My Super Simple Capture Process

Most blog posts about personal knowledge management start with something like “in the age of the internet with so much inspiration and information at our fingertips, we need a system to manage this”. I wholeheartedly agree.

A key component to this system though has to be your capturing process. How do you save a piece of information you have found for later processing?

It’s something I neglected for a long time. My default was screenshots that I never reviewed, so after spending 3 days (!) during Covid lockdown clearing them, I developed a super simple system that has been very easy to maintain ever since:

• capture words in Apple Notes

• capture links in Raindrop

These are the funnels for everything. For me, the simplicity of this has been key to maintaining it.

Here’s a closer look at the simple system:

Apple Notes

Any original thought, question or lead to follow gets written down in Apple Notes. It’s a wonderfully simple app, available on all my devices. I take as many quick notes as I need with Apple notes, and try to review them roughly once a week.

I pin ones I want to see regularly, such as my list of funny quotes my friends say that I want quick access to. Otherwise, I take the quick note, process it when I’m ready, and then delete.

Raindrop

I am a curious person. I am interested in a lot, but don’t always want to process something at the point of capture. My curiosities need to be put on hold until I was ready to view and interact with things fully.

Raindrop was the answer.

My Raindrop has become the funnel for everything I want to look at properly later. Like Apple Notes, Raindrop is available on all Apple devices. The best bit is how easy it is to share on mobile, as that’s how I save 99% of links.

I save all these links into the automatic “unsorted” folder. In my mind, if I sort the links into folders at the point of capture, and then process it in line with my other routines, I’m unnecessarily doubling work. The point of Raindrop is to say “here is something to process”, rather than “here is a recipe to process”, or “here is a tweet to reread”. Those categorisations are very obvious to me when processing, so I can just sort it out then.

Maintaining the system: Inbox zero

The importance of this capture process is that I aim for ‘inbox zero’ on both the main Apple Notes and the unsorted folder. I need to move what I’ve saved along the processing pipeline, or I need to archive it. This is true for 95% of what I write.

The other 5% is made of up Apple Notes that are pinned for quick access and two folders in Raindrop that I haven’t got a place for in my system yet: business advice and my watch list. One day I’ll get to them, but the key is I always know where unprocessed information or inspiration lives. Words in Apple Notes, links in Raindrop.

Processing what I’ve captured

For me the processing pipeline is different depending on what I’ve saved.

Some examples:

Recipes → Notion food database

Clothes I want to buy to build outfits → Notion outfit tracker

Tweets relating to a topic I’m interested in → Capacities

House inspiration → Capacities

Academic articles → Zotero

Other articles → Reader then synced to Logseq.

Every app I’ve mentioned has a way to directly capture content. So why don’t I go straight to them?

Firstly, habit. My PKM system has developed significantly since October 2022 but the Raindrop workflow existed long before it. What’s changed is the efficiency of how I process information. But working out this process took time, it was messy and there were a couple of instances where I lost something I knew I had saved, because I couldn’t remember where I saved it.

Secondly, it’s the utility of the archive folder I move all links to. This means I can use the excellent Raindrop search to find something I once saved, if I haven’t processed the information in an immediately memorable way. This has saved me when I thought I’d lost something. Plus, every instance of searching the archive acts as a reminder to rethink the part of my system that let me down. It’s a great way of constantly improving the system.

Finally, and best of all for my chaotic brain, when I say “where did I write that idea down”? The answer is only ever Apple Notes. If the question is “where did I save the link for the shoes I want?” the answer is always Raindrop. The simplicity is reliable and functional, and that makes processing information really enjoyable :)

Have you used Raindrop or another bookmark manager? Let me know!