In this guide, I’ve shared three simple yet powerful note-taking techniques I learned from Nick Milo: Freelining, Freetalking, and Freewriting. These methods have helped me brain-dump thoughts quickly with less friction, making it easier to think clearly and capture ideas in real time. Whether I’m typing in Obsidian or jotting things on paper, these techniques let me get my thoughts out without judgment, structure, or overthinking—and that’s the whole point.
Introduction
- Note taking starts with dumping your first ideas on paper.
- The first spark of thought should be dumped on paper as soon as the thought resonates you.
- There should be as less friction as possible while writing down your thoughts.
- It could be paper, or any digital application as I am using [[3. Resources/Obsidian]].
- Never forget to mention dates.
- The credit for these techniques goes to Nick Milo, a YouTuber who teaches about linking your thoughts, productivity, note taking and more. This YouTube video taught me these techniques.
- These are the 3 techniques:
Freelining
- It basically says that, write down your thoughts without any formatting, without worrying about being judged by yourself for the way of noting. Instead, just noting what comes to mind.
- Freeline in bullet points.
- Every new thought should be in a new bullet.
- Few prompts for Freelining:
- That is interesting because…
- That is important because…
- That resonates me because…
- That reminds me of…
Freetalking
- This states that we note down our thoughts just as we talk to somebody or ourselves as we are talking to the device.
- Freetalk in blocks
- Just start your dictation mode and start telling about your thoughts or view on the topic you are noting. It’s as simple as that.
- Remember not to flow for minutes without breaking down the points in chunks.
- Keep pressing return/enter key while speaking, so that you don’t end up with a junk of thoughts.
- Breaking into chunks will help you analysing your points. However, every chunk should have it’s own related meaning. Then only you should break your thought.
Freewriting
- It is basically writing your thoughts without any censoring, pausing or formatting.
- Just flow and write whatever comes to your mind.
- There are few rules for freewriting:
- Don’t edit
- Don’t stop
- Don’t censor or filter
- Keep writing