Designing the Structure of My Digital Garden
In building my digital garden, I’ve realized the importance of a solid structure to keep my ideas organized and accessible. Here, I’ll share how I’ve designed my note-taking framework, from folders to tags and the development stages of notes like seeds, plants, and evergreens.
Folders: Laying the Foundation
When working with digital notes, organizing and developing ideas can feel overwhelming. To address this, I’ve implemented a system that combines a flexible workflow—CONSUME, CURATE, CREATE, and META—with a growth-oriented tagging structure. Together, these approaches ensure every idea evolves from raw input to a polished output, fostering clarity and creativity.
The backbone of my digital garden is my folder structure, which provides a clear hierarchy for organizing different types of content:
- 01 CONSUME: Raw inputs and fleeting thoughts go here. It’s a capture zone for highlights, articles, or spontaneous ideas.
- 02 CURATE: In this stage, ideas are refined and connected. Notes grow into structured concepts or frameworks.
- 03 CREATE: Final outputs—blog posts, presentations, or projects—are built from curated ideas.
- META: This is a home for the vault’s templates, guides, and administrative elements. A vault is a folder or directory where all your notes are stored, essentially acting as a central repository for your information within the application.
This framework organizes the flow of information but doesn’t provide granular detail on how individual notes evolve. That’s where the tagging system comes in.
Tags: Adding Context and Flexibility
Tags act as the connective tissue across folders, helping me locate and relate notes easily. Here’s how I use them:
- Content-based tags: These include themes like
#creativity,#productivity, and#digital-literacy. - Progress tags: Notes on books, articles, videos, or podcasts are tagged with
#to-read,#reading, or#read. Written or creative pieces (blog posts, research articles, presentations, class lectures) are tagged with#draft,#created, or#published. - Development stage tags:
- 🌱
_seedfor initial ideas. - 🌿
_plantfor developing concepts. - 🌲
_evergreenfor fully developed, polished notes.
- 🌱
Focusing on these dynamic processes ensures that my digital garden is a living, evolving space for exploration and growth rather than a static repository of finished outputs.
Seeds, Plants, and Evergreens: A Framework for Growth
In my digital garden, I prioritize process over product, valuing the journey of developing ideas more than just their final form. This philosophy is embedded in the structure of my notes, particularly through the Seed, Plant, Evergreen framework. Each stage represents a milestone in the growth of an idea, from its initial capture to a refined, interconnected insight. This approach emphasizes the iterative nature of learning and creation, encouraging me to revisit and nurture ideas over time.
I use a gardening metaphor to describe the development stages of my notes:
- Seeds: Quick ideas captured in a sentence or two, often with minimal context. These notes will live in the CONSUME folder until further processing is completed.
- Plants: Notes that have been expanded with context, connections, and insights. These typically move to the CURATE folder for further refinement.
- Evergreens: Fully developed notes that are ready to be published or referenced as reliable sources. These are stored in CREATE and often linked across my digital garden.
The Logic Behind the Hierarchy
This structure reflects the natural progression of ideas:
- Capture: Raw inputs and fleeting thoughts go to CONSUME.
- Process: Ideas are developed and connected in CURATE.
- Publish: Final outputs are stored in CREATE.
- Maintain: Templates and meta-notes live in META to support ongoing workflows.
I’ve created a flexible system that grows with me by combining folders, tags, and development stages. Each note, whether it’s a seed or an evergreen, has a clear place in the ecosystem, making it easier to locate and build upon.
A Glimpse Ahead
This system isn’t static. As my needs evolve, so will my digital garden. I’m continuously experimenting with optimizing my workflow, and I’d love to hear how others structure their knowledge management systems. Feel free to share your thoughts or questions!
Cover photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.