How to Name Your Evergreen Notes?

Maggie Appleton

Imperative & Declarative Titles: Make titles that are statements, clear instructions, commands, orders, or directions.¹

• Use full sentences or phrases instead of single words. This forces you to be more precise and clarifies the note’s intent.

• Be flexible and adapt titles as your understanding of the concept evolves.

Andy Matuschak

I use nouns and noun phrases in note titles only to define core terms (which other notes generally orbit around).²

Andy Matuschak

I often begin by writing a note without knowing what the title will be. The title often emerges from the text as it’s written. When a note suggests a strong title with a clear claim, that’s a good sign that it’s starting to make sense.²

Andy Matuschak

Declarative or imperative phrases making a strong claim. This puts pressure on me to adequately support the claim in the body. If I write a note but struggle to summarize it in a sharp title, that’s often a sign that my thinking is muddy or that this note is about several topics… In both cases, the solution is to break the ideas down and write about the bits I understand best first.²

Andy Matuschak

Questions also make good note titles because that position creates pressure to make the question get to the core of the matter. Some questions really are evergreen (To what extent is exceptional ability heritable?); others are more ephemeral creative prompts (How might the mnemonic medium enable readers in genres outside platform knowledge?). The goal with the latter type of note is to eventually drop the question mark, refactoring it into declarative/imperative notes.²

The goal is to create titles that act as effective “APIs” for your knowledge network. They should be clear, concise, and accurately reflect the note’s content to facilitate easy retrieval and connection with other ideas.

References