Fleeting, Permanent, Project, Logs, Procedures.
It seems there are 5 (or 6) basic kinds of notes.
Fleeting Notes
These are quick notes, written down on whatever is convenient, whose purpose is to briefly capture some small bit of information. Feeting notes usually require some level of memory to interpret. They need not be wholly independent of context, on the contrary, that is their very nature-to be context-dependent.
Permanent Notes
Permanent notes are self-contained, fully context-independent notes. To be truly independent of necessary pretext (and free from Context Loading), they are mostly timeless in nature - which is to say they are not bound to any particular temporal scope.
In accordance with the zettelkasten system of notetaking, these short notes are represent only one idea. (Atomic Notes) They exist within a framework of connections and are linked together (both directly and through the use of tags).
These notes are permanent notes.
Andy Matuschak calls his permanent notes Evergreen Notes, which I like, and subdivides them to many different Permanent Note Types.
Project Notes
Project notes contain information whose relevance is wholly bound by the scope of some on-going Project. These are your goals, plans, contact info, reference info, musings, and anything else pulled together for the sake of achieving some time-bound scope. Project notes are good to retain, but generally provide no enduring value once a Project is complete (aside from reference). Defining Project
Logs
Logs are records of events that have transpired. They are the result of measurements. Looking at an individual record does not necessarily tell you much. However that record should be tied to some form of manifest or collection that give context to its data. Logs in aggregate provide empirical meaning.
Area Notes
Somewhere in-between Project Notes, Permanent Notes, and Logs would be notes about things you own, created, or people (your life areas). Notes about the physical state of a thing, or serial numbers or other such information needs to be retained and needs to be in an easy-to-access spot for the context you’re likely to be in when you need to interface with that thing. An example of this would be facts about your pool kept in a personal inventory database.
Procedures
Procedure notes describe how to perform a procedure. They are templates for behavior. They do not contain any Logs or Project Notes for individual Activations of a activity, instead they describe the activity itself, how it’s performed, and should contain links to appropriate resources to aid in carrying out the activity. Checklists are distilled procedure notes.
Sources
- Myself, firstly
- The Plain Text Life
- PARA Method
- Andy Matuschak