Take note in 2025: Why the new year is the time to revolutionize your personal organization

How do you take notes? What do you do with them?

If you’re like most people, your system might feel “good enough,” but deep down, you suspect there’s room for improvement. In the era of AI, that’s about to change.

Most people are not satisfied with their “system” of note-taking and organization. Even productivity geeks like me are always experimenting with the newest tool, tech or tactic to create the seamless, friction-free “second brain.” It’s an elusive pursuit — one that I fear may never be fully achieved.

For the non-productivity geeks, streamlining note-taking and organization exists in a state of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” meaning their current process has worked so far so might as well just continue using it. The thought of investing time to learn new software or a new approach and having it not be helpful is too big a risk. Time feels more precious than ever. It’s hard to clearly see the ROI on researching new methods and revamping a system that has gotten you this far.

As you consider goals and aspirations for the new year, I highly recommend taking a look at your “personal operating system.”

I’m fascinated with how people take notes and organize them. It’s one of my favorite questions to ask when working with clients or teams. The most common response is one of slight embarrassment, like the moment you offer to give a co-worker a ride to the team lunch in your car only to realize the morning’s empty food wrapper and coffee cup and yesterday’s gym bag and your child’s books and toys are still floating around the interior. “Oh sorry, I need to clean out my car” you offer, then realize you’ve been saying this for months, if not years.

Like cleaning out your car, organizing your note-taking and organization will bring a sense of peace, order and calm to your life. In 2025, thanks to Gen AI tools and technology, it will also unlock capabilities and power that previously would have seemed unthinkable.

“People spend 84 minutes a day looking for the information they need to get their work done,” said Paul Leonardi on an Harvard Business Review podcast last year, citing research he had done with Bob Sutton, Asana and Amazon Web Services. He added that people spend 30 minutes per day deciding what digital tools they should use for a specific task and they spend almost an hour a day switching between different tools.

We can do better. We need to do better.

The future is here

The way we take notes isn’t just a personal habit — it’s the foundation of how teams collaborate and how organizations innovate.

What we accept as status quo today — including using separate software tools for words, numbers, messages, projects, tasks — will inevitably change. Here’s one view of the future of information work:

• Imagine having an AI assistant that not only organizes your notes but also identifies patterns and automates routine tasks, freeing you to focus on what truly matters.
• Imagine leaders having quick and constant awareness of the bottlenecks in their team’s processes and the ability to replace friction with flow.
• Picture organizations where knowledge flows seamlessly across departments, breaking down silos that once limited innovation and growth.
• Think about a future where training and upskilling aren’t constrained by budget cycles. Instead, learning opportunities are continuous, timely, and relevant to each person’s needs.
• Collective intelligence will emerge as a new management paradigm — shifting from individual performance reviews to real-time evaluation of teams based on their collaborative speed and quality.

New year, new system

At this time last year, I consolidated my notes from multiple apps into a single platform called Notion. The immediate peace of mind was worth the investment in time, but the true game-changer turned out to be the AI assistant — now helping me perform at a higher level with more ease than I could have envisioned a year ago.

I consolidated notes from Evernote, OneNote, Google Docs, the Notes app on my iPhone, Google Keep, Asana and more into Notion. Now I maintain task lists, spreadsheets, written documents, databases, and other formats — all securely isolated from the open internet. The AI assistant synthesizes insights across my personal knowledge base in seconds, drafts emails that match my voice and my priorities, extracts key development areas from months of client meeting notes, and identifies important questions for upcoming meetings.

A couple weeks ago I asked my Notion this question:

“Write a summary of what I’ve learned, helped people see and understand, and come to realize in 2024. Then add insights and analysis of what I see as areas of opportunity in 2025 with regard to leadership development in the era of AI and finding confidence and faith in our abilities to manage through massive uncertainty.”

Within seconds, I received detailed, insightful bullet points that summarized my year of work and progress. This demonstrates the power of centralizing your notes in one place. (Imagine leveraging this capability for your team, direct reports, or leadership.)

I have no stake — nor prediction — in whether Notion will supplant Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, or if another company will create the future of work. What I firmly believe is that the future of work will be more collaborative because AI-powered tools will give humans faster access to critical information needed to be at their best.

The future of work isn’t just about incremental gains in speed, efficiency, or reducing app clutter. Rather, it’s about reimagining what becomes possible when we break down artificial barriers between data, people, and insights — connecting humans through information that empowers them to fulfill their core mission. There is also increasing value of having structured frameworks for personal and team development in times of massive change and uncertainty.

The future of work starts with your own personal productivity.

As we step into a new year, consider making it your resolution to streamline and consolidate your note-taking system. I did this a year ago and am truly blown away by the impact it has made on my work and life.

Take 15 minutes today or tomorrow to evaluate your note-taking system: can you consolidate your notes from several different apps into one or two? This critical step will help you prepare for truly leveraging Gen AI — beyond asking ChatGPT or Co-Pilot for ideas or proofreading.

Think about your personal productivity first and it will lead to unseen opportunities for team and organizational effectiveness.

Plus it will feel like having a spotless car the next time you offer your co-worker a ride to happy hour.

If you have a question or topic related to leadership in the age of AI that you’d like to be addressed in a future article send it to tips@geekwire.com or mark@markbriggs.org.

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2025-01-12 17:00:00