I built a three-layer productivity system inside Google Keep; now I barely use anything else

I've tried plenty of note-taking apps, but for one reason or another, I keep coming back to Google Keep. Between ideas, tasks, things I need to purchase, and article angles, Google Keep has become my singular catch-all destination.

The reason for that is simple. Unlike other productivity apps that drown you in options for categorization, sorting, and organization, Google Keep doesn't. It doesn't expect you to do any organization at all.

But that doesn't mean it lacks options.

Over time, I've developed a productivity system that starts with a blank note and adds labels, checklists, pins, and more to turn those loose notes into a method that's critical to how I work. Here's how I achieved it.

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Posts By  Parth Shah

A three-layer system for organizing notes

Labels handle broad categories

Like any good personal knowledge management system, the first step is actually using it. I have a basic rule. If I need to remember something, it goes into Google Keep. No exceptions.

This includes article ideas. Inspiration strikes at all moments, sometimes when I'm up late unable to sleep, but more often when I'm reading the news and catching up with what's happening in the tech world.

Anytime I think of a potential story, I make a fresh note with the angle I'm thinking of, notes on the topic, extras I might want to research, and potential headlines. The point is to capture the idea while it is fresh in my mind.

My next step usually is to use labels to separate these notes by purpose. I have a long list of hyper-specific labels for things like work, ideas, personal tasks, and videos for my hobbyist YouTube channel.

These labels keep related information together. For example, I write across several publications and mediums. So I use this to keep all work-related notes in one space.

From there, I can get more specific with tags and keywords within the notes. This is useful when a single label covers a lot of different information.

I might have a work label that contains a series of article ideas, ongoing assignments, and research.

However, since Keep's search isn't limited to the tags, I can use any word in the article to search for relevant notes. It lets you pull up old notes by remembering what you wrote about.

Similarly, Keep's search can surface text from images. I use this feature for Keep notes on books I've been reading. Usually I'll take a photo of what I'm reading and want to keep a note of, and add it to a Google Keep note.

After Google runs it through its OCR algorithms, it is available to search as normal. No additional steps needed.

My final layer of organization comes with pinned notes. As good as labels are, they still surface too much information.

I usually have a couple of pinned notes for things I'm actively working on. That includes my grocery list. When I'm done, I unpin it, and it goes back to where it belongs in my pile of notes.

This gives me a three-layer note-organization system. Labels handle broader categories, while keywords and search help me identify specific information. Pinned notes are for active documents.

It's a productivity system that can be set up in two to three keystrokes instead of tapping around multiple tabs and submenus. I'm looking at you, Notion.

More ways to organize your notes

Colors for visual organization, checklists for a better layout

Depending on how granular you want to get with your organization of notes, there's plenty more to do.

For example, I often use colors to segregate notes visually. Along with labels, this gives me an at-a-glance way to find what I'm looking for under a category. Still, I wouldn't recommend using it often as it can become chaotic.

Elsewhere, you can structure individual notes as checklists or reminders. This gives you a better layout for your notes. My grocery list usually ends up as a checklist, and so do packing lists.

Elsewhere, the reminders feature is interesting. Google Keep isn't a traditional reminders app, but if I'm taking notes in a meeting and need to set a reminder to follow up with someone, the built-in reminders functionality comes in handy.

It saves me an extra step as I no longer have to open a dedicated reminders app. Also, it gives me added context from my personal notes alongside my reminders.

Finally, like any robust productivity system like Notion, collaboration is well represented here. It's not a feature I need to use often. However, if you share notes with someone, or a grocery list with a partner, built-in sharing lets you do that with ease.

As simple or as granular as you want to make it

Google Keep might seem like a basic notes app, but when you use its features to the fullest, there's a lot of potential for organization.

My productivity system is proof of that. It isn't the most complicated one around, but starting with a blank note that makes adding in information quick and easy lets me build layers of abstraction on top.

You can pick and choose how granular you want to get, and that makes Google Keep one of the most underrated productivity apps around.