Best Practices

Proven strategies for getting the most out of Flint's note-taking and AI capabilities.

Philosophy

Start Simple, Evolve Gradually

Don't over-organize upfront:

• Begin with basic notes
• Let structure emerge naturally
• Add complexity only when needed

Notes Are for Thinking, Not Storage

Active vs passive:

• Good: Notes that help you think
• Good: Notes that connect ideas
• Bad: Copy-paste dumps
• Bad: Information you'll never revisit

Questions to ask:

• "Will I actually use this?"
• "Does this help me think?"
• "Am I adding value or just copying?"

Let the AI Assist, Not Replace

AI is a tool, not a replacement:

• Use AI to help organize, not dictate structure
• Have AI suggest, you decide
• Maintain your voice and thinking
• Don't outsource judgment

Good AI usage:

You: Help me organize these meeting notes

AI: I notice three main themes:
    1. Product decisions
    2. Team updates
    3. Action items

    Should I create sections for these?

You: Yes, but add "Blockers" as well

AI: [Organizes with your structure]

Note Organization

The Three-Layer System

Layer 1: Capture

• Daily notes for immediate capture
• Inbox for quick thoughts
• No organization needed
• Focus on getting ideas down

Layer 2: Process

• Review daily notes weekly
• Extract important ideas
• Create permanent notes
• Link related concepts

Layer 3: Structure

• Hub notes for major topics
• Index notes for projects
• MOCs (Maps of Content)
• Curated collections

Don't skip layers:

• Capture first, organize later
• Process regularly (weekly)
• Structure emerges from processing

Note Types Strategy

Use types to indicate intent:

Notes - Default for most notes

Use when: Not sure what type yet
Examples: Quick thoughts, meeting notes, ideas

Permanent - Refined knowledge

Use when: Extracted from daily notes, polished
Examples: Concepts, principles, insights

Literature - From external sources

Use when: Reading books, articles, papers
Examples: Book notes, article summaries

Project - Active work

Use when: Coordinating a project
Examples: Project plans, status, resources

Wikilink Guidelines

Link liberally:

• Don't overthink linking
• Link when you mention a concept
• Create notes for future ideas

Good linking:

Discussed [[API Design Principles]] with the team.
Need to update [[System Architecture]] based on
the new [[Authentication Flow]].

Create hub notes:

# Project Alpha

## Overview

[[Project Alpha Overview]]

## Technical

- [[Architecture Decisions]]
- [[Database Schema]]
- [[API Endpoints]]

## Management

- [[Timeline]]
- [[Team Assignments]]
- [[Risk Register]]

Bi-directional thinking:

• Every link creates a backlink
• Backlinks show unexpected connections
• Discover emergent patterns

Daily Note Practices

Morning Routine

Start your day with intention:

## Morning

### Today's Focus

- Main priority: [[Feature X]] implementation
- Secondary: Review [[Pull Requests]]

### Schedule

- 9am: [[Team Standup]]
- 2pm: [[Client Meeting]]

### Energy Check

Feeling: Focused
Energy: High

5 minutes of planning saves hours of confusion.

Throughout the Day

Capture continuously:

## Afternoon

14:30 - Interesting idea from [[Sarah]]: What if we
approached [[Problem X]] using [[Pattern Y]]?
Need to explore this.

15:00 - [[Client Meeting]] notes: - Happy with progress - Wants [[Feature Z]] prioritized - Deadline: [[2024-02-15]]

Don't wait until evening - you'll forget details.

Evening Review

Close the day intentionally:

## Evening

### Accomplished

- ✅ Completed [[Feature X]] implementation
- ✅ Reviewed 3 PRs
- ✅ Client meeting went well

### Tomorrow

- Start [[Feature Z]] (client priority)
- Follow up on [[Sarah]]'s idea about [[Problem X]]

### Notes

- Realized [[Architecture Decision]] needs revisiting
- Created [[Feature Z Spec]] based on client feedback

10 minutes of review sets up tomorrow's success.

AI Collaboration

Effective Prompting

Be specific about context:

❌ Bad: "Summarize this"

✓ Good: "Summarize this meeting note focusing on
        decisions made and action items"

Specify format:

❌ Bad: "Create a project note"

✓ Good: "Create a project note with sections for:
        - Overview
        - Goals
        - Timeline
        - Resources
        - Risks"

Iterate, don't expect perfection:

You: Create a weekly review template

AI: [Creates template]

You: Good, but add a "Lessons Learned" section

AI: [Updates template]

You: Perfect, now use this for this week's review

AI as Research Assistant

Let AI gather information:

You: Find all notes where I discussed [[API Design]]

AI: Found 12 notes mentioning API Design:
    - [[Architecture Decisions]] (3 mentions)
    - [[Meeting Notes - Jan 15]] (2 mentions)
    ...

You: Summarize the common themes

AI: Common themes across your API design discussions:
    1. RESTful principles (8 notes)
    2. Versioning strategy (5 notes)
    3. Authentication (4 notes)

AI excels at synthesis.

AI as Writing Partner

Draft, then refine:

You: Help me write an email to the client about
     the timeline change

AI: [Drafts email]

You: Too formal, make it more conversational

AI: [Revises]

You: Better. Add a specific example of why we
     need more time

AI: [Adds example]

You drive, AI assists.

What NOT to Ask AI

Don't outsource thinking:

❌ "Decide which approach I should take"
✓ "Here are three approaches I'm considering,
   help me understand the tradeoffs"

Don't delegate judgment:

❌ "Is this a good idea?"
✓ "What are the potential issues with this approach?"

Don't replace expertise:

❌ "Write production code for me"
✓ "Help me sketch out the structure for this feature"

Search Strategies

Use Search Operators

Filter by type:

type:daily
type:project
type:permanent

Filter by tag:

tag:important
tag:review

Filter by date:

created:today
created:this-week
modified:this-month

Combine operators:

type:daily created:this-week
tag:important modified:today

Full-Text Search

Search for phrases:

"exact phrase"

Search for concepts:

authentication security

Search in specific notes:

• Open note
• Use Cmd/Ctrl+F for in-note search

Search Workflow

Weekly review search:

1. created:this-week → See what you created
2. modified:this-week → See what you updated
3. type:daily created:this-week → Review your week

Project search:

[[Project Name]] → All notes mentioning project
type:project → All project notes
tag:project-name → Tagged project notes

Vault Management

Single Vault vs Multiple

Most users: One vault

Advantages:
- Everything searchable
- All connections visible
- Simpler mental model
- Unified knowledge base

Use multiple vaults when:

- Work vs Personal (privacy/separation)
- Different domains (writing vs coding vs research)
- Client work (one vault per client)
- Collaboration (shared vs private)

Don't over-split:

❌ Bad: 10+ vaults for minor separations
✓ Good: 2-3 vaults for major contexts

Vault Hygiene

Regular maintenance:

Weekly:
- Review inbox notes
- Process daily notes
- Archive completed projects

Monthly:
- Check for orphaned notes
- Review pinned notes (still relevant?)
- Clean up temporary tabs
- Update hub notes

Quarterly:
- Review note types (still useful?)
- Archive old project notes
- Evaluate vault structure
- Adjust workflows

Workflows and Automation

When to Create Workflows

Create workflow when:

• You do something more than 3 times
• Process is clearly defined
• AI can execute it
• Saves significant time

Don't create workflow when:

• Process is still evolving
• Requires human judgment
• One-off or rare task
• Simpler to do manually

Workflow Design Principles

Start simple:

v1: "Create daily note with sections"
v2: "Create daily note, copy incomplete tasks"
v3: "Create daily note, copy tasks, add calendar"

Iterate based on results.

Clear instructions:

❌ Bad: "Process the weekly stuff"

✓ Good:
1. Read this week's daily notes
2. Extract all completed tasks
3. Group by project
4. Create weekly summary note
5. List accomplishments by project

Include examples:

Example output:

# Weekly Summary - 2024-W04

## Accomplishments

### Project Alpha
- Completed API integration
- Fixed 3 critical bugs
...

Workflow Scheduling

Don't over-schedule:

✓ Good:
- 1-2 daily workflows
- 1-2 weekly workflows
- 1 monthly workflow

❌ Too much:
- 5 daily workflows
- 10 weekly workflows
- Constant interruptions

Timing matters:

Good: Daily standup at 9am (start of day)
Bad: Daily standup at 11pm (might miss it)

Good: Weekly review Friday 5pm (end of week)
Bad: Weekly review Tuesday 2am (asleep)

Review System Best Practices

What to Review

Review concepts, not facts:

✓ Good: Core principles, frameworks, processes
❌ Bad: Specific data points, lookupable facts

Review what you use:

✓ Good: Skills you're actively developing
❌ Bad: Information you never apply

Review Rhythm

Consistency over marathon sessions:

✓ Good: 10 minutes daily
❌ Bad: 2 hours once a month

Time of day:

Morning: Review before meetings
Afternoon: Review during low-energy periods
Evening: Review to consolidate day's learning

Pick one, stick to it.

Review Responses

Explain, don't memorize:

❌ Bad: "REST has 6 principles: client-server,
        stateless, cacheable, layered, code-on-demand,
        uniform interface"

✓ Good: "REST principles focus on scalability and
        simplicity. The key ones I use are stateless
        (each request is independent) and uniform interface
        (consistent API design). This makes systems more
        reliable because..."

Understanding > Recall.

Data Management

Backup Strategy

3-2-1 rule:

• 3 copies of data
• 2 different media types
• 1 off-site

For Flint:

Copy 1: Vault folder (working copy)
Copy 2: Cloud backup (Dropbox/iCloud/Google Drive)
Copy 3: External drive backup (weekly)

Automate backups:

• Cloud sync: Automatic
• Time Machine (macOS): Automatic
• Manual backup: Weekly reminder

Version Control

Use Git for important vaults:

cd ~/Documents/MyVault
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"

# Daily or weekly
git add .
git commit -m "Notes from this week"

Benefits:

• Full history of changes
• Can revert mistakes
• See how thinking evolved
• Branch for experiments

For casual users: Cloud backup is enough.

Data Portability

Flint data is portable:

• Notes are markdown files
• Readable in any text editor
• Not locked to Flint
• Future-proof format

To export:

• Copy vault folder
• All notes included
• Use anywhere

Privacy and Security

API Key Security

Never share API keys:

• Treat like passwords
• Don't commit to Git
• Don't share screenshots containing keys
• Rotate periodically

Flint stores securely:

• OS keychain (macOS)
• Credential Manager (Windows)
• Secret Service (Linux)
• Never in plain text

Sensitive Information

Be cautious in notes:

• Don't store passwords in notes
• Be careful with personal information
• Consider vault encryption for sensitive data
• Remember: AI sees note content

For very sensitive information:

• Use separate encrypted vault
• Don't enable AI for that vault
• Or use different tool entirely

AI Privacy

What AI sees:

• Current conversation
• Notes you explicitly reference
• Vault context you provide

What AI doesn't see:

• Other vaults
• Notes not in conversation
• Your API keys
• System information

Data transmission:

• Sent to AI provider (OpenRouter/Claude/etc.)
• Encrypted in transit
• Subject to provider's privacy policy

Performance Optimization

Keep Vaults Manageable

Size guidelines:

Small: < 1,000 notes (excellent performance)
Medium: 1,000 - 5,000 notes (good performance)
Large: 5,000 - 10,000 notes (acceptable performance)
Very Large: > 10,000 notes (consider splitting)

Vault size doesn't usually matter until very large.

Note Size

Optimal note size:

✓ Good: 100-500 lines (easy to work with)
⚠ Okay: 500-1,000 lines (still manageable)
❌ Too large: > 2,000 lines (consider splitting)

Split large notes:

Before:
- "Everything About Project Alpha" (3,000 lines)

After:
- [[Project Alpha Overview]] (hub note, 200 lines)
- [[Project Alpha Architecture]] (500 lines)
- [[Project Alpha API]] (400 lines)
- [[Project Alpha Database]] (300 lines)

Database Maintenance

Rebuild database if:

• Search seems slow
• Notes missing from search
• After importing many notes
• Once a month as maintenance

How:

Settings → Database → Rebuild Database

Safe to do anytime - reconstructs from markdown files.

Common Pitfalls

Over-Organization

Symptom:

• Spending more time organizing than writing
• Creating elaborate systems before content
• Analysis paralysis

Solution:

• Write first, organize later
• Let structure emerge
• Start simple

Under-Linking

Symptom:

• Notes feel isolated
• No connections emerging
• Not seeing relationships

Solution:

• Link when you mention concepts
• Review backlinks regularly
• Create hub notes for topics

Inconsistent Practice

Symptom:

• Using Flint sporadically
• Forgetting to capture
• No rhythm established

Solution:

• Set daily reminder
• Start with just daily notes
• Build habit before expanding

AI Over-Reliance

Symptom:

• Asking AI for everything
• Not thinking independently
• AI becomes crutch

Solution:

• Write first draft yourself
• Use AI to refine, not create
• Develop your thinking skills

Progress Over Perfection

Remember:

• Notes don't need to be perfect
• Organization evolves over time
• Mistakes are learning opportunities
• Done is better than perfect

Your note-taking practice will improve through use, not through planning.

Next Steps

• Core Concepts - Understand Flint's philosophy
• Getting Started - Begin your practice
• Daily Notes - Start with daily journaling

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Final thought: The best note-taking system is the one you actually use. Start simple, be consistent, and let your practice evolve naturally. Flint will grow with you.