what is a short note?

20 Jan 2025

Most days, I think too hard about things, stuck in my head some would say. This is not inherently wrong, but in order to get out of my own way, I've needed to create systems (habits, routines) in my life which foster environments that capture my fleeting thoughts, ideas, creativities, and musings instead of letting them get lost in alleyways of my mind.

One such habit I started last year in earnest has been to micro-log my days.

This is not time-blocking or an app to track time, activity, or websites. I mean I literally make a manual timed entry of what I do throughout the day. If I change tasks, activities, or events, then I log it. The initial intention was to use this passive data gathering of my day to reflect deeper on how my time was spent and give myself a sense of personal accountability. I didn't expect this simple daily routine to be as impactful as it has been however.

so what does my process look like?

I use Obsidian as my main thought hub if you will. I don't use tasks or massively complicated plugins, but it holds my personal braining, work notes, and all my notes or drafts or reading notes connected to my MA. I intend to write a long note about this in the future.

I need things to be as resistance-free as possible, so to be able to make a daily routine out of my micro log, I modified a "quick entry" iOS shortcut from Christopher Lawley - who has many videos, old and new, about how he uses shortcuts - check it out.

Using this, I hit my iOS shortcut (which is easily accessible in three different places on my mobile), type the new task/event/thing, and done; the shortcut creates the entry in my designated Obsidian location with a timestamp. I have this connected to my Obsidian "daily note" so that each daily note displays my micro log for that day. Additionally, I have another version of this, which functions exactly the same but is more of a micro log for my thoughts vs my tasks/events, also connected to my daily note.

so back to short notes
It is this idea, in part, that I am bringing over here 👉🏼 short notes. Instead of being a micro log of all my thoughts willy-nilly, I will be more selective and focus on ideas/inspirations/musings that may benefit public discourse.