Memory structuring

The problem of memory and memory structuring is very relevant among IT professionals, which confirms many articles on Habrahabr devoted to this topic. As an example: "Our memory is everything . " This article describes in sufficient detail the form of structuring memory in the form of records in notebooks.

1.Notepads

The heading provides a link to the article, which describes in great detail how to use notebooks to memorize. Therefore, I will not describe this process in detail. I will dwell only on the pros and cons of notebooks.

Pros:

• Traditional input;
• Always at hand;
• Visibility;
• Speed ​​of use.

Minuses:

• Difficulty searching with a large volume of records;
• The likelihood of damage.

All the pros are clear enough, so I’ll explain only the cons.

I write about 3-4 notebooks per month. Notepads are different, they usually exist in parallel by 2, end at different times, and therefore the degree of synchronization is very low. Actually, at the moment of conducting, no problems arise, but when it is necessary to find something in the last month, then the problems begin ...

On the second point. Several times he dropped his notebook into a puddle when he tried to record on the street. Here even the question of attitude arises. Notepad is just a stack of paper, so you often neglect security.

2. Portable devices.

In this section, we will consider the storage options of devices such as smartphones and PDAs.

I will tell you from personal experience who has another experience, please unsubscribe in the comments. Having read an article on a hub (I could not find it by habraisk) about the usability of electronic memos I decided to try. How the platform used Nokia E63. This smartphone has a fairly convenient Active Notes system built in and there is a QWERTY keyboard, which greatly simplifies typing.

In Active Notes, there is the ability to create folders and the ability to sort records by date and name, which greatly simplifies the search. However, the question remains of the lack of search. Since when accumulating a large volume of records, searching for them remains a problem.

The issue of recording drawings in the notes was also acute, and indeed input speed is often not enough. In order to make a note you have to enter it in its entirety, such an action is equivalent to a simple stroke in a notebook. Since recordings need to be done quickly enough, after some time of use, a large number of unsuccessful notes are obtained anywhere. Which are difficult to catalog

using Active Notes.

Pros:

• High level of record synchronization;
• Always at hand;
• Cataloging capabilities;
• Small size.

Minuses:

• Difficulty searching with a large volume of records;
• Reduced input speed compared to notebooks;
• The problem of sketching pictures.

3.Online notebooks

Having learned from the Habr about the Evernote service, I decided to try to use it, but it didn’t take root with me. Again, you don’t always have a computer at hand, and the price of mobile traffic is poor. But I liked the concept of the repository of interesting links.

I have Google Chrome installed at home with the Google Task extension. It is in the Google Task that I throw off a variety of interesting links, both those that I looked through and those that I could not view due to lack of time. This provides a high level of synchronization and is much more convenient than just sending links to your mail. In the stream of letters it is often difficult to find the link you need later, but here you click on the extension and all the links in the palm of your hand. Of course, such use of Google Task is not quite for its intended purpose and is relevant for those who do not use this google service for its intended purpose.

In this section I will not endure a block with pluses and minuses, because I have used little online notebook. And the main advantages and application of Google Task are described above.

4. Symbiosis

By trial and error, I found that I can not abandon the traditional notebooks. I hope that I am not the only one so conservative. Then I found a way to combine the usual input method, convenient search and cataloging.

While surfing the Internet, I came across a description of Microsoft Office: OneNote (from the tutorial link). I have seen OneNote several times before. I went simply out of interest, what is in Microsoft Office and what I do not use.

Inspired by the review, OneNote decided to start using it. Next, I’ll talk about my new recording system and experience using OneNote.

How OneNote + Notepad Works

I still use several notebooks every day for writing, I also make sketches and short notes. All the difference from the first option is that at the end of the day I put everything in OneNote, and directly work in OneNote at home. This is how the Mind Map of this article on the OneNote link looks for example .

With OneNote, I was able to catalyze my records, provide them with a fairly high level of synchronization, and make it easier to search through old records. Yes for ve convenience you have to pay. Here the board goes by the time it takes to transfer information from a notebook to OneNote. The bottom line from this symbiosis I received:

Pros:

• High level of record synchronization;
• Always at hand;
• Cataloging capabilities;
• Convenience of search.

Minuses:

• Time to transfer records;
• I did not find an automatic way to synchronize a book without copying files;

It is worth noting that OneNote is included in the Office Live project . It is quite possible that soon access to the functionality of this application will be available through a “thin” client, which will completely solve the synchronization problems.

I hope this article helps someone fix and not lose their interesting ideas and ideas.

PS: The title was probably not chosen very well, since the conversation was about structuring ideas presented in one form or another. An almost familiar mechanism works here, we have an internal memory and an external one (I was talking about it), if searching for the first is a long training task, then searching for the second is solved with the correct selection of tools.

Thanks for attention.