--- title: Micro-notes date: "2020-11-29T03:46:33Z" lastmod: "2020-11-29T03:46:35Z" categories: - tools wp_id: 2945 excerpt: I keep notes in hundreds of small Markdown files, synced on Dropbox. --- I maintain my (extensive) notes in text files. I've explored Evernote, Onenote, Google Keep, Apple Notes, and many other platforms. But text files work. I store them as Markdown and sync them on DropBox. They used to be relatively large files (50-100KB) each, on broad topics. For example: - **todo.txt** was a consolidated list of things I had to do - **people.txt** was a list of everything I knew about people (addresses, birthdays, etc) - **towrite.txt** was a list of everything I wanted to write about - **notes.txt** was where I tracked notes about any topics - ... and more This led to a couple of problems. 1. **Searching across files was hard**. I wouldn't remember if I wrote ideas for my next talk in todo.txt or towrite.txt, or if my meeting minutes where in notes.txt todo.txt. I had to open each file and search. 2. **Files were getting too big**. Editing them on mobile was harder. Scanning them was harder. So I changed this system a few years ago into **micro-notes**. These files became a folder. For example, my **notes/** folder looks like this: - **time-management.txt** has my time management notes - **book-never-split-the-difference.txt** has book notes on [Never Split the Difference](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156469-never-split-the-difference) - **eat-food-sleep-exercise-live-healthy.txt** has notes on fitness The folder has nearly 300 files. Here's a glimpse of the latest files. ![](/blog/assets/image-png-1.webp) Similarly, my **people/** folder has details of my discussions with various people I interact with -- friends, colleagues & clients. What made this change possible is [Everything](https://www.voidtools.com/), a fast file search tool on Windows that lets me find files as I type. For example, if I'm looking for my notes on [SlideSense](https://slidesense.ai/), I just type "notes s" and it appears on the list. ![](/blog/assets/image-png-3.webp) I usually sort the files by run count (how often I opened them). That makes it easy to re-open the most used files. It also makes it easier to edit these notes on mobile. I sync the folder on Dropbox, and use [IAWriter](https://ia.net/writer) to edit them while on walks. [Dictation](https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT208343) is pretty good, so I've been using that to take notes too. --- ## Comments - **Saurabh Mittal** _3 Dec 2020 1:20 pm_: Hey Anand, great to see you back! After a loonngggg hiatus! - **[S Anand](http://www.s-anand.net/)** _4 Dec 2020 10:37 am_: Thanks, Saurabh! - **Ananth** _26 Dec 2020 2:32 am_: Welcome back Anand. I have been following your "blog" (hope the term is still relevant!) for more than a decade. Your matter-of-fact writing is something that I enjoy and your experiences using various tools/approaches have always been interesting. Hope we can see more of your writing. - **Ramamurthy** _27 Dec 2020 7:03 pm_: Hi Anand, I stumbled into your page accidentally while looking for something about Ilayaraja.I am your chittappa,Lalitha chitti's husband.We attended your wedding too. Much water has flown under the bridge and I have lost contact with our relatives.Ramnath and Shekar are in touch.How is your Sriram uncle and your dad.I hope you remember me!