Classifying Notes in an OBTF, Inspired By the Dash-Plus System

PTPL 131 · It’s okay to be dogmatic sometimes

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Read here or on my blog

My karma ran over my dogma

Here is your periodic reminder to be open to using the right tool for the job.

Don’t be dogmatic about plain text, minimalism, trying to get people to push their chairs in after leaving the table. Leave some room for the unexpected.

Do be dogmatic about protecting your hard work, and keeping proprietary apps as your playground, not your permanent residence.

Cool finds

• Scheduler is a free Mac app that does some of what Keyboard Maestro can.
• After 11 years using Logseq and DayOne, Adam Nowak has moved to Obsidian. He’s a daily note kind of guy, and has some interesting thoughts on what it takes to make this kind of move.

Dash-Plus is for paper; digital notes work better with letters

Dash-Plus system part 1 · part 2

My paper notebook is the analog equivalent of my digital One Big Text File, but I’ve come to realise that each medium lends itself to a different way of categorising notes.

For notes made on paper, Dash-Plus is the clear winner. Check out parts 1 and 2 above to see how I’m using it.

For notes made in my OBTF, neither Dash-Plus nor the Bullet Journal method have worked for me. It was easy to come up with symbols that mimic BuJo or Dash-Plus systems, but my brain rejected them as not memorable enough, too forced, too complicated.

Next step: use these wonderful systems to inform my approach, not dictate it.

Here’s what’s working:

1. Define the categories that notes will fit into, making them broad enough that every note falls easily into one of them
2. Give each category a name that is easy to remember and which starts with a different letter of the alphabet (you could also use a trigram)
3. Use this letter to categorise your notes, adding a common keyboard symbol to the start to make it easily searchable

Here’s what mine look like today. It’s the Key from the top of my OBTF.

## KEY

- [ ] Task, incomplete
- [x] Task, complete
→ Forwarded
← Delegated
- Note
/c. Communication
/e. Event
/f. French
/i. Idea
/j. Journal entry
/r. Reference
/w. Waiting
/x. No longer relevant

Here is a list of random notes from my OBTF as they were entered, before processing:

- [ ] 2024-11-05 Mastodon post
Life trivia: I am up to line 6745 of the One Big Text File that took over from my daily notes in Obsidian back at the beginning of February.

- [ ] 2024-11-06 Language partner Skype call
- chevr**eu**il, faut**eu**il, acc**ue**il
- importante = numerous
- je dois me taire = je dois rester silencieuse

- [ ] 2024-11-07 Presidency Meeting
- [ ] Ponder how we can foster an environment of spiritual healing
- KP choosing teacher for 2024-12-08

- [ ] 2024-11-08 Kuru Toga Advance mechanical pencil $12.99

- [ ] 2024-11-08 Update data entry for plain text accounting

- [ ] 2024-11-09 Get Christmas decorations out of storage

And after processing:

/c. 2024-11-05 Mastodon post
Life trivia: I am up to line 6745 of the One Big Text File that took over from my daily notes in Obsidian back at the beginning of February.

/f. 2024-11-06 Language partner Skype call
- chevr**eu**il, faut**eu**il, acc**ue**il
- importante = numerous
- je dois me taire = je dois rester silencieuse

/e. 2024-11-07 Presidency Meeting
- [ ] Ponder how we can foster an environment of spiritual healing
- KP choosing teacher for Dec 8

/w. 2024-11-08 Kuru Toga Advance mechanical pencil $12.99

- [x] 2024-11-08 Update data entry for plain text accounting

← 2024-11-09 Get Christmas decorations out of storage (RMW)

Yes, tags would also work, and would be quick to enter with auto-complete. At the moment I like using letters followed by a period because they’re easy for me to remember, and because ending with a period means the next word will start with a capital — convenient when typing on my phone. If/when I change my mind about which symbols to use, find and replace makes it easy to switch.

Do what works for your brain! I’d love to see what you come up with.

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