Daniel Escapa's blog entry,End of just 'filers' and 'pilers'; we are both!, covers a topic close to my heart I was writing a comment for his blog when I realized that it was a subject I should put here with a link instead of over there as a long comment.
I agree with Daniel that almost everyone is both. I know that I am. Except on those occasions when I have just cleaned my office, the whole thing is piles of information. If I could eliminate the junk that comes in through the snail mail, the paper quantity would go down even further.
The great thing about OneNote is that the piles are MUCH smaller than they used to be. I do scan information into my computer and store it in OneNote using one of my three scanners, but that doesn't get rid of all of the paper. That is a topic for another post. This one is on how I handle the random information that comes across my desk.
My OneNote notebooks cross the boundaries. I always have things in my Unfiled Notes sections. When I get 5 or 6 pages there that go together, I am getting better at making a notebook for that topic (or creating a new section for those pages in an existing notebook.) When I know that a project is going to take more than a few days, I will start a notebook for that project.
My OneNote notebooks and sections look a lot like my desk. Anyone else looking at them would think they are totally disorganized, but there is an organizational method to them. Newest information is close to the top (of course), but different regions of my office and my desktop are for different kinds of information. In my virtual filing system (OneNote), recent stuff is at the bottom of the list, older stuff is at the top.
Why? Because I am more likely to be looking at the bottom of a list, than the top of a list. In fact, if a notebook is at the top of the notebook list, it is a candidate for archiving. New pages are added after existing pages in a section, so the same method works for both pages in sections and notebooks in the notebook list. I seldom have more than 10 sections in a single notebook, so I don't worry as much about the order of my sections.
Another great function of OneNote is the ability to create links between notes, pages, sections, and web content. I have linked notes everywhere. It allows me to create a web of information and take the connectivity into a third dimension.
What about finding things? Just as I find pieces of paper by looking in the place where other papers like it are located, I find notes by looking for similar notes. In the case of OneNote, this means generating a tag summary and searching for the tag that goes with the topic. I have flag sets for different meetings, to do lists, recipes, bills, and pieces of correspondence.
If for some reason I can't find a piece of information by flag, I can search for it. I use certain terms regularly to indicate certain kinds of information. If all else fails, I search for one of my key words or phrases and find the information that way.
Ok.. Great - you know now I how organize my electronic notes. How can that help you?
- Try to be consistent in note headings. For example, if you are making notes about a person, refer to them the same way every time. That way, when you search for them, you can find all references to them.
- Use the tags and create your own. The more you tag things, the easier it is find the information you are looking for. OneNote lets you define 100 tags at any given time, use that to make combinations of tags to make searching easier.
- Link your notes. Unlike a filing system where links mean losing where you were, you can jump to a note in OneNote with a hyperlink and jump right back using the back button.
One final hint: When you are working with information in different sections or notebooks, take advantage of what I call the "magic key". Control M opens a new instance of OneNote. Having multiple open instances of OneNote allows you to work with multiple pieces of information in multiple locations at the same time.
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