A case for productive note taking

You probably know this feeling when something inspiring, interesting, or generally exceptional pops into your head. I have the instant urge to jot it down to make sure it won't go away. And that's exactly what I usually do.

Despite having Notion, Evernote, and many other note apps, I always end up with an uncategorized list of random, out of context sentences in the apple notes app. That makes it difficult to get back and review them later on, not to mention reflecting on particular ideas.

The reason why I have such a mess in my notes is quite simple: Launching a more sophisticated app like Evernote, taking a note, picking the right notebook, tag, or category is friction.

I wonder whether you have this problem too?

I'd like to stop for a moment and make one thing clear - I'm not thinking of another TODO app.

There are various flavors of TODOs. There is a difference between "Buy milk" and "Establish healthy sleep habits". The first is simply a task with a clear definition of completion.
Finding a way to be healthier is rather a long term goal, which should be tackled methodically from various angles.

I think you now know where I'm going.

There is a whole class of notes that are basically ideas you should reflect on over some time. These Ideas convey a lingering value and have the power of habit-forming, changing your mentality, and eventually shaping who you are.

I might have an idea of how to make taking quick, yet essential notes frictionless. But before I even validate the idea, I'd like to ask for your help.

I'd love to learn what kind of quick yet essential notes you are taking. Are some of them fall into one of the categories below? What are the missing categories, in your opinion?

Here are a few categories I identified when going through the notes I took in the last few months:

Quote
EXAMPLE:
"Wealth creation is an evolutionarily recent positive-sum game. Status is an old zero-sum game. Those attacking wealth creation are often just seeking status." Naval Ravikant

Reflection / Thought
EXAMPLE:
"The key to success is doing hard things and explaining them in simple words, never the opposite."

Business Idea / Problem definition
EXAMPLE:
"A podcast app that allows for easy quote taking by tapping on airpods."

Goal
EXAMPLE:
"Reduce my SaaS product churn by 30%."

Wording
EXAMPLE:
"take a page out of (someone's) book."

I'd greatly appreciate your feedback and encourage further discussion.