My ADHD Note-taking Journey

I can't retain a thought for more than 5 minutes. I always hop into different tasks before finishing them. At the same time, I always want to understand "why" but never get the chance to piece things together thanks to my scattered thoughts. As a divergent thinkerdivergent thinkerDivergent thinking means tending to develop thinking in different directions, usually at once. Some people might refer to it as out-of-the-box, nonlinear, or creative thinking. Source: Your Brain's Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD by Tamara Rosier, I wanted something to help piece together my random thoughts and make sense of this madness I call my brain.

I've tried traditional organizational techniques with folders and tags and never could figure out a good system. It would start off great, but over time, I would create more folders/tags until it became unmanageable. It took far too long to organize a note and I would have a hard time finding notes as well.

Then, I came across Roam Research, a connected note-taking application that revolutionized note-taking for me. It was amazing! I took notes, connected them, reused them, and most importantly they resurfaced themselves when I needed them. But eventually, I moved to Obsidian due to performance issues in Roam Research. I even made a video on how to transfer notes from Roam Research to Obsidian!

After some time, I graduated from college and most of my learning stopped coming from structured courses. Instead, I'd learn things on the go. Perhaps while I was leisurely browsing the web on the toilet or out on a stroll in the park.

I'd come across cool things I wanted to write down but I had nowhere to put them. I tried Obsidian, but slow loading times and the cluttered user interface added too much friction to my workflow. Then I tried Google Keep but I came straight back to my first problem where folders and tags became overwhelming. I needed a system that brought together the speed of Google Keep and the connections within ObsidianImagine Google Keep with Bi-directional Sync to ObsidianTaking quick notes Obsidian isn't great for quick notes. There's additional friction in taking quick notes especially on the mobile app. But, the plugin architecture and backlink support make Obsidian a powerful note-taking tool that's customizable to one's needs. On the other hand, Google Keep is a great note-taking application for jotting quick notes. However, it lacks backlink support and is not nearly as customizable as Obsidian. Each serve it's own purpose, but there's a great opportunit.

This is how I came to create Fleeting Notes a note-taking application that combines the speed of Google Keep with the connections within Obsidian. It's still a work in progress, but I hope to listen to customer feedback and continue to develop the application to eventually become a one-stop shop to quickly capture and connect notes with the option to extend to other note-taking toolsOur vision for Fleeting NotesWe haven't spoken with many people about my plan with Fleeting Notes but the ultimate goal is to make connected note-taking widespread. Well, what do we mean by that? For something to be widespread, it needs to be simple and easy to adopt. Right now it's not simple and easy to adopt any connected note-taking system. Youtube is littered with these complicated workflows that overcomplicate building connections. Our idea of a simple workflow is to write insightful ideas and build atomic notes to .

Anyways, if you want to continue to follow my journey, I'd encourage you to join my discord channel!