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Knowledge Management

Forget Spaced Repetition: The Foolproof Way To 'Remember' Your Notes

Ev Chapman
June 7, 2022
•
2 min read

I don't review my notes in the typical way most PKM gurus will tell you to do.

Most people treat their notes like a filing cabinet. Writing them and then filing them away for some later use. But who wants to drag files out of a filing cabinet every week to add to the 'review' pile? How boring (and no wonder people fail when it comes to 'reviewing' their notes).

My notes are not like that. They are a living breathing ecosystem that I am working in every day - and the backbone of everything I write online.

Here's how my notes became a part of my everyday creator process.

By connecting new notes.  Every day as a write notes from my writing inbox I am connecting them into existing notes. This means each day I am reviewing what is already in there. I don't need spaced repetition because I look at my notes library every day.

By Creating Content From it.  My notes are a working library. They work every day to produce the content you see online. Not cute quotes I can include in content - they are the content. Each note can form the basis for an essay like this or it can be part of a bigger piece.

Intentional Play.  I create intentional games that I play in my notes from wandering through and tidying things up, to creating connections and letting ideas collide.

The truth is you don't need a review system when you are working in your notes every day. Don't treat your notes like something to toss in a filing cabinet for a day in the future. Make them a part of your every day creation process.

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