How do you record information?

Question

IT education

Let's say there is some topic that I want to study. Let it be something of a general nature, such as Test Driven Development. I surf the net, read articles, download books and sample code, listen to podcasts. There are moments in articles and books that are not of great value, but there are those that I would like to note for the future.
How to deal with all this? Advise from your own experience how best to store information so that it, left “unattended”, does not turn into an incomprehensible mess in a month or two.

Answer 1

It is possible in Evernote, for example. I put snippets and clippings there. Sometimes I just save files in txt. As for the "unattended" part - I have, excuse me, daddy SORT_THAT_FUCKING_ASSHOLE, which once a month is done by krone rm -rf. Motivates.

Answer 2

In general, there are simple schemes for controlling this. One of the basic things is the presence of some INCOMING entity (paper notepad, reminder program, etc.). The point is to write it down and forget it. And only then (for example, once a day for little things and once a week globally) arrange all this according to separate documents.
I use the following tools for this:
www.toodledo.com - for the web and wherever a normal browser is available;
www.todolist.co - for android (naturally synchronizes with the above service);
www.docs.google.com - to collect thematic information in one place - just in different files or if the topic is large, then in tabular form with tabs, etc.
But the key point is not in the tools, but in understanding the circuit itself and adapting it for yourself.
Working with pieces of paper on the same principle - a tray for incoming and, in general, everything paper that comes in, once a couple of days, parsing everything and dividing it into trays.
The paper can only be in a certain place after parsing the incoming:
- transferred to another person;
- thrown out;
- arranged in a file where other papers for this task (project) are located;
- archived.
Something like this in a nutshell.

Answer 3

Discover such a great tool as highlighter.
First, I skim through the article. If anything in it is of interest, then we print the article.
After, in a calm atmosphere, the article is read and immediately the necessary and interesting points are marked with a yellow highlight marker.
After reading (you can read it several times), the printed article is placed in a file, and it, in turn, is placed in a folder with brackets. There are a lot of folders, according to topics.
The result is a "library" of several folders with many revised articles.
Advantages of this method:
- The necessary "processed" material is accumulated.
- It's easy enough to search for the right thoughts, because. usually we are looking for an article.
- It is quite easy to repeat - in the evening I took the necessary folder, leafed through, read the highlighted parts, remembered everything.
- Multiple people can use it.
- Articles can be reread several times and highlight new interesting facts.

Answer 4

Articles in Instapaper (where everything is sorted into folders), previously used by Evernote.
I save services to bookmarks (again, by folders)

Answer 5

And, I also, when I read a paper book (magazine / article / printout), for each “processed” page at the beginning of an interesting paragraph in the margins I put " + " or " - " (according to the principle of voting in Habré). If there is not a single paragraph with a plus or minus on the “processed” page, I put one “big” minus at the bottom of the page next to the page number (or cross out the page number), which means “absence” of data (flood / spam / noise).
If a page is that important (regardless of the plus/minus balance for the individual paragraphs), I additionally put a "big" plus at the end of the page next to the number (adding that KGB page to "favorites").
In the table of contents (contents) of the book, all sections containing at least one "selected" page are also marked with a plus.
An unpromoted/unpromoted page is considered "raw".
Pages (or entire sections) included in the "favorites" are sometimes (if necessary) additionally "xerified" (or simply "photographed").
If the book is someone else's (library) - I put a mark with a simple pencil, and before returning it, I carefully remove the “votes” from each “processed” page with an eraser, and once again, additionally viewing (and “mentally” systematizing) the previously processed material.
If the number of "selected" pages exceeds a certain "conditional" threshold, a decision is made to purchase (create) another (full) paper copy of the publication to place it in a personal library for subsequent "eternal" storage. For the "eternal" library, a card index is maintained.

Answer 6

Two related questions are actually raised here
1) in what form to organize your knowledge
2) what software to use for this.
On the first question of approaches, I know three
1) hypertext categorized notes - wrote / drew / copied and saved. This is the basic approach for describing some kind of entity.
2) outline - a cross between a hierarchical list and a table. Convenient for top-down planning, detailing and organization. Looks like
1. Intro 12 slides 23 min
2. Overview 10 slides 15 min
2.1. Aspect X 3 slides 5 min
3) mindmap is essentially a graph. Convenient for representing relationships between yet unclear how organized entities
Storage in paper form is unlikely to raise many questions, software is another matter. What I tried and can recommend:
Evernote (cross-platform) - simple notes with simple categorization, free in a limited version (but PDF cannot be uploaded to a note), saving data to a server, access from a lot of platforms (Windows, Mac, communicators + Online) , easy content saving through mail or browser. Outline and mindmap are not natively supported.
MS Onenote (Windows) - rather advanced notes, with a developed system of tags for each paragraph, support for simple outlines, integration with MS Outlook, the ability to make notes "in the margins" over the finished document, etc. You can save on MS live.net and an application for access from the iPhone has appeared (maybe already for other platforms - I don’t know for sure). Technically free (does not require a separate license), although included in MS Office.
OmniOutliner (Mac) is a fairly powerful paid software specifically for working with Outlines.
MindManager (Windows) is a paid software (there is a trial) for working with MindMap. The most convenient and powerful of those that I have come across. With one incomprehensible area, I understood exactly in it - I sketched and described individual objects, then placed the relationships.
Try. Decide what suits you best.

Answer 7

And I have a wiki up. I stuff everything in there. If it’s just links, then in the article “Useful Links”, if the information is found on the Internet when solving a specific problem, then in the form of an outline of the article. In the future, if after a long time you again have to solve a similar problem, finding it in your wiki is much faster than parsing Google for the same subject again.
Moreover, many interesting articles on sites have the unpleasant property of disappearing (either the site will be closed, or the article will be deleted, or the link will simply be changed). Therefore, I try to transfer articles, if possible, to the wiki, but with the preservation of links to the original.

Answer 8

Evernote. If you type, you can simply take a picture of a page from a paper book.

Answer 9

I try not to write anywhere, but instead have books on the right topics at hand and constantly use them as reference books.

Answer 10

Due to total distrust of third-party services: myTinyTodo and DokuWiki on their server.
I use the first one not only for tasks, but also for small notes about what needs to be studied, watched, tested, what to read about.
And a small wiki is convenient for writing quotes, lists, and just describing your decisions, say, when setting up networks or a system.
Well, I write down the incoming project ideas there in order to implement someday.

Answer 11

I have been looking for a way to record a variety of information for a long time, in the end it became the most convenient - wiki (the engine is not important) raised not on my server.

Answer 12

I also want to mention evernote, a handy thing especially its desktop version, as you can backup. In general, if these notes are of great value to you, then you should not rely only on online data storage services, duplicate them with the same Word files (but not on drive C)

Answer 13

I have been using MS OneNote (yes, an honest corporate license) and FreeMind (GPL) for several years. In extreme cases - redmine and it has many tools for storing information.
And a well-structured local library.

Answer 14

hierarchical notes, etc. at softvoile.com/flashnote/ , webhamster.ru/site/page/index/articles/projectcode/105 , jenyay.net/Soft/Outwiker

Answer 15

Previously, he led a special blozhik-linkopomyku on the blogspot. Now I collect in Google Docs.

Answer 16

I also tried different software for collecting information for several years ... then I was actively looking for information about the business. But I came to the conclusion that this is a waste of effort and resources. If the note is worthwhile and necessary, turn it into a deed, otherwise just read it and throw it away. Over the course of a couple of years, my interests changed so much that most of what I kept became useless and only interfered with working with those rare bits of information that turned out to be needed.
I just create a folder for the project and Excel in google docs - I put everything there. The folders are now in dropbox, I used to carry them on a flash drive. After reading the book 10 Laws of Simplicity, I really began to understand how much I complicated my life ... The book Getting real also opened my eyes very much.
So I recommend using simple tools: a notepad, a folder in a dropbox (for files) or on a flash drive and google doc. True, google doc sometimes loses to outliners.
I might add, my father has been collecting clippings from electronics magazines for half his life, now, 30 years later, he starts throwing them away. For the most part, he never used it ... of course, he always repeats - in case he needs it, but I have it at hand. But in reality, when something is needed, it is usually difficult to find or there are easier ways to solve the issue. It is better to store only operational information that is needed in the coming months - we read the rest, remember what is remembered and throw it away ... we free our attention for something new and more recent.