Originally appeared on: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/qdtarchive/how-to-create-a-personal-reference-system/
October 27, 2015
We have access to more information than ever before. But if you store it using the right tools, you’ll find you can recall important information on demand.
It’s the information age! That means we have more information than ever before, plus we have terabyte disk drives, which means we can keep more information than ever before. But keeping it isn’t enough. We have to get it back when we need it.
Listener Debra writes in:
How do I archive information so I can remember it even exists? I often save data files that might be helpful, articles that are examples of a specific concept, or email that I archive to use later. But then, it’s out of my mind when I actually need it. I don’t want to troll those folder files or tags in the hope that there ‘might’ be something helpful. Help! What do I do?
Debra, the short answer is that you move to the Australian Outback, and spend the rest of your life living blissfully with nature, after being adopted by a mob of kangaroos and raised as one of their own. Voila! No longer will you need to worry about files, terabyte disk drives, or retrieving information. Your only problem—solved easily with a quick field trip back to civilization—will be the occasional case of the fleas.
File by Retrieval
By its very nature, random information is hard to remember. If it were neatly ordered, we wouldn’t call it “random.” Where else do we have a large collection of random information, with no real order to it? That would be the Internet! And fortunately, we can use the same solution the Internet uses to find stuff: search.
Use a Freeform Text Search Tool
Start by putting all your reference data into a freeform text tool that lets you search all your notes quickly for any text. If you have a smartphone or iPad, choose a tool that makes it easy to access your notes on all your devices. If you use a Mac, as of the latest OS X update, Apple Notes fits the bill quite nicely. It also lets you create notes with pictures and formatted text.
If you use both Mac and Windows, check out SimpleNote. SimpleNote provides a web interface, a great desktop app, and apps for various smartphones. It’s text-only, though it does keep historical version of your notes if you edit them, and it provides support for markdown formatting.
I tend to avoid tools that are overly complicated like Evernote. You might want to keep the kind of reference material you’re talking about for years or decades. The simpler your tool, the more likely it will stay usable over the years.
Store Reference Material Directly
Whenever you find information you want to store, cut and paste it, or type it into a note. If you use SimpleNote and want to turn a web page into markdown, you can use the amazing site Heck Yes, Markdown. You can quickly create a bookmark that, when you select it, turns whatever web page you’re viewing into a Markdown equivalent. You can then cut and paste that markdown into a normal text note.
When creating a note, consider how you’ll retrieve it.
Not only can you save web pages this way, but of course, you can save any notes. Like birthday gift lists for your favorite relatives and friends. When you’re at the mall and little Blake goes wild over a chiffon tutu and a fire truck, you just pop those into your note titled “Birthday List Blake.” When birthday time rolls around, a quick search for Birthday Blake brings the list right up, and pretty soon, Blake is pirouetting through the neighborhood dressed as a ballet-dancing fire-fighter. (Should this become a permanent career choice, however, I recommend taffeta in place of chiffon. It’s much less flammable.)
Insert Keywords for Retrieval
When you create a note, give some thought as to all the ways you might retrieve it. You can create conventions where you use similar titles for similar notes. In my system, birthday list notes are always titled BIRTHDAY LIST and the person’s name. Lists of keyboard shortcuts for my favorite software are called REFERENCE and then the name of the program. Game hints are called HINTS and the name of the game, and so on.
You can also include a list of keywords inside a note that name all the ways you might possibly want to retrieve a note. A note that contains instructions for sequencing your DNA to create a race of super beings might include a keywords list: dna, sequencing, genetics, super beings, eugenics, and master race. Then when it’s time to begin your dastardly plans, a simple search for “super beings” will pull the note right up.
Store Citations by Reference
If you want to store long articles, research papers, or files that aren’t text, don’t store them directly. Instead, treat your notes like a library card catalog. When you read that wonderful article about dominance hierarchies in kangaroo culture and their expression through nose-rubbing, save the document in a file on your hard drive called “Reference Folder.” Then create a note titled “Traditional greetings in kangaroo culture.” In the body of the note, just type “See reference document” and give the name of the document. Remember to include a list of keywords like kangaroo, greetings, anthropology, culture, pouch, and nose rubbing, so the note will show up if you search for any of those terms. When you retrieve the note, you know right where to go on your hard drive to find the file.
Transcribe Book Notes into Your System
When you read a book and take extensive note on it as part of your learning process (you do take hand-written notes as you read, to increase retention, right?), transcribe your written notes into a text note titled BOOK NOTES and the name of the book, for future reference. Not only will this give you an extra chance to review the material, but you’ll be able to find it quickly when you need it in the future.
Sometimes we just know we’ll want to get back to information that comes into our lives. Type that information into notes in a tool that does a quick full-text search on all your notes. Include keywords based on how you think you’ll retrieve the note. For documents that can’t be pasted directly into a note, keep a special reference file on your hard drive and create a note that reminds you where in your reference folder to find the information.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
- courtesy of Shutterstock.*
About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the Get-it-Done Guy podcast, an iTunes top-10 business podcast, from 2007 to 2020. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a degree in Computer Science from MIT.
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