Outline Notes

Outline Notes are my implementation of Maps of Content notes.

Part of § My note taking system.

Concepts for Outline Notes

• An Outline Note will generally always be a list of other notes
• I start Outline Notes with the § symbol.
• Notes can appear in multiple Outline Notes
• If a note is important, it will eventually be listed in some sort of Outline Note, or be linked from other Topic Notes
• Outline Notes become the centralized notes in my decentralized system of notes. See Maps of Content.
• § Notes Index is my Outline Note of Outline Notes. The top-level note, the most central node of my system.
• Outline notes are stored with Topic Notes, they have no separate tag. The only thing that designates a note as an Outline Note is that it starts with §. This allows fluidity between states of a note.

Other ideas around Outline Notes

• Outline Notes are the basis of articles and longer form content

Inspiration

This is inspired by Andy Matuschak who uses the § symbol at the beginning of any MOC type note, and calls them “outlines”. Some really good insights from him in these notes:

• Executable strategy for writing
• Create speculative outlines while you write
• Taxonomy of note types

Within the Zettelkasten approach, Outline Notes provide the key “entry points” into the overall system of notes.