I am adopting a new working style, not necessarily how I work in my professional space but how I am approaching my day-to-day tasks. It has been about two weeks now but I want to share my progress so far and my thoughts about it.
How I was doing things in the past #
Up until a few weeks ago I was not a great book reader. I have read Michael Bazzell’s “Extreme Privacy: What it Takes to Disappear.” I should say I enjoyed the read, I have adopted some advice from this book. I might write about my takeaways from this book in another blog post.
A few weeks ago I started reading books again. I have a few books collected from suggestions from teammates, friends, etc. but never spent time on reading them. I wanted to read books again so I picked up “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel, a book I purchased about 6 months ago and only read like two chapters and never was able to follow through. Unlike my previous attempts where I’d quickly lose interest, I am still consistently making progress through the book - reading a little each day, page by page, without the usual distractions that derailed me before.
I am halfway through the book and I am enjoying this read, learning a lot of new things, starting to look at money from a new point of view if you will. The point here is I started reading books and sticking to it for the past few weeks. Most importantly, reading books has reduced my screen time and it has changed a few of my habits. One of these new habits is writing blog posts like this one to share my experiences.
Discovering the PARA Method #
Then I stumbled upon a note-taking video on YouTube where Mischa van den Burg, a YouTuber who specializes in note-taking and productivity systems, says “Do not look at note-taking as a chore, instead look at it as a way of capturing all the deep-thinking that happens in our mind.” He then talks about a note-taking framework called PARA Method by Tiago Forte. PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives - a comprehensive organizational system for managing information (you can learn more at Tiago’s website). Fast forward a few weeks and now I am adopting PARA into my note-taking using Notesnook, an end-to-end encrypted note-taking app. Before this, I had no notes whatsoever for anything I do. Now I am capturing every little thing that goes through my mind.
After implementing this method into my daily routine, I started seeing positive changes in how I organize my thoughts and follow through on tasks. This systematic approach to note-taking has helped me transform vague ideas into concrete actions.
What I’ve accomplished so far #
In a few weeks, I have captured:
- Goals I want to accomplish this year
- Things I want to do this year
- Ideas that I put thoughts into but never followed through in the past; this time I have captured them in my notes so I can track these ideas and keep myself accountable
- I’ve made TODO lists and gotten them done week by week
- I’ve started noting things I accomplish each day
- Writing this blog post is one of the TODOs for this week
You can tell note-taking has made me better. I am following through on thoughts that previously stayed only in my mind, which is a great deal of work that actually happens in our brain.
The impact on my work #
I have adopted note-taking in my workflow now. At my job, I am writing notes before I actually architect a new system, or drafting a playbook on how to upgrade Cilium in our Kubernetes clusters (technical infrastructure I work with) - these are just a couple of examples. The point is all my thought process is captured now. Importantly, I am enjoying writing notes and reading books.
I plan on writing takeaways for the books I read. Maybe one day someone will get something good out of it, just like how I benefited from just a few minutes of that YouTube video.
If you are not a reader of books or do not take notes, I highly encourage you to adopt these things into your routine, they are impactful.
Final Thoughts #
The combination of reading books and systematic note-taking has created a powerful synergy in my life. Reading provides the input - new ideas, perspectives, and knowledge - while note-taking helps process and implement these insights. Together, they’ve helped me reduce screen time, improve follow-through on my ideas, and create a more intentional approach to both work and personal projects. What started as simple habit changes has evolved into a transformative productivity system that continues to serve me well.