The most important advice here: Don't listen to me!!

I see tons of questions about "what's the best note-taking app" and "how should I organise my priorities" - and I'm going to be giving my own views on that and more in these pages.

But while a lot of folks seem keen to sell their unique view of the universe as the 'only' ways to do things (plus 'please buy my book') my best answer to the above would be: "How the bleep should I know?" (and there's no book!)

I'd need to understand what you're taking notes of, why you're doing that, and what result you hope to achieve; not to mention what sort of equipment you have, how comfortable and familiar you are with using it, and whether you have any restrictions like no internet signal available, or no local power.

No advice I can give can cover enough options to be perfect (or even good) in every situation!

It's down to you, dear reader, to jump to your own conclusions. Please don't slavishly clone whatever Heath-Robinson system I've managed to come up with and desperately try to fit it into your own workflow. (I have nightmare visions of a sweaty worker with one hand on a keyboard, a tablet in the other and their head on a swivel trying to follow a complicated 'tag here, move there' scenario.)

By all means read my incredibly valuable contributions here, and take them into consideration when creating your own system. Start now, start simple, and make changes as you need to. (Evernote is very forgiving about things like that) but the important phrase here was "creating your own system" it should be yours, and yours alone.

If you have a twin, living and working in the exact same circumstances as you, your system might do for them. But you can't necessarily expect that your solutions will work anywhere away from your own personal space.

Sadly there are no magic wands, Father Christmas (or your own jolly seasonable personification) won't be around this year (sorry) with your shiny new system - and no-one else can do this bit for you. The only system that you can use consistently, accurately and happily is the one in which you are personally invested.

So kindly get on with it - and stop reading my stuff!

Oh yeah - and please don't take some notes and go on to read another dozen or so sites before you take an 'informed decision'^[1].

You'll never start actually doing the work if you put off some action. If there's more to read, by all means put aside an hour a day to review what else is out there. But meantime, spend most of your time setting up something you can use. It may need changing, but at least you can get it working!

^[1] Imagine, if you will, that you're walking in the jungle and see a large potentially unfriendly animal coming your way. You wouldn't have a meeting or want some time to decide the best course of action - you'd immediately be moving (not running), with decision and purpose, in whatever direction the animal wasn't!

Imagine you just heard something growl...