Once you’ve captured your thoughts, you’ll need to organize them — because ideas only matter if you can find them when they matter most.
“A good idea is of no use to you unless you can find it.”
— George Carlin
That’s why I think of organizing in two ways:
- Immediate usage — making sense of scattered thoughts so they become useful now.
- Later usage — archiving them so they’ll be ready when you need them later.
Both are about turning raw fragments into something practical. Something findable. Something ready.
For now
Organizing for immediate usage is about turning scattered thoughts into something usable right now.
It’s brain dumping ideas onto a page, cards, or digital canvas — then rearranging, connecting, and shaping them into a clear story. Like solving a jigsaw puzzle.
- It’s taking bullet points and forming a proposal.
- It’s taking pseudocode and turning it into a prototype.
- It’s taking keywords and building a mind map.
For example, I created this mind map to help me unpack why the phrase “It won’t fail because of me” feels meaningful.
It’s about shaping the bits into something whole, usable, and useful — today.
For later
Organizing for later use is about archiving. Putting things somewhere you can find them again when you need them.
There are countless methods for this. Books, videos, courses — they all promise some perfect system.
But my system? It’s imperfect. It’s simple. It’s sculpted. It works based on my how mind works. Ultimately, it’s designed to the two primary ways I try to find things:
"Global search" and "folders".
Global search
When I search, I rely on two things: good file names and relevant keywords inside the note. That usually makes finding what I need quick — or at least quicker.
For example, if I search for “hard problem,” I’ll get a list of notes with those words in the title. Often, the exact one I want is right there. Sometimes, it’s not — but something close is. And when I jump into that nearby note, I can usually trace my way to the right one.
That’s when folders come in. They help narrow the search, offering natural places to start when the keywords alone aren’t enough.
Fork in the kitchen
Folders, to me, are like rooms in a house.
Where do you find a fork? In the kitchen → top drawer → utensil tray → next to spoons, knives, and chopsticks. It just makes sense. The fork is there because that’s where you use it. The top drawer is easier to reach. And it’s near similar tools.
That’s how I think about folders.
They aren’t always neat categories. Sometimes they’re grouped by year. Sometimes they’re empty, waiting for notes that haven’t been written yet — like an unused room in your house, ready for future use.
But it works. When I’m looking for something, I ask:
“Where would I expect to find this?”
And that’s where I put it.
Seeing it again (and again)
Some might argue this approach is too manual. Too laborious. But I see that "manualness" as a feature, not a flaw.
It forces me to revisit my ideas. Every time I move or file something, I see it again. A second, third, or fifth impression.
Each time is a chance to refine:
- Is this idea still useful?
- Does it belong here?
- Am I organizing my space in a way that makes sense?
Just like finding the fork in the kitchen — it’s a simple test:
“Is this where I’d expect it to be?”
If yes, it stays. If no, I move it.
And through that, my ideas get sharper. My system gets better. And I make sure I can always find what I need, when I need it.