Not all notes are made equal.

Some notes grow in value and relevance over time. Other notes lose their value even on a single day.

Some notes represent other people's thoughts exactly as they communicate them. Other notes describe our own thoughts as we are still making sense of them.

Some notes we write as notes to others. Other notes we write as notes to self.

Yet, we often just call them "notes" and treat them all in the same way.

My proposal? Treat them differently.

Although folders have developed a bad reputation (for a good reason) when separating knowledge notes based on topics or projects, folders can still be leveraged to separate notes with opposing characteristics.

I like to have folders that separate input, knowledge, and output notes.

Input notes. Input notes stand for our sources and observations, or describe an experience we want to think more about. They represent the research literature, a meeting note, a journalling session, etc. They are representations of external things or unprocessed experiences and serve as input to our insights and knowledge.

Knowledge notes. Knowledge notes are those that represent our knowledge, insights and understanding. They allow us to have an overview of our (explicit) knowledge at a glance. The larger and robust they grow, the larger and robust our knowledge is becoming.

Output notes. Output notes are notes to others. Essays, papers, presentations. They are publications created to communicate with an audience. Although they may represent our thoughts, they are written taking the audience in mind. Also, after published, they become static and hard to change.

Because not all my notes are made equal, these are some of my folders.

Want to share a piece that communicated an idea? Check the output folder.

Want to see what knowledge is available on topic X? Check the knowledge folder.

Perhaps want to find where the idea Z came from, or in which meeting it was discussed? Check the input folder.

These are my folders, what are yours?