Recently I have begun on the noble quest to try to organize my notes. I had never thought about archiving important information in a centralized place until recently. It took me quite awhile to figure out which software did and did not work for me in my pursuit of note taking nirvana. For the last two or so months this is the system that has been working for. I think I have finally gotten it finalized and in a good enough situation that it is worth sharing.

I know this system probably won’t for many people, maybe it only works for me! So if you have a better note taking system. Please tell me about it in the comments. This note taking system utilizes two free programs. Simplenote and TiddlyWiki. They both accomplish the same task of keeping notes in one place in different ways. Because they are fundamentally different I use them for different notes at different times.

First I will start out with Simplenote. Found at simplenoteapp.com Simplenote is a free online note synchronization platform. Think of it as evernote but faster and wit no upload limits. But without the extra non-note capabilities. Evernote could probably fill the same position: I prefer Simplenote because it is lightning fast and syncs very quickly. Also their iPhone app is great. Still this system does not need Simplenote specifically it just needs a program like it.

The next program I use to keep my abundance of notes in check is this nifty little file called TiddlyWiki. Yes it is a file. You just save it on you computer and open it up in you web browser and you are ready to go. TiddlyWiki is small and portable and can be put on anything including floppy drives! I have to admit I don’t actually use TiddlyWiki. I use ccTiddly: ccTiddly is a version of TiddlyWiki that runs on a webserver. I just have it hosted on my hosting account for the ultimate level of accessibility. Their features are exactly the same. One just runs on your hard drive and one is stored on a server.

Anyways TiddlyWiki is great because you can link all of your notes together and has many of the wiki features found on normal wiki software like Wikipedia’s MediaWiki software. TiddlyWiki allows you to keep all of your notes and notes related to them all together in one space. I am also pretty sure that ccTiddly allows you to upload images. I haven’t needed to use that feature yet, but it might be helpful to people who need to have certain photos accessible at all times.

Now that you have a grip on the programs that are being used. You need to learn how to implement them. First let us start out with Simplenote. Simplenote is simple. It it used for quick notes. No fussing around. Think shopping lists. You don’t need to reuse a shopping list and you can’t be taking a long time to write it down. So you open Simplenote on your laptop and you type out you list. Then when you are in the car you get a call from your spouse, and you have to add an item.

So you just open up the Simplenote app and append the list. Even cooler you could just have them log on at home and change the list without even telling you! Wouldn’t that be cool, everyone could take responsibility and add their own items to your shopping list! Because when you get to the grocery store the note will already be synced. I also use Simplenote for basically all of my blog posts. I don’t need to archive my posts. Because they are already located on the same server in my fully searchable blog. Think Simplenote = simple notes. Notes you will need only for a short term. Simplenote is great for shorter notes, and items you will need in the short term. That is the first half of my note taking duo.

The second note taking program is the previously mentioned TiddlyWiki. TiddlyWiki is my “archive”. Tiddlywiki is slower to open up and get writing. I use it to host all of my info I will potetially need in the future. TiddlyWiki doesn’t get cluttered up like Simplenote does and it has an awesome search feature. Also I have more control over my data on my selfhosted wiki.

TiddlyWiki is also great because I can link to other notes and I can keep my notes seperate but together. If Simplenote is for wriiting blog posts: TiddlyWiki is for writing term papers. TiddlyWiki is almost my private blog. Basically Simplenote notes go to two different blogs. My public one and my private one. Continuing with my analogies: If Simplenote was the New York Times, TiddlyWiki would be the Library of Congress.

With our program’s tasks defined let’s set some good habits. Taking a page from Getting Things Done. Simplenote is your inbox. A place for things that need to be categorized and put in their place later. I suggest taking half an hour each week sorting your past week’s note into TiddlyWiki. I don’t suggest updating TiddlyWiki every day. It is better done when you have multiple additions and you can link everything together. That way you don’t have to go over notes over and over again linking them together. Just do it all in one shot.

Also try to capture everything into Simplenote. If you have something on a sticky note type it into Simplenote. I think this system definitely works best when used exclusively. If you have notes scattered all over the place you are only hurting yourself. It is either all or nothing.

In my heart of hearts I hope this method works well for you. I haven’t worked put all of the kinks yet. So far it’s the best way for me personally to take notes. As I said before and I’ll say it again. Please help me improve my method. I am always welcoming to constructive criticism and comments.

Popularity: 7% [?]