I’ve been experimenting with different methods for capturing ideas. Of course, capturing them is no problem, making them retrievable is another matter.
The Heap
My main method is an “ideas” text file in my cloud storage I call “The Heap.” Don’t even get me started on the tabs I have open on my browser “so that I don’t forget.”
Unfortunately, other than the fact that it’s sequential by date, there is no method to The Heap. The fact that I can use text search is the only saving grace. But until I can craft my organizational framework, it’s all I have.
But what about when I want to sketch an idea on my tablet? Or (and this is the big one), pen-and-paper? How do I cross-link that to The Heap? Or at least have a trail of breadcrumbs throughout my various capture methods where I can track back to a specific item? That’s the hard part. It’s still an active struggle.
Experiment No. 2,756: Friction
My best result so far has been to occasionally flip through notes and look for anything that jogs my memory to a connected item. Then link the two files (if it’s electronic), or make a note on paper or in a digital drawing that it’s related to such-and-such somewhere else. For example: in my commonplace book, I began adding hashtags almost subconsciously, because… handwritten hashtags? Really? Later, I decided to add them to an index in my cloud, referencing the page number.
At last my conscious brain had realized what my subconscious already knew: you need a succinct way to reference all these quotes and ideas and sketches, and then translate that to digital without resorting to hours of duplication. A few hashtags or even just a couple of keywords can be lifted and then added to the digital index. Now the analog note can be found using a text search. The paper note can also reference The Heap using the datestamp.
This method is limited because it creates a lot of friction, but has produced some tentatively positive results. If I continue to use an analog Zettelkasten, I need to cope with the friction of an entire duplicate index, or convert to an all-electronic ZK. I’m resistant to that because paper notes feel more “real” to me. Perhaps I can strike that balance (or find someone who already has and steal it from them).