For the last 2-3 weeks I’ve been concentrating on taking meaningful notes that are my own thinking and which I can use for later writing. It has been an interesting and rewarding journey.
- I have too many meaningless, and isolated notes that are the thoughts of others and not my own. Many violate Don’t duplicate public knowledge and are being pruned.
- The same goes for articles which I have ingested into my Digital garden. A lot were text which I assumed I’d find relevance in on a mythical keyword search sometime in the future. I gave each a first pass quick scan and if nothing jumped out, the article was deleted. There is a principle here about things coming too easily but after a long day I can’t work out what.
- There is great reward in creating my own notes. Taking it slowly, I’ve put together perhaps 20 notes which are absolutely my own words. Most importantly I can feel the learning behind them. I’ve even linked back to the source which is something I’ve never bothered to do.
- Notes are disappearing from my website as I finesse the difference between something valuable to share, a point-in-time blog entry, and a Permanent note. Once I’ve been working on this longer I hope to be able to describe it properly.
I’m not starting from scratch but I am taking it slow. There is a lot of noise and little signal. I’m certain the balance will shift over time as I prune notes and fertilise others. I do feel the weight of the work — part of me wants it all done now — so I am being light on myself and allowing the time needed. These are the first days of many years.