What is your most important tool?

Your editor? Your CAD tool? Your 2GHz oscilloscope? Your phone? Your computer?

In the information age, we are flooded with information and opportunities.

Many of the problems we solve are ones we've never seen before, or at least not very often.

Most of us have more to do than we can ever hope to get done in multiple lifetimes.

We are exposed to way more knowledge than we can ever fit in our finite memories. Therefore, a tool to efficiently capture, organize, and find your personal knowledge may be your most important tool.

If we figure out something, we can make a note so we don't have to figure it out again the next time.

If we repeatedly do something that requires multiple steps, a checklist can make this easier.

If we learn something valuable, a note makes this useful in the future.

Creating notes encourages reflection.

With a good notes system, we can organize and prioritize what we do.

Over time this helps build a picture or model of what we know and have experienced. This model helps us leverage what we have done in the past in the future.

There are many good notetaking tools and methods (Notion, Workflowy, Logseq, Bullet Journal, etc.) so there is very likely one that will fit you. Some things I look for:

• low friction to use
• stores text and images
• can be used on multiple mobile and desktop platforms
• can export the information so that it can be moved to another system if necessary
• has a stable history and likely future -- something you can use for 5-10+ years
• easy to share information with others
• and most importantly -- you own the information and can take it with you. IE, don't store your personal knowledge base in your employer's MS Teams OneNote app.

Workflowy has been perfect for me, but there are lots of other good options.

Over time your personal notetaking tool becomes a valuable knowledge base that you can take with you anywhere you go -- part of YOUR Personal Platform.