In today's fast-paced world, the challenge of staying organized and on top of tasks can feel like a never-ending battle, especially for leaders juggling multiple responsibilities. The constant influx of emails, meetings, deadlines, and to-do lists can quickly spiral into a state of chaos, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and unproductive. But what if there was a tool that could transform this chaos into a streamlined system of control?
Enter Logseq – a powerful, open-source tool designed to help you manage tasks, take detailed notes, and keep track of important information all in one place. Whether you're leading a team, managing projects, or simply trying to stay on top of your personal responsibilities, Logseq offers a solution that can revolutionize the way you work.
In this article mini-series, we’ll explore how Logseq can help you regain control, enhance your productivity, and bring order to the chaos of your professional and personal life. Discover practical tips and strategies for using Logseq to its fullest potential, and learn how you can start transforming your workflow today.
What sets Logseq apart from the myriad of other note-taking, to-do tracking, and project organizing tools? The answer lies in its unique ability to link and reference topics effortlessly. Imagine not having to meticulously organize everything from the start. With Logseq, you can dive straight into writing, capturing your thoughts and tasks without the pressure of immediate structure.
This flexibility is a game-changer. As your collection of notes grows, patterns and connections naturally emerge. Logseq's powerful linking system allows you to tie related pieces of information together seamlessly. Instead of spending hours, or even days, reorganizing data, you simply add a reference to your main topic. Instantly, your notes are interconnected, creating a cohesive web of information that’s easy to navigate. This dynamic, free-form approach transforms how you manage your projects and tasks, saving you time and reducing stress.
A good example from my personal experience as an emerging leader and manager demonstrates Logseq's transformative power. Early on, I was tasked with training a new team of five Technical Consultants on our product and industry, which involved numerous training sessions and discussions. Simultaneously, I was closing out problem projects to free up our Application Consultant team for new customer implementations. The whirlwind of meetings, one-on-ones with new team members, managing tasks from problematic clients, and collaborating on internal initiatives left little room for structured note-taking and task tracking. Logseq became my lifeline.
I utilized the "Journal" feature of Logseq to chronicle my notes by date, which instantly organized my thoughts and tasks. To add even more clarity, I noted the time at the start of each meeting. This allowed me to effortlessly cross-reference my calendar and pinpoint which meeting the notes corresponded to. This system enabled me to quickly review key takeaways and main points, keeping me on top of my responsibilities without the burden of additional organizational tasks. Logseq turned chaos into a manageable and efficient workflow, allowing me to focus on what truly mattered.
So how can you adopt this amazing tool and note-taking process? It starts quite simply—by jotting down ideas, notes, and tasks into Logseq. From there, it evolves. As you become more familiar with the tool’s capabilities, your approach to note-taking will naturally shift. You'll begin to unlock the potential of its referencing functionality and discover the wealth of plugins available that elevate Logseq's functionality to new heights.
Now, I've really built up this tool, so how can I demonstrate its powerful features? By sharing how I started using Logseq and why it remains indispensable to me today. Let's dive into the practical steps and real-world applications that make Logseq an essential tool for managing tasks, notes, and projects effectively.
Once you have the application installed on your preferred operating system (I'll skip the installation details as there are plenty of online guides to assist with that), the next step is to decide where to save your files locally. With that done, you’ll be greeted by the out-of-the-box, vanilla Logseq interface. It should open on the Journal page, which is exactly where we want to begin. This is the heart of your daily entries and the perfect starting point as I guide you through how I initially began using Logseq and how my usage has evolved over time.
“You’re never going to write the perfect sentence—but just get something on the page. Start writing.” - Raymond E. Feist
The great thing about the approach I’m going to present for taking notes and becoming organized is that you don’t need to fear the blank page or worry about where to start. Simply begin writing based on your first meeting, first thought, or first task.
Let’s say we have a meeting with “Client 1” coming up. We would start by creating a “Block” for “Client 1.” I’ll delve into blocks in more detail later, along with their benefits compared to the traditional pages method you might find in tools like OneNote. After entering “Client 1,” hit enter, and press TAB. You’ll see how this simple action transforms your notes into an organized structure. Here’s what it looks like in Logseq:
“Organization is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.” – Unknown
This method allows you to effortlessly nest related notes and tasks under a main topic, creating a clear and intuitive hierarchy. Each block can be expanded or collapsed, keeping your workspace tidy and focused. This flexibility is one of Logseq's standout features, making it an invaluable tool for anyone looking to streamline their workflow and enhance productivity.
Let’s add some notes to this client meeting. Here’s an example of what that might look like:
Now for the magic—highlight the “Client 1” text and then click [[ to enclose it in double brackets. This may seem like a small step, but this is where Logseq truly starts to shine.
Hitting enter or clicking on the popup “New page: Client 1” will create a new page. Now, “Client 1” appears in a slightly different color, and when you hover over it, the entire word gets highlighted. Click on “Client 1.”
Huh…interesting how the “Client 1” page looks. At the bottom of the page, we have this "1 Linked Reference" section, which we can interact with, displaying the notes we made earlier and even showing the date at the top of the note. It’s pretty cool and easy to transform the main block into a page, with all the indented blocks neatly appearing on the new page.
We can easily return to the journal page by clicking on “Journal” in the left menu or pressing the g then j keys. Just make sure to press "esc" first to remove the cursor, so the keys control the application instead of typing text into the block.
Now that we’re back on the “Journal” page, let’s add another main point for a different meeting and jot down some notes. Try further indenting the notes to create sub-notes, such as main points from the meeting or topics you wanted to cover and the sub-items from each discussion point. Once again, create a new page for this meeting using the [[ steps as before. You can start to see how powerful Logseq can be. If you want to take it even further, add #Meeting to the end of each top-level block with your notes. Using a “tag” is another way to create a page, as in Logseq, tags and pages are interchangeable.
We saw what happened when we clicked on “Client 1.” Now, click on “#Meeting” and observe how you can further structure your data. This approach allows you to see notes related to multiple items based on how you organize the top-level blocks. These tags can also be applied to lower-level blocks, demonstrating how Logseq seamlessly links notes and topics together.
Now you can see both meetings showing in the “Linked References” section. This might seem trivial at first—why would you want to categorize or have all meeting notes together? But imagine dealing with multiple clients and documenting requested changes or, even worse, application bugs. If you had the foresight to use a tag to track these items, clicking the tag now would show you every instance where it was mentioned.
Taking it even further, this isn’t just useful for tracking bugs. You could use tags to note areas where your direct reports have requested more training, or to organize notes from a networking event, helping you identify connections between the people you met.
“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.” – Stephen R. Covey
In the next article, I will delve into tasks and how we can use them, as well as introduce plugins. What we’ve covered here is just the tip of the iceberg. This introduction gets you started with a new application that will change the way you think about taking notes and linking topics and “blocks” together into a growing mesh of information.
Thanks for reading this article! Let me know any questions you have so I can address them in future articles. Let’s grow together!