Update Blog Posts “how-to-create-a-simple-digital-commonplace-note-taking-system”

Author: jiwonac

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 blurb: In the note-taking and stationery hobby space of the internet, people are sharing their commonplacing routines and strategies, with varying degrees of pretty handwriting. This is my take on a digital commonplace book.
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-Apparently, commonplace books, the Renaissance-era phenomenon of collecting significant quotations on a notebook, is having its own modern renaissance. In the note-taking and stationery hobby space of the internet, people are sharing their commonplacing routines and strategies, with varying degrees of pretty handwriting. 
+Apparently, commonplace books, the Renaissance-era phenomenon of collecting significant quotations on a notebook, is having its own modern renaissance. In the note-taking and stationery hobby space of the internet, people are sharing their commonplacing routines and strategies, with varying degrees of pretty handwriting.
 
-This is my take on a digital commonplace book. It is dead-simple, and works on the majority of digital note-taking apps. RemNote is my app of choice, but it comes down to personal preference about a few specific features; Notion is probably the most popular app that easily handles this system. Let me first describe the workflow before zooming out and discussing its differences from other systems. 
+This is my take on a digital commonplace book. It is dead-simple, and works on the majority of digital note-taking apps. RemNote is my app of choice, but it comes down to personal preference about a few specific features; Notion is probably the most popular app that easily handles this system. Let me first describe the workflow before zooming out and discussing its differences from other systems.
 
-### **The System** 
+### **The System**
 
 #### Tags
 
-First, create some tags. Depending on the app, it may use hashtag notations (e.g. #songbirds) or the equivalent alternative could be to create a few empty notes and then use the interlinking notation (e.g. [[songbirds]]). Create a tag for each topic that you would like to write about. 
+First, create some tags. Depending on the app, it may use hashtag notations (e.g. #songbirds) or the equivalent alternative could be to create a few empty notes and then use the interlinking notation (e.g. [[songbirds]]). Create a tag for each topic that you would like to write about.
 
-You can also create a few tags to denote the status of a note. I suggest starting with "process later" or "read later." The final type of tag that you might want to consider are tags that indicate that you're writing about some reference, like #book, #video, #podcast, etc. 
+You can also create a few tags to denote the status of a note. I suggest starting with "process later" or "read later." The final type of tag that you might want to consider are tags that indicate that you're writing about some reference, like #book, #video, #podcast, etc.
 
-Some applications support hierarchical tags. For example, Obsidian supports notation like #animals/songbirds. RemNote allows you to tag a tag (!!). For example, I can tag the "songbirds" tag with the "animals" tag, which makes "animals" a parent of "songbirds." 
+Some applications support hierarchical tags. For example, Obsidian supports notation like #animals/songbirds. RemNote allows you to tag a tag (!!). For example, I can tag the "songbirds" tag with the "animals" tag, which makes "animals" a parent of "songbirds."
 
-Below is a visualization of a subset of tags that I use. Notice the use of hierarchical tags to organize complex topics. Also note that in topics related to my work or my main interests, I have a more fine-grained division of topics than on topics that I only rarely write about. I also have tags for topics that are not related to work, but I sometimes write about in a casual, hobbyist manner. 
+Below is a visualization of a subset of tags that I use. Notice the use of hierarchical tags to organize complex topics. Also note that in topics related to my work or my main interests, I have a more fine-grained division of topics than on topics that I only rarely write about. I also have tags for topics that are not related to work, but I sometimes write about in a casual, hobbyist manner.
 
-![](https://remnote-user-data.s3.amazonaws.com/HHlCOJuoDwcJCURFfmhQN1PZ3-GSyUcxzXF1d09Ut1JSfhng-7KK9qQhlHQxckSs9N6pdrhr1mWzy4X0A3tkrUCHNCUY42z6wRPOaNxy7iumg1CZJeNa-QfncftMeHy0.png)<small>Tags categorize notes into topics, assign statuses, or note that a note is about some external reference.</small>
+![](/assets/tags.png)
 
-#### Daily notes
+<small>Tags categorize notes into topics, assign statuses, or note that a note is about some external reference.</small>
 
-Daily notes are the main workhorse of my system, because the vast majority of notes are primarily organized in a chronological fashion, rather than via topics or alphabetical order. 
+#### Daily notes
 
-At the start of each day, create a daily note. This daily note is a "parent note" or a "note container." Its function is to hold all notes that you write during the day. 
+Daily notes are the main workhorse of my system, because the vast majority of notes are primarily organized in a chronological fashion, rather than via topics or alphabetical order.
 
+At the start of each day, create a daily note. This daily note is a "parent note" or a "note container." Its function is to hold all notes that you write during the day.
 
+![](/assets/daily%20notes.png)
 
 <small>Notes are organized in a chronological fashion, one daily note per day.</small>
 
-Whenever you have an interesting thought, attend a meeting, read a section of a textbook, or a coworker suggests something, create a new "child note", "block", or a "bullet" (depending on the terminology of the specific app) within the daily note. Write down your thoughts. 
-
-Then, after writing down the note, tag it with all appropriate tags. A note may be tagged with multiple tags if appropriate. 
+Whenever you have an interesting thought, attend a meeting, read a section of a textbook, or a coworker suggests something, create a new "child note", "block", or a "bullet" (depending on the terminology of the specific app) within the daily note. Write down your thoughts.
 
+Then, after writing down the note, tag it with all appropriate tags. A note may be tagged with multiple tags if appropriate.
 
+![](/assets/daily%20note%20example.png)
 
 <small>A daily note contains all thoughts that I have in a day. Each thought is tagged with the appropriate topic.</small>
 
 #### Projects
 
-Some thoughts or ideas can be fully understood and captured in a note within a single day. Some projects, on the other hand, last for many weeks or months. These projects can benefit from having their own organizational view. 
-
-The way I accomplish this is by using interlinks (a.k.a. references) that are now supported in many apps. Each project is simply a reference to all note (each of which lives in a daily note) that is about this project. 
+Some thoughts or ideas can be fully understood and captured in a note within a single day. Some projects, on the other hand, last for many weeks or months. These projects can benefit from having their own organizational view.
 
-I use project notes to read a textbook, accomplish work projects, and get personal projects done. 
+The way I accomplish this is by using interlinks (a.k.a. references) that are now supported in many apps. Each project is simply a reference to all note (each of which lives in a daily note) that is about this project.
 
-Below is a snippet of an actual personal project of mine: reading a textbook on biogeography, a field that has fascinated me as a hobbyist naturalist for a long time. 
+I use project notes to read a textbook, accomplish work projects, and get personal projects done.
 
+Below is a snippet of an actual personal project of mine: reading a textbook on biogeography, a field that has fascinated me as a hobbyist naturalist for a long time.
 
+![](/assets/project%20note.png)
 
 <small>A project note contains interlinks to notes that are related to the project. The notes themselves live in daily notes.</small>
 
 #### Summary
 
-A note lives in the corresponding daily note. Each note is tagged with topics and other metadata. Projects are special types of notes, separate from daily notes. Each project contains interlinks to relevant notes. 
+A note lives in the corresponding daily note. Each note is tagged with topics and other metadata. Projects are special types of notes, separate from daily notes. Each project contains interlinks to relevant notes.
 
 ### Differences with Other Systems
 
 #### Traditional Commonplacing
 
-There are many similarities between my system and traditional commonplace books. Like the latter, I write snippets of notes, then categorize it. I collect interesting ideas from books and other sources. 
+There are many similarities between my system and traditional commonplace books. Like the latter, I write snippets of notes, then categorize it. I collect interesting ideas from books and other sources.
 
-Traditional commonplace books were written in notebooks with categorical indexes to categorize notes for later retrieval. It was rather common for practitioners to pre-define some categories of interest, or categorize notes based on alphabetical keywords. 
+Traditional commonplace books were written in notebooks with categorical indexes to categorize notes for later retrieval. It was rather common for practitioners to pre-define some categories of interest, or categorize notes based on alphabetical keywords.
 
-My digital system generalizes the categories by using hierarchical tags. A note that is tagged #songbirds is automatically also part of the #animals collection. Furthermore, a note can have multiple tags, which elegantly handles notes that touch on more than one topics. 
+My digital system generalizes the categories by using hierarchical tags. A note that is tagged #songbirds is automatically also part of the #animals collection. Furthermore, a note can have multiple tags, which elegantly handles notes that touch on more than one topics.
 
-The topic that I put into my system is also more expansive. Traditional commonplace books typically included rhetorical snippets or quotations from books. In addition to snippets and quotations, I also take notes on random ideas that I have, meeting notes, project ideas, questions, and so on. 
+The topic that I put into my system is also more expansive. Traditional commonplace books typically included rhetorical snippets or quotations from books. In addition to snippets and quotations, I also take notes on random ideas that I have, meeting notes, project ideas, questions, and so on.
 
 #### Digital Zettelkasten
 
-A digital Zettelkasten is characterized by short, evergreen notes, each containing one idea, that are tightly interconnected with each other via a network structure. 
+A digital Zettelkasten is characterized by short, evergreen notes, each containing one idea, that are tightly interconnected with each other via a network structure.
 
-My system is a direct result of experimenting with a digital Zettelkasten and discovering its main pain points. First, it is a very time-consuming hobby. Second, the network can be difficult to navigate, especially in scenarios where a little top-down planning can simplify the organization. Third, its bottom-up, wiki-like structure incentivizes too much pseudo-productive procrastination. 
+My system is a direct result of experimenting with a digital Zettelkasten and discovering its main pain points. First, it is a very time-consuming hobby. Second, the network can be difficult to navigate, especially in scenarios where a little top-down planning can simplify the organization. Third, its bottom-up, wiki-like structure incentivizes too much pseudo-productive procrastination.
 
 My digital commonplace book addresses all issues. It has low time and effort overhead. All I have to do each day is create a new daily note, write down some notes, and tag them. It is also easy to retrieve old notes by searching for all notes that contain the relevant tag. It is also (real-)productivity oriented, helping me get stuff done each day, rather than incentivizing rabbit holes that feel productive but don't move the needle.