[josephjrobison]

I’ve realized recently that I spend hours and hours a week reading and saving stuff to Evernote. Like I’m always in research mode. I think focused research is good for the career, but unfocused is just a distraction and waste of time. I save sooo much stuff and rarely go back to read it.

My one idea for recovering the lost/wasted time reading and saving this information is curating and publishing it online as blog posts for others to learn from. I’ve spent so much time categorizing an filtering through information out there, only to have it sitting in a private file, might as well make it public for humanity’s benefit (and my own).

[dominotw]

This is exactly my experience too. I almost never go back to my notes. Only value creating notes is actual act of creating notes, it doesn't really matter what you use for it.

[jhabdas]

You suggest your not going back to your notes. Is that because it's not convenient out because you don't have a good indexing system in place?

[dynamic99]

This is exactly the problem that I seem to have. I'm looking for a way to turn that unfocused research into something productive, and it's a tough problem to solve.

[ivanmaeder]

Me too, especially with books. I kept getting the feeling it was a waste to read all this great stuff and not use it. Even when I took notes, I never went back to them.

So I started doing this:

- Create 1 file per book (I keep it all in Google Drive)

- The problem is my notes are huge, so at the top of the file I include a TL;DR

- Include in the TL;DR a list of actions: things I can put to use straight away. I copy stuff onto a personal Trello too, so I don't forget

- Also when I'm working on something relevant I can go back to the TL;DR (instead of searching through all the notes)

On top of this, I try to read books that are relevant to what I'm currently working on. I have a huge backlog of books I'd like to read on all sorts of things, but I'll hold back if I think it'll make more sense to read them later on.

[robertAngst]

What exactly are you researching and saving?

I feel like I read, remember what I need to google later, and I'm onto more.

Tbh, I pick topics and have goals in mind, even hobbyist goals are more fun than surfing the web.