![]() ![]() If I’ve researched something once, I don’t want to re-do that work. Then, since my outline is tagged to the references, I can always go back and read the source material if I need to dig deeper.Īgain, this is much like the nice way explained it: I can refresh myself on everything I’ve read on a topic by looking at one document and it takes me only a short time to do it. I wrestle with the material to develop a hierarchy of information that relates it all together and makes it easy to find. Instead of doing that, I capture all my notes and thoughts and put them into a comprehensive outline. But, once I want to get information on a topic, I have to use search tools to find it. Or I can highlight a bunch of articles, put them in my note database, and leave them there for reference. But then I need to remember the right book and leaf through that book again to find some information I might need. I could just highlight the books and put them away. So, I read lots of books and articles on speaking and writing skills. The real work is extracting the valuable information on the topic, relating it to other important information on the topic, and making it easily digestible in the future.įor example, my job requires me to communicate both in speaking and in writing. But storing information in a repository like Evernote is only half the work. ![]() Think of it this way, one can throw all sorts of things – documents web pages articles scraps of thoughts – into a program like Evernote. The typical basis for this is any synthesized reference material that is meant for my periodic review, analysis, and reference. Third, and most important for this discussion, my outlines are often “the final product” of something. ![]() Whether it’s my “to dos,” or as they call them in OmniFocus, action items the way I’m setting up my office a trip I’m planning, I organize in hierarchical lists. Second, generally speaking, outlining is my preferred method of planning. Just the right amount of extra features without making the act of outlining all about playing with software.įor me the best outlines are the ones that take 15 or 30 minutes start to end, until there is enough of a framework to segue into the next exercise: writing. I never use mind mappers to outline – too much busy work fiddling. I never outline on paper – too slow and constricting. For me the best outlines are the ones that take 15 or 30 minutes start to end, until there is enough of a framework to segue into the next exercise: writing. Outlines can have complications in some software – like Tinderbox which really isn’t for outlining – such as attributes or metadata and so forth. Thoughts come to mind, and can be fit back into the outline – or taken out – as the outline develops. It’s the act of thinking about the subject while writing about it. When I start an outline I don’t know as much as I will when I finish it. Except outlines are more efficient than index cards. Like, writing thoughts, or assertions, or facts, or questions, etc., on index cards and then sorting them and editing them until the statements fit together from top to bottom / beginning to end. It provides an exceptionial environment for ideas and insights, and is packed with great features: focus mode, typewriter scrolling, and word count.I think of an outline as “a family of statements that is looking for flow”. It’s an elegant outliner in the form of a text editor, with a robust document-management system. Outlinely is the home for all your notes, thoughts, ideas, and todos. ![]()
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