All articles
Everything on The Useful Margin, organised by topic.
Weekly Review
- How to Organize a Backlog of Notes Without Losing Context — Organize an older notes backlog by defining a small collection, recording its original locations and reviewing one bounded batch at a time.
- File Naming Conventions for Notes: A Practical Guide — A useful naming convention for notes puts a meaningful subject, a clearly defined date and any necessary version in a consistent order.
- A 30-Minute Weekly Notes Review — A useful weekly note turns the past seven days into decisions for the next seven.
Decision Records
- How to Keep a Decision Log You Will Reuse — Keep a useful decision log by recording the decision date, context, alternatives, choice, reasons, assumptions, expected result, owner, and a review date.
- How to Write a Project Closeout Note — A project closeout note should record the intended result, actual result, important variance, reusable lessons, final artifact locations and any open work…
- How to Update a Decision Log Without Losing History — Update a decision log by distinguishing a factual correction, an outcome note, and a changed decision. Date the addition and explain what changed.
- Weighted Decision Matrix Example: Show Your Tradeoffs — A weighted decision matrix compares options against defined preferences: give each criterion an importance weight, rate each eligible option, multiply…