{"id":5183,"date":"2026-02-14T09:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T09:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/?p=5183"},"modified":"2026-02-17T07:11:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T07:11:35","slug":"what-changed-when-i-stopped-optimizing-my-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/what-changed-when-i-stopped-optimizing-my-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"What changed when I stopped optimizing my notes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What changed when I stopped optimizing my notes<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Lessons from applying structure before having something to structure<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"devin\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Devin Avery on Unsplash<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Improving notes endlessly<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

I read an article and want to capture some valuable insights, so I open my note-taking and begin to type. But as I\u2019m creating the note, I don\u2019t come to simply writing down my insights as my thoughts drift away to all the knowledge I consumed on how to take good notes. I start thinking about:<\/p>


<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \u201cthe right tags\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
  • \u201cthe folder hierarchy\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
  • \u201cwhere the note belongs\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
  • \u201cwhich notes it should link to\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
  • \u201chow to structure it\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
  • \u201chow to capture its essence\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    When my thoughts come back, I again look at a blank canvas and don\u2019t really remember what I wanted to capture in the first place. Maybe you haven\u2019t fallen into the same optimization trap like me. I would describe it as:<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cThe tendency to improve, tweak, or refine the system around a task instead of engaging with the task itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    My visions of a perfect knowledge system got in the way of getting the job done. I was engaging more with the idea of perfectly structured notes than with the actual task in front of me \u2014 simply writing down my thoughts. I was chasing reduced content, life-changing connections and ideas, and building a personal web of knowledge that would level up my thinking.<\/p>


    <\/p>\n

    As a consequence, I never reached a state where I felt happy or satisfied with notes, nor did I make any progress. I got stuck at mingling around my notes and trying to make them better and stand out.<\/p>


    <\/p>\n

    Note-Taking level: Expert<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/strong><\/p>\n

    It feels kind of naive, but from the start, I was convinced I needed to take the \u201cperfect note\u201d to be able to benefit from it. I was consuming ideas on note-taking faster than my thinking was evolving. I was heavily relying on the concepts and advice of the literature as I thought they would help me build my system and elevate my note-taking. I was afraid of losing information if I didn\u2019t stick to the rules. But in its core, it was the opposite: my desire to reach \u201cnote-taking-level\u201d expert from the start created a contradiction.<\/p>\n

    \n

    All the information I had, according to what good note-taking should be like, was fighting the information that I was trying to get on paper.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    I was feeling a huge gap appear between literature and my reality, which made me feel like I was doing something wrong. Which even made me stick more to the concepts than trusting my own thinking.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cI was applying structure before I had produced anything worth structuring.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Managing a system instead of thinking<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/strong><\/p>\n

    The result was excessively managing my system. My notes became some sort of a checklist. A checklist with a very high standard. In my thinking, these standards needed to be met to ensure learning and growth. And therefore I was following them almost religiously. But by that, they never became a true source of inspiration and critical thinking. I was outsourcing my thinking to a structure. And by that, I was relying more on external standards than on my internal judgment and thinking.<\/p>\n

    The consequences were severe: Instead of building a true source of personal knowledge, I was creating a polished-looking cabinet of notes. Everything was looking fine from the outside, but on the inside, it was shallow. My notes rather read like a copied Wikipedia article, but they were missing personality \u2014 authentic thoughts and insights. As this process was rather heavy than light and at the same time no value was created, I would lose interest and eventually stop taking notes for a while.<\/p>\n

    Trusting my own judgment again<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/strong><\/p>\n

    What changed my perspective was realizing that my own thinking and judgement is something that has to be formed, before copying or blindly applying a framework of someone else. From then on, I saw external frameworks or concepts as a scaffold. But I no longer treat them as a substitute for my own thinking and experiences. Instead of \u201cmindlessly\u201d adopting a concept, I started to become aware of my intentions and trusted myself to watch my notes develop. One crucial shift was this:<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cI started to open my note, and instead of blindly copying a structure, I was blindly typing on my keyboard.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    This became my personal definition of a perfect note. And once my intentions were clear, and my note-taking was free of any demands, my notes started to lead somewhere. For the first time, I had something to work with. And something more happened as I understood better what my own note-taking was about; I was able to use and adapt the external systems according to my needs. This approach brought me much closer to a more satisfying system.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cSystems can only stabilize and perform after patterns have emerged.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    This is where my own thinking and ideas started to take back control over my system.<\/p>


    <\/p>\n

    Finding flow through imperfection<\/strong><\/p>


    <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Imperfection is what makes our systems unique and beautiful. In the end, that\u2019s what this is about for me: Having a personal system \u2014 maybe one that might look peculiar from the outside, but deeply resonates with me.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cThe raw state of my notes became the spine of my note-taking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Once I became confident that making mistakes accelerates learning rather than slowing it down, my relationship with note-taking changed. I started treating it as a space without judgment. That was the moment my first and second brain finally relaxed \u2014 and note-taking became something that allowed me to enter a natural state of flow.<\/p>


    <\/p>\n

    Structure should follow behavior, not precede it.<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What changed when I stopped optimizing my notes Lessons from applying structure before having something to structure Devin Avery on […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/devin-avery-VBBs_SWsdwU-unsplash-e1771062580688.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5183"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5213,"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions\/5213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kea-buildforsimplicity.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}