Kourosh Dini - Taking Smart Notes with DEVONthink

Consider a future device ... in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.

It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

- Vannevar Bush, 1945

There are any number of reasons you might be here. Maybe you need to organize your digital stuff. Maybe you have lots of ideas and want a way to bring them together. Maybe you bought DEVONthink and now want to figure out how to use it.

However youve arrived, welcome to Taking Smart Notes with DEVONthink. This guide has two goals. To help you:

1. Learn many of the ins and outs of DEVONthink.

1. Develop a powerful set of personal notes.

What separates this text from a manual is precisely this dual path well take to explore the program. In order to fully learn something well, it needs to be used. Rather than just point out function after function, well look at how those functions work in an evolving example scenario. Meanwhile, youll also create and build your own powerful set of notes along the way.

Lets start with the first goal. What is DEVONthink?

DEVONthink is a program that helps you manage your data. Unfortunately, that sentence doesnt say much. You might ask, isnt a computer about data management already? Well, yes. And, some of you may already know that some of DEVONthinks functions overlap with many of the Macs native apps like Finder and Preview. So what, then, would be the point of DEVONthink?

Beyond having several unique abilities, DEVONthink shines in the sum of its parts. Hopefully, as you make your way through this text, youll hit that threshold where it all comes together. Instead of wondering where you put that one idea, youll know exactly how to find it. Instead of wondering where to put yet another idea, youll have a smooth way to connect it to where it matters. And, instead of wondering how youll ever put that next presentation together, youll have a way to quickly create a solid outline and even a good amount of content within moments.

While Ive been using DEVONthink for years now, its only been recently that I had my own aha moment, where suddenly I could see its greater potential. DEVONthinks parallels to other programs can make it unclear, at least on first approach, to find where its advantages are. But you do not need years of study to make it useful. You just need to know where to look. And thats what these pages are about.

DEVONthink is definitely a program that gives back what you put in. The more you engage it, the more you might find yourself amazed by the ideas youve gathered and the inspiration in finding new ones. The longer you work within it, the richer the connections can become.

While creating a set of notes may sound like all kinds of boring, it can actually be exciting and even empowering. In fact, this books second aim is probably better described as helping you to find an ease with your knowledge. At the very least, that means having a way to readily store and present meaningful ideas quickly, whether for yourself or for any audience you desire.

Meanwhile, though I discuss using DEVONthink for notes and references, there are many other possible uses. Its simply impossible to write a comprehensive text to describe everything you can do with it, much like it would be to show all the ways you could use a computer. Therefore, though we will examine many of DEVONthinks parts in detail, we will not do so exhaustively. Some aspects will only be scenery, pointed out as potential trails for the reader to follow and explore.

You may have little interest in managing your own notes or ideas. In fact, I imagine that many who read this will not want to use DEVONthink in the ways I describe. Thats fine.

Still, I encourage you to go through the examples presented here as exercises, developing your own database of notes along the way. Further, I would encourage you to visit your notes daily, at least while youre learning. You dont have to do anything with them when you visit. Just open the database, maybe read something, and add or edit an idea if it calls to you. As with any learning habit, its power begins and grows by doing a little bit every day.

Meanwhile, engaging with your notes daily will also help you to familiarize yourself with DEVONthink at a much deeper level, such that you can better adapt it to your own unique wants and needs. Youll learn how to sow and seed data, information, and ideas in the ways that best suit you.

Please note, there are other excellent DEVONthink resources to consider such as DEVONthinks own manual , Joe Kissells Take Control of DEVONthink 3 , and the DEVONthink discourse forums .

So what about the second goal? Why take notes?

If youre anything like me, the idea of taking notes may fill you with both boredom and dread. At least it used to for me. I had a difficult time with note-taking ever since my middle school years until only recently. And I still have much to learn.

During school, I remember several occasions where Id struggle to stay awake, writing down phrases flying in from some foggy source at the front of the classroom. I would just hope Id understand them later. Sometimes, I did. But Id also have to turn to textbooks to figure things out. And if the textbooks were poorly written, I was then up the proverbial creek of defecation.

For those classes I did enjoy, Id at least understand what was being said before I wrote the ideas down. Unfortunately, I now have no idea what happened to those notebooks. And even if I found them, Im not sure Id be able to make heads or tails of what Id written.

In some ways, that struggle has been a good thing. Instead of depending on the written word, I learned to search for some simple central understanding of every thing I came across, rendering them into ideas that hopefully rang true. I could then play with these basic building blocks and weave them into my own way of thinking. Its a great method for gaining a good understanding and developing a foundation of intuition.

But there are drawbacks. Much like everyone else, I forget things. And sometimes I wouldnt fully understand what Id written. Or I wouldnt know where to find what Id written. Worse, I wouldnt even remember there was something that could be useful for what I might doing now. And then, even if I did remember, Id have a hard time knowing what ideas came from where.

Furthermore, when I get particularly good at something, I often lose the words to describe the skills Ive learned or where Id learned them. Holding on to the map would be useful for sharing knowledge with others.

Lastly, Id have interesting ideas connecting principles between different fields, like music and psychoanalysis. Unfortunately, I didnt really have a way to do anything with those connections other than write them down and then forget where Id put the notes!

Several years ago, a friend of mine put together an app called Crusoe. Using Evernote, an iPad, and his app, he would take notes on whatever he was reading at the time. And he reads a lot. Hed then link his notes together. Links would be bidirectional. In other words, if he connected Note A to Notes B and C, he could always return to Note A from Notes B or C. In time, he built his notes into a wonderful network of ideas. He didnt have to remember the connections he made. He made them, and they were then at his disposal.