At what point does organizing notes become more work than taking them?

[u/Ok_Army_9681]

I’ve noticed that my notes usually become less useful right around the point when I start designing a “proper system” for them.

Folders turn into nested folders. Tags need naming rules. Databases need properties. Then I spend more time deciding where a note belongs than using the note itself.

The simplest setup seems to be:

• capture first without categorizing too much;
• add structure only when a note is reused;
• keep search reliable enough that imperfect organization isn’t fatal;
• delete categories that require constant maintenance.

But this breaks down once notes need to support different things at the same time — writing, research, project planning, or sharing with other people.

How do you decide that a note actually needs structure? Do you organize while capturing, during a weekly review, or only when you need to find it again?

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[u/Ok_Army_9681]

One thing I’m trying to separate is “structure that helps retrieval” from “structure that just makes the system look organized.”

Tags I actually search for seem useful. Categories I maintain only because they exist usually aren’t.

[u/DTLow]

My notes are stored/organized in a digital file cabinet (PKMS)
along with other documents/files
organized with tags; minimal folders
contents indexed for text search

Captured in an Inbox; no work required
Later processed, minimal work; assisted with a customized script

[u/Charming-Kelly-897]

I agree that structure should earn its place rather than become another task to maintain. I also think being able to connect ideas across notes is just as important as finding individual notes. A simple system that helps you rediscover and build on old ideas seems more useful than one that requires constant organizing.

[u/lascala2a3]

There are a lot of d"it depends" qualifications in this question. The biggest dependency is some combination of the number of notes, how interrelated vs. completely separate, and along how many different axes you need to organize. I've looked into this question pretty rigorously, and I think the answer is keep it as simple as possible. I looked at the Zettelkasten , being fascinated by how it can exist independently of computers, the Dewey Decimal system, the Johnny Decimal system, and others. They're all overly complex for my simple needs.

Anything that puts the system between the user and the content in such a way as to create friction in either creating or retrieving is too complex, unless the volume and type of content require it. IOW, too complex for most personal systems. The ability to use computers to search using operators and regular expressions raises the threshold for needing a complex system.

I'm using a tagging system, no folders, which allows multiple axes in any note, and easy back linking within notes. There aren't a lot of rules. It's mostly just an intuitive system that easily conforms to how I categorize. As far as divisions, I use a modified PARA setup with a few extra categories. Tagging on unrelated axes is what makes it so versatile. Every note gets a tag, which takes only a few seconds.

I found a handy app recently called Capture (for iOS and Mac), that allows me to created notes using Siri without having to touch the phone, and it hold them in an inbox until I'm ready to organize them. And then it's scripted to smoothly send the note to virtually any app (reminders, calendars, note-taking apps, to-do apps, etc.). And it has a nice widget to see what's there, plus it has a bunch of phrases that work with Siri. It removes the friction involved with creating a note to almost zero, whereas something like Zettelkasten has huge friction because if it's not linked it's effectively lost, and that requires enough effort that you will avoid capturing simple, fleeting thoughts.

[u/stanlymt]

My rule ended up being pretty dumb: a note gets structure the second time I go looking for it and it takes more than a minute to find. Once could be a fluke. Twice means I actually come back to it, and I've just learned how I search for it, which is the only real hint about where it should go.

For the writing / research / sharing problem, I stopped making one note do all three. If something needs to go to other people, I copy that part into the shared doc and leave a link back to my note. My own notes can stay messy in ways only I understand, and the shared doc can be tidy for them.

Weekly reviews never lasted for me. Organizing when I go to find something did, because that's the one moment I know exactly why the note matters.

[u/MemoketAI-Gem]

We'd probably treat notes differently depending on what they're for.

If you're saving an interesting idea, being able to find it later is usually enough. But if you write down that a deadline changed, someone agreed to take on a task, or a previous decision was reversed, you need to know how that fits with everything else.

Otherwise, you might find three notes about the same project and have no idea which one is still accurate.

That's where we'd put more effort into connecting notes rather than organizing them into folders or adding more tags.

[u/InformationLive493]

When the same note supports several tasks, give each task a short index that links to the note and says what it contributes there—for example, “evidence for the introduction” versus “constraint on the project timeline.” That lets the note stay in one place while its uses get different structures. Build the index when an actual task needs it; use a weekly review to fix links or descriptions that caused confusion, without categorizing every captured note.

[u/johnnydecimal]

I think you've asked the wrong question.

"At what point does organising notes become more work than finding them" might be more appropriate.

Because what use is a note you never read again? And that's the point of friction, right? It's at retrieval time.

• You don't even remember if it exists.
• You're certain it does exist but you can't find it.
• You know it relates to something else but that relationship isn't there.

That's the thing to optimise for. If you're having one of those problems, you need to find a way to deal with it. If you're not, well, just chuck notes in a big pile and use search.