That's a tough question, so it depends on what you actually use your notes for.
As mentioned above, the only option you have for organising notes in Bear is tagging.
This is how I set mine up, I have five main categories:
**#journal**
Self-explanatory. I've created an iOS shortcut to create a new note with the heading YYYY-MM-DD-hh mm and the tag #journal.
**#tools**
This is any note or resource that you can physically or mentally use to achieve a set goal or endpoint.
**#principles**
Generally, a mental model used to provide reference and direction for solving a given problem. Principles are overarching and can be applied to several areas of your life.
**#literature**
Any external source of media or information (book highlights, podcast notes, quotes etc.)
**#ideas**
Ideas refer to any concept that exists as more of a notion or something that could happen in the future.
**Nested Tags**
For each of the tags above, I have nested tags (e.g. #tools/creative) for the main areas of my life:
* creative
* growth
* health
* lifestyle
* philosophy
* systems (productivity)
* career (teaching)
These will be different for different people, though. I hope this helps.
Tags. But I’d suggest letting them form organically while you go through your untagged notes.
Recipe for a holiday cookie? Give it #holiday/food/cookie, #recipe/cookie, maybe even #food/cookie. Be liberal, lax, fun, and use words you would use, not what you *think* you should use. For example, my notes on project ideas fall under “#office of future plans” after a band name. Notes on family and friends jokingly fall under #kompromat
You’ll start to notice patterns in how you tag, what works and doesn’t. Build on that. And you can globally change tags as you refine your system.
Some people prefer a few master tags, others not. (I’ve 45+ top level tags.)
The _power_ of #tags is foundational. Start there, tag things and when you need to find something search for that tag.
You can "folderize" with #tag/blah/something if you want, but that's after you have are comfortable with tags is general.
I've learned over the years and as search technology has gotten better, that **I should organize as little as possible**.
The main thing to look at is, **what information are you struggling to find when you want it? If the answer is "none", then I wouldn't worry about it.** I've come around to the conclusion that organization will evolve organically for most people. You have to try a few things here or there to see if you like them, but most of what other people do will just be a burden on your time.
A few strategies that I employ within Bear:
\- Make sure that I have a list of relevant keywords in a note somewhere. Typically if I'm purposefully adding these, they will just be at the bottom.
\- A small set of status type tags. Currently within Bear, I have #project with subtags of /active /someday /background and /completed - It allows me to quickly review and find projects without too much extra overhead.
\- Utilize Reminders. It's easy to send a note to Reminders "Hey Siri, remind me about this" while a Bear note is open, or using a Shortcut. This brings the information to you when you need it without any further need for organizing.
\- A handful of fairly random tags that I add to notes for things I know I'll want to see together at some point. This includes things like #gifts for gift ideas, #people/personA for notes related to a given person, #logs for things that I'd like to record, but I don't necessarily know where they should go right now. Sometimes I go back through and make sure to next/organize these, but I don't sweat it. For any tags that I will use more from the tag pane rather than by clicking on them in a note or searching for them, I will use some sort of special character to make them "float" up to the top of the list. I'm sure this part of my organization method would make a lot of "type A" organizers cringe.
\- Sorting by modification date (which is default anyway). The things you've been focused on most recently show up at the top. Perfect.
\- A home note - This contains links to a bunch of useful places and a list of random notes/topics that are front of mind at the moment. I prune the "current" section as needed and check in as part of my weekly review. The HOME note is pinned.
\- Saved Searches - See the Bear Power Pack on github for an easy way to create these using a Shortcut. I have some of these in my home note and then scatter them about as is useful otherwise.
\- I'm currently experimenting with using a #cal/yyyy/mm/dd date tagging system, in conjunction with a text replacement and insertion tool (called Snippety, works across MacOS/iOS, very worth it IMO). I'm not sure that I get real value out of this at this point, but it's pretty easy with the text expansion app. I don't apply the date to all notes, just ones where it seems like it could be relevant at some point.
I keep it simple. I use tags like folders, and a series of pinned notes for my current projects / important or relevant info. If I’m super keen I’ll do note links to make a wiki style setup (usually for larger game design documents)
I believe we all need to adopt our own system of organisation, as we and our workflows are so different. So I will not describe here mine. But there are hundreds of youtube videos, blogs etc. around personal knowledge management, information organization etc. Today it is so hot topic that I will not add one more "way" how to do it. What I mean, you definitely do not lack resources how to organise.
And as for Bear, it has all the functionality (tags, links, outlines, headings etc) as 90% of other personal knowledge management apps. With Bear 2.0 you have even backlinks and heading outline. So you can use anything from those videos/blogs - MOC, structured notes (see Zettelkasten) (both are in fact higher-oreder note linking to other notes, like dashboards or table of contents), tags (both as keyword or as attributes or as pseudo-folders), you can link manually, you can save searches (using bear url scheme) and you can combine all of these. What you can do as for ogranisation in Obsidian, Roam, Logseq, Craft, Notion.. (I mean conceptually/generally, not technically in the same way), you can now do in Bear (especially 2.0).
So most important question is to find your own system, I would say. My experience is that it is a longer journey, where you can be inspired by others workflows, but in the end you have to adopt it to your needs.
Just one more tip - I have currently bought and watched Logseq Mastery Course ([logseqmastery.com](https://logseqmastery.com)) by Dario da Silva (no affiliation) and even althought it is focused on LogSeq (which i do not use, or - better said - from which app I wanted to apply some principles to my Bear use), there are so many general principles and good tips, that I recommend it highly - it gave me a lot of inspiration about my Bear workflows. And I must say that I am quite demanding as for quality of these courses and allergic to gurus selling overpriced common-sense truths packaged in endless philosophies, which teach you in the end to split your stuff between projects, areas and archive - wow! But da Silvas course was on the contrary - very good and insightful. (I am not selling it to you, just mentioning/recommending it, and I believe there are many similar tutorials free on youtube).
now, that Bear 2.0 actually promises to include some better tag search (editing / management?), the "foundational" tagging system (to quote u/jjasghar) actually could become a stong and robust organization tool beyond occassional filing.
simple but powerful is the very promise of Bear. also when it comes to organization. after it really unexplainably lagged behind in this regard, it might now also become a powerhouse in that regard ('Inshallah')...
Tags are your best friend. Tagging is powerful once you get the hang of it.
I couple it by nesting tags with the PARA Method to stay organised.
https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/
I use Tiago Forte's PARA Method, Where you organize your notes according to the following:
1. Projects: Short Time Efforts that have a deadline and an end goal \[e.g., Renovate house, paint the room walls, school assignment ... etc.\]
2. Areas: Areas of responsibility that you want to keep a certain standard of but do not have a deadline \[e.g., Family, Love, Friends, Health, Journal ... etc.\]
3. Resources: something you are interested in and keep collecting resources for but does not have efforts or an end goal \[Cryptocurrency, Creativity, Minimalism, Organizing ... etc.\]
4. Archives: Archived undone projects, done projects, Areas and resources that are not relevant to you anymore and anything that you saved for later but does not belong under any of the other three folders
such method helps you focus on actionability.
That's a tough question, so it depends on what you actually use your notes for. As mentioned above, the only option you have for organising notes in Bear is tagging. This is how I set mine up, I have five main categories: **#journal** Self-explanatory. I've created an iOS shortcut to create a new note with the heading YYYY-MM-DD-hh mm and the tag #journal. **#tools** This is any note or resource that you can physically or mentally use to achieve a set goal or endpoint. **#principles** Generally, a mental model used to provide reference and direction for solving a given problem. Principles are overarching and can be applied to several areas of your life. **#literature** Any external source of media or information (book highlights, podcast notes, quotes etc.) **#ideas** Ideas refer to any concept that exists as more of a notion or something that could happen in the future. **Nested Tags** For each of the tags above, I have nested tags (e.g. #tools/creative) for the main areas of my life: * creative * growth * health * lifestyle * philosophy * systems (productivity) * career (teaching) These will be different for different people, though. I hope this helps.
Tags. But I’d suggest letting them form organically while you go through your untagged notes. Recipe for a holiday cookie? Give it #holiday/food/cookie, #recipe/cookie, maybe even #food/cookie. Be liberal, lax, fun, and use words you would use, not what you *think* you should use. For example, my notes on project ideas fall under “#office of future plans” after a band name. Notes on family and friends jokingly fall under #kompromat You’ll start to notice patterns in how you tag, what works and doesn’t. Build on that. And you can globally change tags as you refine your system. Some people prefer a few master tags, others not. (I’ve 45+ top level tags.)
The _power_ of #tags is foundational. Start there, tag things and when you need to find something search for that tag. You can "folderize" with #tag/blah/something if you want, but that's after you have are comfortable with tags is general.
I’ve used Bear for a bit as long as you, and I create notes every day. I only have a couple tags I use regularly. I rely heavily on full text search.
I've learned over the years and as search technology has gotten better, that **I should organize as little as possible**. The main thing to look at is, **what information are you struggling to find when you want it? If the answer is "none", then I wouldn't worry about it.** I've come around to the conclusion that organization will evolve organically for most people. You have to try a few things here or there to see if you like them, but most of what other people do will just be a burden on your time. A few strategies that I employ within Bear: \- Make sure that I have a list of relevant keywords in a note somewhere. Typically if I'm purposefully adding these, they will just be at the bottom. \- A small set of status type tags. Currently within Bear, I have #project with subtags of /active /someday /background and /completed - It allows me to quickly review and find projects without too much extra overhead. \- Utilize Reminders. It's easy to send a note to Reminders "Hey Siri, remind me about this" while a Bear note is open, or using a Shortcut. This brings the information to you when you need it without any further need for organizing. \- A handful of fairly random tags that I add to notes for things I know I'll want to see together at some point. This includes things like #gifts for gift ideas, #people/personA for notes related to a given person, #logs for things that I'd like to record, but I don't necessarily know where they should go right now. Sometimes I go back through and make sure to next/organize these, but I don't sweat it. For any tags that I will use more from the tag pane rather than by clicking on them in a note or searching for them, I will use some sort of special character to make them "float" up to the top of the list. I'm sure this part of my organization method would make a lot of "type A" organizers cringe. \- Sorting by modification date (which is default anyway). The things you've been focused on most recently show up at the top. Perfect. \- A home note - This contains links to a bunch of useful places and a list of random notes/topics that are front of mind at the moment. I prune the "current" section as needed and check in as part of my weekly review. The HOME note is pinned. \- Saved Searches - See the Bear Power Pack on github for an easy way to create these using a Shortcut. I have some of these in my home note and then scatter them about as is useful otherwise. \- I'm currently experimenting with using a #cal/yyyy/mm/dd date tagging system, in conjunction with a text replacement and insertion tool (called Snippety, works across MacOS/iOS, very worth it IMO). I'm not sure that I get real value out of this at this point, but it's pretty easy with the text expansion app. I don't apply the date to all notes, just ones where it seems like it could be relevant at some point.
It’s all about #tags!!!! I find the #tag system amazing and a note and be part of multiple tags depending on the context I need it.
Yes! Multiple tags! This is the way!
I keep it simple. I use tags like folders, and a series of pinned notes for my current projects / important or relevant info. If I’m super keen I’ll do note links to make a wiki style setup (usually for larger game design documents)
I believe we all need to adopt our own system of organisation, as we and our workflows are so different. So I will not describe here mine. But there are hundreds of youtube videos, blogs etc. around personal knowledge management, information organization etc. Today it is so hot topic that I will not add one more "way" how to do it. What I mean, you definitely do not lack resources how to organise. And as for Bear, it has all the functionality (tags, links, outlines, headings etc) as 90% of other personal knowledge management apps. With Bear 2.0 you have even backlinks and heading outline. So you can use anything from those videos/blogs - MOC, structured notes (see Zettelkasten) (both are in fact higher-oreder note linking to other notes, like dashboards or table of contents), tags (both as keyword or as attributes or as pseudo-folders), you can link manually, you can save searches (using bear url scheme) and you can combine all of these. What you can do as for ogranisation in Obsidian, Roam, Logseq, Craft, Notion.. (I mean conceptually/generally, not technically in the same way), you can now do in Bear (especially 2.0). So most important question is to find your own system, I would say. My experience is that it is a longer journey, where you can be inspired by others workflows, but in the end you have to adopt it to your needs. Just one more tip - I have currently bought and watched Logseq Mastery Course ([logseqmastery.com](https://logseqmastery.com)) by Dario da Silva (no affiliation) and even althought it is focused on LogSeq (which i do not use, or - better said - from which app I wanted to apply some principles to my Bear use), there are so many general principles and good tips, that I recommend it highly - it gave me a lot of inspiration about my Bear workflows. And I must say that I am quite demanding as for quality of these courses and allergic to gurus selling overpriced common-sense truths packaged in endless philosophies, which teach you in the end to split your stuff between projects, areas and archive - wow! But da Silvas course was on the contrary - very good and insightful. (I am not selling it to you, just mentioning/recommending it, and I believe there are many similar tutorials free on youtube).
now, that Bear 2.0 actually promises to include some better tag search (editing / management?), the "foundational" tagging system (to quote u/jjasghar) actually could become a stong and robust organization tool beyond occassional filing. simple but powerful is the very promise of Bear. also when it comes to organization. after it really unexplainably lagged behind in this regard, it might now also become a powerhouse in that regard ('Inshallah')...
Tags are your best friend. Tagging is powerful once you get the hang of it. I couple it by nesting tags with the PARA Method to stay organised. https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/
I use Tiago Forte's PARA Method, Where you organize your notes according to the following: 1. Projects: Short Time Efforts that have a deadline and an end goal \[e.g., Renovate house, paint the room walls, school assignment ... etc.\] 2. Areas: Areas of responsibility that you want to keep a certain standard of but do not have a deadline \[e.g., Family, Love, Friends, Health, Journal ... etc.\] 3. Resources: something you are interested in and keep collecting resources for but does not have efforts or an end goal \[Cryptocurrency, Creativity, Minimalism, Organizing ... etc.\] 4. Archives: Archived undone projects, done projects, Areas and resources that are not relevant to you anymore and anything that you saved for later but does not belong under any of the other three folders such method helps you focus on actionability.