Some notes never leave you.
You write them once, come back months later, and they still hold shape.
Clear, grounded, alive.
Others fade. They read fine but feel empty, like a room you’ve moved out of.
This week, I looked through my notes system to see which notes keep showing up in my daily work. The ones that still pull their weight after hundreds of new captures. What I found wasn’t about clever structure or perfect tags. It was about durability.
Main Note – The Notes That Stay Alive
I used to think note-taking was a race to coverage. More ideas meant more insight.
But the truth is, I only return to a handful of notes, less than one percent of my notes system.
They’re not the neatest.
Some are half-sentences or messy links.
What makes them useful is that they grew with me. Every revisit added context. Each reuse made them more precise.
One of them started as a fleeting note:
“Clarity is what remains after simplification.”
I first wrote it down after a late-night writing session.
A month later, it became part of my writing guide. Then it turned into a newsletter idea. Now it anchors how I evaluate my work.
That’s the pattern I’ve noticed again and again:
A note becomes durable when it returns value.
It returns value when it’s revisited.
It’s revisited when it’s connected to something real.
In other words, the best notes are not the most complete, they’re the most used.
When I open my notes system, these notes tend to share three quiet traits:
They hold tension, not answers.
Instead of summarizing, they ask something that keeps pulling me back.
(“What does clarity look like in practice?” “How do systems grow without collapsing under weight?”)They point both backward and forward.
Each note links to its origin (a book, a project, a conversation) and to its next step (a draft, a build, a reflection).They evolve through use.
The note isn’t frozen. It’s more like a workspace where I refine the same idea over time.
Everyday Scenarios
When I’m drafting a newsletter, I rarely start from scratch. I pull one of these notes and stretch it until it becomes an argument.
When I’m building a Notion system, I’ll check my “System Shape” note. These notes are updated dozens of times to remind myself of the principles I actually use, not the ones I admire.
When I hit a creative block, I go to my “Why I Write” note. It’s short, almost poetic. But every reread resets me to the core reason I started this work.
These aren’t reference notes.
They’re return notes.
The ones that quietly shape everything else.
Lab Log
What I observed this week:
The notes I revisit most have between 100–200 words. They are long enough to think, short enough to scan.
Tags don’t matter much once the note becomes familiar; I find them through links and memory.
Notes that started as “quotes” rarely survive; notes that started as “questions” often thrive.
What I’m testing:
I’m adding a “Return Loop” property to my notes system - a simple checkbox that marks when I last revisited or reused a note. I want to see if frequency predicts durability.
What surprised me:
Deleting old notes didn’t hurt clarity; it sharpened it. By pruning the noise, I can see which notes keep pulling my attention. That’s the real signal of value.
Designing Durable Notes
If you want to build notes that last, don’t aim for perfect organization.
Aim for return potential, how likely a note is to earn a second visit.
Move from
“What should I store?”
to
“What will I return to?”
Move from
“How can I tag this?”
to
“Where will I use this next?”
Move from
“Did I capture it right?”
to
“Will this note grow with me?”
Durability isn’t about metadata. It’s about momentum.
Creator Block
This week’s deep dive turns to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow - a modern classic on how our two systems of thought shape judgment, learning, and creative work.
I’ll explore how System 1 (fast, intuitive) and System 2 (slow, deliberate) map onto the way we take and develop notes , from capture to clarity.
It’s a bridge between psychology and PKM, showing why slowing down your thinking often leads to better ideas.
Follow me at Threads @gavin.create for the full Deep Dive this Saturday.
Before I go
Looking through my most used notes reminded me that a notes system isn’t a museum, it’s a workshop.
The best notes are not monuments to past thoughts. They’re living companions that walk beside your current ones.
I like the thought that one note, if kept alive, can outgrow hundreds of static ones.
Maybe that’s all a knowledge system needs: a few notes that keep earning their place.
What about you? Do you know which of your notes have quietly stood the test of time?
Until next time,
Gav
