day, then that’s a sign. You need to get your life back into some semblance of balance. It’s ok doing this shit for a measure of time. This cannot be your whole life ↩︎
I’m good at the nitty gritty and the big picture (daily / quarterly reviews). I struggle with the medium term (weekly) ↩︎

Your Very Own Superpower, Saying No

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 27 May 2019 06:00:00 +0530

If you haven’t read James Clear’s blockbuster book on habits, you owe it to yourself to. It’s the best way to build habits and routines that are an intrinsic part of you.

One of the best ways to a super productive you is, as James describes in this excerpted post, saying No.

Ever think about the events you set in action when you just say yes as a reactive reflex?

The Difference Between Yes and No
#

The words “yes” and “no” get used in comparison to each other so often that it feels like they carry equal weight in conversation. In reality, they are not just opposite in meaning, but of entirely different magnitudes in commitment.

When you say no, you are only saying no to one option. When you say yes, you are saying no to every other option. Once you have committed to something, you have already decided how that future hour will be spent.

Saying no gains you time in the future. Saying yes costs you time in the future. No is a form of time credit. You retain the ability to spend your time however you want. Yes is a form of time debt. You have to pay it back at some point.

In short: No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.

But you can’t just go willy-nilly saying no, nope, nada now, can you?

Earning the Right to Say No
#

In most fields, you have to go through a period where you say yes to nearly every opportunity before you can earn the right to say no to nearly every opportunity.

Learning to make this switch is hard.

So this week, learn how to say no, and then get better at saying no.
Like James concludes, Say no, more. Say yes, carefully.

P.S. Share the newsletter! Get your friends to subscribe!

Productivity on Janusworx

Note to Self, Cal Newport’s Minimal Notes System

Why?
#

Minimal Friction
#

Outsource your brain? No!
#

The System
#

For Books (the Corner Marking Method)
#

Projects (Professional and Personal)
#

Ideas about Life? Your values, your inspiration, you want to do something with and in your life
#

Note to Self, Bookmark Your Work, Coda

Note to Self, Bookmark Your Work

Your Very Own Superpower, Saying No

The Difference Between Yes and No
#

Earning the Right to Say No
#

Productivity on Janusworx

Note to Self, Cal Newport’s Minimal Notes System

Why? #

Minimal Friction #

Outsource your brain? No! #

The System #

For Books (the Corner Marking Method) #

Projects (Professional and Personal) #

Ideas about Life? Your values, your inspiration, you want to do something with and in your life #

Note to Self, Bookmark Your Work, Coda

Note to Self, Bookmark Your Work

Your Very Own Superpower, Saying No

The Difference Between Yes and No #

Earning the Right to Say No #

Why?
#

Minimal Friction
#

Outsource your brain? No!
#

The System
#

For Books (the Corner Marking Method)
#

Projects (Professional and Personal)
#

Ideas about Life? Your values, your inspiration, you want to do something with and in your life
#

The Difference Between Yes and No
#

Earning the Right to Say No
#