G’day from Melbourne.
Last week, we explored how scraps quietly grow into something bigger: essays, systems, even products.
But here’s the trap I see over and over, both in my own notes system and in conversations with readers.
We capture notes, then file them.
We spend time tagging, sorting, and making neat categories.
Everything has its place.
Yet nothing grows.
On the surface, it feels like progress. Our digital shelves look tidy, our notes system is under control. But what’s really happening is this:
The notes stop moving. They’re boxed, labeled, and set aside.
That’s the weakness of what I call the filing cabinet model of note-taking.
Why the filing cabinet model fails
When your notes system is built around filing, three things usually happen:
You spend more time organizing than thinking.
The system only works if you maintain perfect structure - which quickly breaks down.
The notes themselves become static. They sit there, waiting for a project that never arrives.
You end up with a beautiful digital archive that hides the very sparks you wanted to capture.
I’ve seen this in Notion dashboards with endless nested folders, in Obsidian vaults overflowing with tags, and even in old notebooks stacked in a corner. The container looks impressive, but the ideas inside rarely resurface.
Notes don’t exist to be filed away. They exist to move, to change, to influence what you do next.
What it means to develop notes
So what’s the alternative? Development.
Development is different from organization. It’s about helping notes evolve rather than keeping them in order.
Here’s how it usually unfolds in practice:
Resurface regularly. A weekly or just 5 minutes a day scan brings forgotten scraps back into view.
Add context. When something resurfaces, don’t just reread it, expand it. A quick line becomes a short paragraph. A vague idea turns into a clear question.
Cluster loosely. As more notes grow, start linking them together. You don’t need strict categories. Just connect what resonates.
Promote upward. As clusters form, they naturally point to bigger ideas. These are the seeds for essays, talks, or projects.
Think of it as creative metabolism. Each note gets digested, reshaped, and linked into something larger. The goal isn’t perfect order. It’s momentum.
From scraps to sparks
Let me give you a few examples from my own notes system.
One note I captured months ago was just a line:
“Filing systems are death for ideas.”
At first, it felt like a throwaway thought. But when it resurfaced during a weekly review, I asked: why?
I added:
“Because filing feels like completion. Development feels like growth.”
Later, I linked it to a handful of other scraps on dynamic PKM. Those connections turned into the cluster that sparked this very issue of Gav’s Note.
Another scrap was a question scribbled during reading:
“What does it mean for a note to be alive?”
For weeks, it sat untouched. Then I linked it to notes about resurfacing and review cycles. That cluster evolved into the idea of “notes in motion,” which became a core part of my Knowledge Vault template.
Neither of those scraps were worth much on their own. But given a chance to resurface and grow, they carried forward into real output.
Try this experiment this week
If you want to see this in action, here’s a small challenge.
Open your notes system and pick three dormant notes you haven’t touched in months.
Don’t worry about whether they’re relevant. Just bring them back into view.
Add something new. A sentence of reflection. A connection to another note. A question you didn’t ask before.
You don’t need to overhaul your system. Just repeat this small act every week. Over time, you’ll notice how once-static scraps begin to gather weight and momentum.
Before I go
Notes are not a library. They are a garden.
A library stores what others thought.
A garden grows what you’re thinking.
When you treat notes as files to be put away, you’re storing other people’s ideas. When you treat notes as seeds to be developed, you’re cultivating your own.
Stop organizing for perfection. Start developing for growth.
Creator Block
This ties into the deep dive I’ll share on Threads this Saturday: Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book.
Adler argued that real reading is an active dialogue with the author — a way of shaping thought, not just absorbing it. The same applies to notes: dialogue, not storage.
Catch the full breakdown on Threads (@gavin.create) this weekend.
That’s all from me this week,
Until next time,
Gav.
