# 100 Days of note-taking by Bianca Pereira ## Table of Contents - [[#Introduction|Introduction]] - [[#Prompts|Prompts]] ## Introduction These are the prompts shared by [[Bianca Pereira]] during her 100 Days of note-taking: https://community.prolificresearcher.com/spaces/16479205/about As Bianca Shared after the challenge: ``` As the challenge progressed, some themes didn't make it in. Here are some of them: - **Knowledge in Practice:** How to apply knowledge in life and transform practice into conceptual knowledge. - **Going Deeper:** A second round focused on building expertise in a topic. - **Words Fail Me:** Experimental methods I am developing to represent knowledge beyond narrative text (or even words!), alongside well-known visual methods. - **Making (More) Connections:** Exploring different types of connections between ideas. (We touched on this, but not as deeply as I originally intended). - **Creating Storylines:** Designing specific structures to create coherence between ideas. - **Battling Counter-Arguments:** Finding or building counter-arguments and figuring out how to solve them. I also didn't talk about habits, contemplative practices, and some cool prompts I learned from you, like: - "How would a supervillain or a superhero explain your idea?" (Dan Cook) - "Which rules can be broken?" (Sarah Marsden) ``` ## Prompts - Introduction - 001: Which topics would your book of life cover - [[100 Days of note-taking - Day 1 - Which topics would your book of life cover]] - 002: Expand on what you wrote yesterday.. Use rapid-fire bullet points. Choose one topic from yesterday, set a timer for 10 minutes and provide as many answers as possible using bullet points. For each answer, a new bullet point. Don't judge if the answer is right/wrong or if it makes sense. Just put ideas out as quickly as possible. The goal is to come up with as many ideas as you can in the time you have. What aspects of this topic could you discuss? From which perspective could you explore it? - 003: Expand on what you wrote yesterday. Use [extreme freewriting](https://extremefreewriting.vercel.app/). Choose 1 bullet point. Open https://extremefreewriting.vercel.app/, write for 10 minutes. Write whatever comes to mind. No erasing. No judging. Non-stop. (if you stop for 5 seconds your text will be erased to never come back). Tell me everything you know about X (where X is a bullet point from Day 2) - 004: Explore what you don't know. Use "prompted freewriting". Read what you wrote yesterday. Set a timer to 10 minutes. Write thoughts as they come starting from the prompt. When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt and restart by answering it again. What questions about topic X (where X is the same topic used for Day 3) would you like to explore? - 005: Dig deeper. Extract a question from day 4. Set a timer to 10 minutes. Use prompted freewriting again: How would you answer question X (from Day 4) only with the knowledge you currently have? - What makes you YOU (Days 6-11). How we perceive things shapes the way we interact with others, interpret our sources and life experiences, and understand the world around us. What makes you YOU? - 006: Explore "triggered freewriting". Set a timer to 10 minutes. 1. Write your thoughts starting from the question then just follow wherever your mind goes. Don't worry about typos or things not making sense. Just keep writing until the 10 minutes are over. What is a problem (or situation) that shakes you to the core? - 007: Reflect on the social rules and sayings you have (consciously or unconsciously) made your own. Use "multi-prompt quick jots". Answer the prompts for today. There is no need to go into extreme details about each, just give enough context so that your future self will understand what you mean. Feel free to think before writing down or just do it freewriting style. Prompts: - What common sayings from your childhood do you still repeat today? - Which rules you learned in school have stuck with you? - What “obvious” assumptions in your profession do you take as given? - What cultural “sayings” have become personal rules for you? - 008: Imagine you don’t need to make money and fear is not an option. Let’s do that through triggered freewriting. Set your timer to 10 minutes. Write your thoughts starting from the question then just follow wherever your mind goes. Don't worry about typos or things not making sense. Just keep writing until the 10 minutes are over. If money and fear weren’t factors, what would you rather (realistically) be doing today? - 009: Journaling. Take 1 minute to read through the following questions slowly and just notice how your body is feeling as you read. How is your breathing? Shallow? Deep? Maybe you skipped the breath for a second? Can you notice any tension in your body? Don’t try to “solve it”, just notice it. It is ok to be exactly as you are right now. What can you hear in your surroundings? Any near sounds? Any far away sounds? Which smells can you feel? What are the sensations your skin feels? Is it cold or warm? How does the fabric of your clothes feel? What about the pressure between your body and the chair or the floor? There will be no timer today. Prompt: "I feel..." - 010: You choose what you want to think and write about. Use freewriting - 011: Quickly remind yourself of topics in your “book of life” (day 1) and the items you wrote on days 6-11. Set your timer to 8 minutes. Write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When there are no more thoughts coming to mind, read the prompt again. If you could package your knowledge, passions, values, interests, feelings, and everyday concerns as a gift to give someone, what would that gift (physically) look like? (In other words: Is your "book of life" really a book?) - Sharing your gift with the world - 012: Let’s investigate how you can share your gift with the world. There are many ways to bring your gift to others, but here we will focus on a specific process often used for research projects. We will begin by exploring your vision for the world you want to help create. And I invite you to do that through prompted freewriting. Remember one situation that shakes you to the core (Day 6) or choose another situation you want solved. Let’s call it “problem X”. Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below). Read the prompt below. Write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt again and restart the process by answering the prompt again. What would the world look like if problem X was completely solved? What would be the positive changes? - 013: Yesterday, you created an initial vision of the future. Now, it's time to reflect on why we haven't reached that point yet. Today, I invite you to explore the barriers standing between where we are now and the future you want to build. There are often multiple barriers, not just one, so let's aim to identify as many as possible. I encourage you to explore these through rapid-fire bullet points. What challenges must we overcome to bring your vision to life? - 014: Building the world we want to see is not as simple as we would like, but it is possible—one step at a time. If it is a problem that genuinely matters to you, then it matters, and you likely won’t get tired of it. Yesterday, you brainstormed several barriers to your vision. Now, let’s explore which one you would like to focus on. Today I invite you to use prompted freewriting. What are the 3 barriers that resonate most with you? Why? - 015: We now have your (research) vision and potential candidates for a (research) problem. Next, it is time to identify the “knowledge gap” — whether it is a learning gap, where you need to acquire knowledge, or a research gap, where new knowledge must be generated to solve the problem. Today’s method may seem more complex, but in practice, it is simply a series of 4 rapid-fire bullet point sessions, with the prompt changing for each one. So let’s use the prompted bullet point method (yes, I am not that creative with names but rapid-fire was a good name, no? 🙃). Here’s how it works: Choose one of the top 3 barriers you want to think more about (Day 14). Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below- the timer will beep when you need to change to the next prompt 4 min - 2 min - 2 min - 2 min). Read the prompt below. For about 4 minutes, use rapid-fire bullet point using the barrier you chose as X in the prompt below. It means to provide as many answers as you can to the prompt below. For each answer, a new bullet point. Don't judge if the answer is right/wrong or if it makes sense. Just put ideas out as quickly as possible. The goal is to come up with as many ideas as you can in the time you have. For the next 6 minutes, choose 3 bullet points you just wrote (one at a time) and use each as X in the prompt below. Use rapid-fire bullet points again for each. What knowledge is needed to understand or solve X? - Building your expertise: Find something so tiny, a problem so narrow, that you can learn e-ve-ry-thing there is to know about it. You won't become the world's expert in 10 days, but let's try to go deeper into a topic of your choice. It is time to build and write down your expertise. - 016: The past 15 days were designed to ease some of the friction around “starting writing”. The next few days will challenge you a bit more before we go back to a relaxed pace again. It might feel like running a mini-marathon. Don’t worry. Just keep doing what you have been doing, but try to maintain your momentum even when it starts to feel like..well.. running a mini-marathon. That IS the goal. So, let’s get started. The focus today is to explore and expand your knowledge in one of the learning gaps you identified on Day 15. I encourage you to use **prompted freewriting** for this. Choose one bullet point from Day 15 (or any other topic of your interest) as X. We will spend the next 10 days on it. Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below). Tell me everything you know about X - 017: Continue exploring what you started yesterday. Use prompted freewriting again. Read what you wrote yesterday. Choose an idea or a “line of thinking” that appeared in yesterday’s writing as X. Set your timer to 10 minutes. Tell me everything you know about X - 018: Use prompted freewriting. Read what you wrote yesterday. Choose an idea or a “line of thinking” that appeared in yesterday’s writing as X. Tell me everything you know about X - 019: Read what you wrote yesterday. Choose an idea or a “line of thinking” that appeared in yesterday’s writing as X. Tell me everything you know about X - 020: Quickly remind yourself of what you have written on days 16-19. What questions about topic X (where X is the same topic used for Days 16-19) would you like to explore? - 021: Let us investigate what others know about one of the questions you came up with yesterday. Today I invite you to use prompted freewriting. Select something you want to explore from Day 20. Write down your question (or topic) in Google/Bing or Google Scholar. (It is also ok if you have a book at home and want to read a page of it). Choose a source in the first page of the results and look for the paragraph or section that seems to relate to your question/query. Read the paragraph or section. Using the paragraph or section as a reference, write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When there are no more thoughts coming to mind, go back to the prompt again and restart the process by answering the prompt again. How would you explain exactly what the author mean to someone who has never read the source? - 022: Imagine you were NOT reading yesterday. Instead, there was a person in front of you. They are telling you exactly what you just read. Remind yourself of what you read yesterday. What are your thoughts about what the person just said? - 023: Get the same question (or topic) you used on Day 21. Write down your question (or topic) in Google/Bing or Google Scholar. (It is also ok if you have a book at home and want to read a page of it). Choose a source on the first page of the results and look for the paragraph or section that seems to relate to your question/query. Read the paragraph or section. Using the paragraph or section as a reference, write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When there are no more thoughts coming to mind, go back to the prompt again and restart the process by answering the prompt again. So, you mean… - 024: Remind yourself of what you read yesterday. This reminds me of.. - 025: Remind yourself of the notes from Days 21-24 and use them as X in the prompt below. How does X reinforce, contradict, or expands your current knowledge (expressed on days 16-19)? - Learning from daily life (Days 26-30): Now is the time to explore what your day-to-day life has to teach you. - 026: Today we will be tapping into the strengths of "Quick jots", which is to capture your thoughts when you have no time. Grab a piece of paper, a notepad, a smartphone, or a smartwatch (or whatever it is that you can bring EVERYWHERE and take notes on). Set an alarm to ring every two hours (yes, that will be annoying but that’s the point). Read the prompt below. Go out to live your day. Notice any thought, situation, place, person, animal, or anything that triggers the prompt. When it happens, write down a word, a sentence, or a quick paragraph that answers the prompt. If your alarm has ringed and you haven’t taken any quick jot in the last two hours, just quickly look around and use the prompt on.. ANYTHING. Then set the alarm to ring again in 2 hours (stop it when it is sleep time of course). THING is interesting because REASON - 027: If your thoughts are expressed only as quick jots in the heat of the moment, they will eventually fade away. So today we will give a longer shelf life to thoughts that came out during the day yesterday. For this, we will be doing prompted freewriting. Here’s how it will work. Open your note with all quick jots from Day 26 and read it again. Set your alarm for 2 minutes (or use the one provided below with 5 blocks of 2 minutes each). Choose one of your quick jots. Read the prompt below. Using the quick jot as a reference, write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When there are no more thoughts coming to mind, read the quick jot again. When the alarm rings, go back to step 2. Do this cycle until you have reflected about 5 quick jots. Describe the situation and its interesting aspects to your FUTURE SELF who may have NO MEMORY of the situation or why you cared about it. - 028: The goal today is to learn from your experiences by reflecting on how your seemingly unrelated experiences make you who you are. And for this, I invite you to use prompted freewriting. Here’s how it will work. Read your reflections from Day 27 (i.e. let's call them the "situations"). Remind yourself again of your expertise topic from Days 16-19 (feel free to update it if it has changed since then). With your reflections and topic of expertise as a frame of reference, read the prompt below. How do each of these situations relate (even if remotely) to your topic of expertise? - 029: What for you was just “a moment”, can also become a moment (or a lesson) to someone else. Today I invite you to communicate your moment. Let’s do that through triggered freewriting. Here is how it works. Choose one “moment” you described in Day 27. If you were to explain this moment to someone unfamiliar with your life, what context would you give them? - 030: That’s it. It is time to write an entry in your book of life. No pressure! No one will read it (today or for as long as you wish) and it is just normal freewriting. Choose one “moment” you described on Day 27 (maybe the same one you used yesterday?). How could this moment become a story in your “book of life”? - Lost in Time and Space (Days 31 - 37): There are two fundamental aspects of life we can’t run from: time and space. Over the next few days, I invite you to reflect on your relationship with both of them. - 031: You have a body. You are a body. Our bodies respond to the space we occupy, whether we are conscious of it or not. For today’s exercise, I invite you to notice the space you are in right now. I invite you to do some journaling today. Here’s how it will work. Where are you right now? What are the sensations your skin feels? Is it cold or warm? Does the space feel spacious, cozy, or cramped? Is your body relaxed or tense in this space? Don’t try to “fix it”, just notice it. It is ok to be exactly as you are right now. What can you hear in your surroundings? Any near sounds? Any far away sounds? Is the space loud or quiet? How is the light? Is it natural or artificial? What do your eyes feel right now? Again, don’t try to fix it, just notice. Take a moment to look around and notice: Do your eyes take in the entire space, or do they involuntarily jump from one item to another? As you observe the room, is there something that has been there for so long that you don’t even notice anymore? My space helps me feel… - 032: Time is a tricky thing. Are we talking about time as measured by the clock, time as the constant changing of the world, or our own everydayness perception of time? Well, let’s spend the next few days reflecting on each one. Today I want to invite you to reflect on the usual clock time. We will do that through multi-prompt quick jots. Here’s how it works. Consider a “typical” day in your life (if your days are all entirely different, then consider yesterday). Answer the prompts for today. There is no need to go into extreme details about each, just give enough context so that your future self will understand what you mean. Feel free to think before writing down, write in bullet points, or just do it freewriting style. - What do you do each hour from the time you wake up until your first meal (snacks count as meals)? - What do you do each hour from your first meal until your second meal (snacks count as meals)? - What do you do each hour from your second meal until your third meal (snacks count as meals)? - What do you do each hour from your third meal until bedtime? - 033: Time passes fast when we are having fun. Time passes slowly when we are doing something we don’t want to be doing. Today we will focus on our own perception of time and I invite you to do that through **multi-prompted quick jots**. Here’s how it will work. Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below - no bell will ring. You can choose how you want to best divide your time between questions). Answer the prompts for today. There is no need to go into extreme details about each, just give enough context so that your future self will understand what you mean. Feel free to think before writing down, write in bullet points, or just do it freewriting style. - What activities make you feel like time is passing fast?  - What activities make you feel like time is passing slowly? - What makes the difference between the 2 groups? - 034: Now that you know about your daily schedule and what makes your perception of time either fast or slow, it is time to learn how your daily activities impact your perception of time. Today invite you to use **prompted freewriting**. How is your daily schedule impacting your perception of time? And how do you feel about it? - 035: Everything that is is just a consequence of everything that has been. I use this sentence as a guiding principle but I also believe it is a good representation of a different notion of time: the constant changes in (and of) the world. We are a consequence of who we were before, of how we interacted with our space, with others, and with our previous thoughts and feelings. It can get philosophical… But today we will do something simple (not necessarily easy). Today I invite you to reflect on what has not changed. Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. What have you done, keep doing, and will continue doing unless an external force significantly makes you change? - 036: Everything that is is just a consequence of everything that has been. I use this sentence as a guiding principle but I also believe it is a good representation of a different notion of time: the constant changes in (and of) the world. We are a consequence of who we were before, of how we interacted with our space, with others, and with our previous thoughts and feelings. It can get philosophical… But today we will do something simple (not necessarily easy). Today I invite you to reflect on what has not changed. Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. What have you done, keep doing, and will continue doing unless an external force significantly makes you change? - 037: Creating something takes time. And your space may boost (or hinder) any efforts. So today I invite you to reflect on how your use of time and space might support the development and delivery of your unique gift. Let’s explore that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of: How you feel about your space (Day 31) Your daily schedule (Day 32) How you feel about your daily schedule (Day 34) Your gift (Day 36) Set your timer to 8 minutes. How can your time and space help you develop or deliver your gift? - Learning to Question (Days 38-43): It is time for us to learn to question. - 038: Question and answer form a pair. So, before we talk about questions, let us take a moment to reflect a bit about answers. Everything we know is connected (sometimes tightly) to other things we know. We could spend some time discussing this claim, but instead, I invite you to experience it. We will do that through prompted freewriting (with a restriction). Here is how it works. Set your timer to 10 minutes. Write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided (I am providing 2 prompts so you can choose one - or both if you have the time). When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt again. - What is dairy? - Forbidden words: Dairy, Product, Milk, Cheese, Cow, Grocery, Beverage, Drink - What is a racket? - Forbidden words: Racket, Tennis, Badminton, Squash, Hit, Swing, Net, Ball - 039: Answers are the connections between multiple ideas. As it turns out, questions are just the same. The difference is that we may not be clear about which connections are relevant and which are not (otherwise it wouldn't be a question, but an answer instead). So today I invite you to question the question so we can try to identify what ideas are in the surroundings of your question. Let's do that with prompted freewriting (with restrictions). Here's how it works: Choose a question you want to work with today (the meaning of life, what you will have for breakfast tomorrow, or anything from Days 5, 15, or 20). Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below - a bell will ring every 2.5 minutes). Write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt again. Restriction: After 2.5 minutes, come back to the prompt again and answer it. As you answer, you can't repeat any of the answers you have given previously. What do you mean by QUESTION? - 040: General questions are often vague and more challenging to answer than specific ones. For example, "What is the impact of climate change on turtles?" (general) is harder to answer than "How does the yearly rise of ocean temperatures affect the migration of turtles from place A to place B?" (specific). So today I invite you to refine a question to make it more specific. Let's do that through prompted freewriting. Here's how it will work: Get the same question you used on Day 39. Read your note for Day 39. Set your timer to 10 minutes. Write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt again. How can you make this question (even) more specific? - 041: By now, we know that a question is a composition of ideas, and when you make a question more specific, these ideas become visible. Today we will identify the assumptions embedded in your question. For instance, to answer the question "What are common steps in a Personal Knowledge Management workflow?" I first need to have clarity on what I mean by: "Personal Knowledge Management", "workflow" and, finally, "Personal Knowledge Management workflow" (one could argue, with good reason, that we also need to specify what "common steps" mean as well). If I am clear on what I mean by these, it does not matter if others use different terms to express the same idea, such as "stages of a knowledge practice" or "levels of a note-taking framework". As long as the idea is the same, the specific words don't really matter that much (anymore 😉). Today I invite you to use multi-prompt quick jots. Here's how it works: Read your note for Day 40 and write down the specific version of your question (if you haven't already). Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below - a bell will ring every 2.5 minutes). Answer the prompt for today. There is no need to go into extreme details about each, just give enough context so that your future self will understand what you mean. Feel free to think before writing down, write in bullet points, or just do it freewriting style. Select an idea "embedded" in your question (see example above), then answer: What do you mean by it? - 042: When we think of a question as a passive request for an answer, it remains just that: a question. But when we see it as an active pursuit, each question transforms into a “quest”. By reflecting on and refining your question, you have already embarked on this quest. Today, I invite you to reflect on the answer — to explore where your quest is leading you. Use the same question from Day 40 (or any other question you wish). How do you know you have “found” an answer? - 043: We never know exactly where a quest will lead. Instead, we choose a direction and keep our eyes (and minds) open to whatever unfolds. Today I invite you to think about the next step in your quest. Let’s do that through rapid-fire bullet points. Here’s how it works: Choose the same question from Day 40 (or any other question you want to explore in the next few days). Set your timer to 10 minutes. Read the prompt below. Provide as many answers as you can to the prompt below. For each answer, a new bullet point. Don't judge if the answer is right/wrong or if it makes sense. Just put ideas out as quickly as possible. The goal is to come up with as many ideas as you can in the time you have. From all things you could learn, reflect on, or research in this quest, what is a possible topic you could work on tomorrow? - 044: It is time to deepen your quest towards an answer. But rather than doing that alone, let us explore how other’s pursuits of their own quests can help us along the way. Today I invite you to use triggered freewriting. Remind yourself of your quest(ion) from Day 40. Get yesterday’s topic/question (Day 43). Write down the topic in Google/Bing or Google Scholar. (It is also ok if you have a book at home and want to read a page of it). Choose a source on the first page of the results and look for the paragraph or section that seems to relate to your question/query. Set your timer to 10 minutes. Read the paragraph or section. Using the paragraph or section as a reference, write your thoughts starting from the prompt below then just follow wherever your mind goes. Don't worry about typos or things not making sense. Just keep writing until the 10 minutes are over. How does this source address your quest (e.g. refines the question, answers the question, denies the question, etc.)? - 045: Let’s now have a conversation with yesterday’s source. Today I invite you to use prompted freewriting. Using the same source from Day 44. Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below). Read the paragraph or section. Using the paragraph or section as a reference, write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt and restart the process by answering the prompt again. How would you explain exactly what the author mean to someone who has never read this source? - 046: In the world of heroes and villains, each person is seen as either perfectly good or entirely bad. Life is not that simple though — and the best stories are not that simple either. Nothing is purely good or bad, right or wrong. Instead, there is nuance. Today I invite you to explore the nuance in what you read by playing Devil’s Advocate. Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of yesterday’s note (Day 45). Set your timer to 10 minutes. How (or when) is the source wrong? Why? - 047: Let’s consider again another person’s perspective. Get your topic/question from Day 43. Write down the topic in Google/Bing or Google Scholar. (It is also ok if you have a book at home and want to read a page of it - also ok to use Perplexity Moreno 😊). Choose a source on the first page of the results and look for the paragraph or section that seems to relate to your question/query. Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below). Read the paragraph or section. Using the paragraph or section as a reference, write your thoughts starting from the prompt below then just follow wherever your mind goes. Don't worry about typos or things not making sense. Just keep writing until the 10 minutes are over. Explain what the author is saying. - 048: When we read, it is common for us to just “accept” whatever is published. But even if the work is good, it does not mean everything in it is correct or can’t be improved. We can only notice where a work can improve if we are used to playing Devil’s Advocate. So that’s what we will be doing today again. Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Here’s how it works. Remind yourself of yesterday’s note (Day 47). Set your timer to 10 minutes (or use the one provided below). How (or when) is the source (partially) incorrect? Why? - 049: We are all biased, aren’t we? Can we find our own biases? Let’s play with that today. Remind yourself of yesterday’s note (Day 48). In what ways might yesterday's assessment of the source be (partially) incorrect? - 050: In the last 6 days, you have explored multiple sides of the same thing. Today I invite you to reflect on what you have learned from it all. Remind yourself of the topic/question you picked up from Day 43. Use that as X in the prompt below. Quickly remind yourself of what you wrote on Days 44-49. Set your timer to 8 minutes. Tell me everything you learned about X - 051: In a dualistic world, we recognize two opposites for everything: good and bad, right and wrong, virtue and vice, light and shadow. In a polarized world — much like today’s social media and political climate — people often adopt rigid stances, clinging to one side of these opposites. But those who allow themselves not only to see but to understand both sides can discover something else. A path in the middle. That’s what I would like to invite you to explore over the next 3 days. First, let’s define the two opposites. Choose one of these options (if you have trouble choosing, take yesterday’s summary): Yesterday’s summary of your learning (Day 50), or Your expertise topic (used in Days 16 - 19), or The barrier you chose on Day 15, or The situation that shakes you to the core (Day 6), or A topic from your book of life (Day 1). Read prompt 1 below. Write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt and restart the process by answering the prompt again. After 5 minutes, read prompt 2 below. Write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt and restart the process by answering the prompt again. Prompt 1: What is a core assumption in what you wrote? Prompt 2: What is the opposite of your core assumption? - 052: Good and bad, right and wrong—these are judgments, and they can shift depending on our perspective. Today, I invite you to view the opposite through a positive lens. Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Select the opposite of your core assumption as X (from Day 51). Set your timer to 10 minutes. Tell me all the positive aspects of X - 053: What can emerge when the best of two "opposite" worlds come together? Remind yourself of your core assumption (Day 51). Remind yourself of all the positives of its opposite (Day 52). Set your timer to 10 minutes. What is the result of merging the “best” of your assumption and the “best” of its opposite? - Taking a Break (Days 54-58): Thinking is nice but tiring. Let’s take a few days to rest. No. I am not asking you to stop practicing — just to try some lighter and more familiar exercises 😊 - 054: Today let us give your mind a break and let it think whatever it is you want to think - 055: The more we engage in mental activity the more we tend to forget we are a full body. So let us take some time today for journaling. Take 1 minute to read through the following questions slowly and just notice how your body is feeling as you read: How is your breathing? Shallow? Deep? Maybe you skipped the breath for a second? Can you notice any tension in your body? Don’t try to “solve it”, just notice it. It is ok to be exactly as you are right now. What are the sensations your skin feels? Is it cold or warm? How does the fabric of your clothes feel? What about the pressure between your body and the chair or the floor? What can you hear in your surroundings? Any near sounds? Any far away sounds? Which smells can you feel? There will be no timer today. I relax… - 056: You are a resourceful person. You have now generated multiple resources: reflections, questions, ideas, and claims. It is all there in your notes! It is now time to generate your own prompt. The goal today is to do triggered freewriting. Browse through your previous exercises and select one question, claim, piece of reflection, or anything! (don’t take more than 2 minutes on that). Use it as a prompt. Set the timer to 10 minutes. Read your prompt. Write your thoughts starting from the question then follow wherever your mind goes. Don't worry about typos or things not making sense. Just keep writing until the 10 minutes are over. - 057: If you could live the same day again (but differently), which day would you choose? That’s what I invite you to do today. Here’s how it will work: Choose any of the previous 56 days (don’t spend more than 2 minutes on that). DO NOT read what you wrote that day! Follow exactly the same exercise, the same prompt, and even the same question/topic/etc. you have chosen for that occasion. - 058: You are not the same person you were yesterday. Your knowledge has changed, your priorities may have changed, and your mind is following other trains of thought. So let’s see how your previous selves interact with each other. Today I suggest you do triggered freewriting. Read your note from the day you chose yesterday (let’s call it X). Read yesterday’s note (Day 57 - let’s call it Y). Set your alarm to 10 minutes. Did Y and X agree? If yes, how would you expand your previous thoughts? If no, what has changed and why? - No human is an island (Days 59-65): Every person who crosses our lives leaves behind a lesson — a gift. The secret to receiving this gift lies in shifting from a passive encounter to an active one, where we allow what we hear, watch, or read to resonate with us. It is now time to remind ourselves that no human is an island. We are all interconnected, relying on one another. - 059: Some people come into our lives to change it for the better, through their presence, thoughts, and care. Today, I invite you to acknowledge someone's positive impact on your life by writing them a letter. Let’s do that through gratitude journaling. Here’s how it will work. Set your timer to 10 minutes.There is no need to follow the timer today. It will be there just to give you an awareness of time, but feel free to write for as short or as long as you wish. Write them a letter telling what you are grateful for and why. - 060: Not everyone who enters our lives is welcome to stay. It can be difficult to feel gratitude towards those who have hurt us or whom we strongly dislike. Yet, if we allow ourselves to “see”, even these encounters can leave a valuable lesson. Today, I invite you to reflect on a lesson left by someone who has passed through your life — someone you don’t miss. Let’s do that through gratitude journaling again. Set your timer to 10 minutes. There is no need to follow the timer today. It will be there just to give you an awareness of time, but feel free to write for as short or as long as you wish. Write them a letter sharing a lesson you learned from them and how it has positively impacted your life. - 061: We learn from and with others. Throughout our lives we belong to multiple communities: our nuclear and extended families, friendship circles, neighborhoods, hobby groups, workplace communities, and even the community formed through this very challenge. Today, I invite you to reflect on the communities you have been a part of and what you have learned from and with them. Let’s do that through prompted bullet points. What communities have you participated in throughout your life? - 062: Everything we learn becomes a story in our (untold) Book of Life. Today I invite you to tell that story by writing an entry in your book. Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Choose one learning you mentioned yesterday (Day 61). How could that learning become a story in your “book of life”? - 063: All our learnings make a part of who we are. So today I invite you to find the connections between two parts of you: the learning you got from your community, and your area of expertise. Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Here’s how it works: Remind yourself of the expertise topic you chose for Days 16-25. Remind yourself of the learning you chose to write about yesterday and use it as X in the prompt below (Day 62) . Set your timer to 10 minutes. How does learning X relate (even if remotely) to your topic of expertise? - 064: As members of a community, we learn from others while also sharing our own knowledge. Today I invite you to use your expertise to give something back to your community. Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of the connection(s) between your learning and your topic of expertise (Day 63). Remind yourself of the community you learned that from and use that as X in the prompt (Day 61). Set your timer to 10 minutes. Using your expertise, which new knowledge could you bring back to community X? - 065: If no human is an island, today I invite you to reflect on how you can purposefully build and reinforce your bridges to other people. Let’s do that through multi-prompt quick jots. Here’s how it works. Use your note from Day 61 to answer the first prompt. Set your timer to 10 minutes. Answer the prompts for today. There is no need to go into extreme details about each, give enough context so that your future self will understand what you mean. Feel free to think before writing down or do it freewriting style. - What are the top 3 communities you want to engage more with? - Why do you want to be more engaged with them? - Who are the members you would like to have a stronger relationship with? Why? - What is one activity you could do to strengthen your relationship with each of them? - Making Connections (Days 66-73): We use words to explain the meaning of a word. We use ideas to clarify the boundaries of an idea. Everything is connected to everything. So it is time for us to purposefully highlight the connections between ideas. - 066: In the next days, we will explore how different chapters in your book of life connect to each other. Let’s do today’s exercise using triggered freewriting. Here is how it works: Choose either a topic from your book of life (from Day 1) or a topic you know A LOT about as X. Set your timer to 10 minutes. What is X? - 067: Today, let us reflect on another chapter of your book. Choose either another topic from your book of life (from Day 1) or one of your interests as X. Set your timer to 10 minutes. What is X? - 068: You now have two ideas: X (from Day 66) and Y (from Day 67). Now let us try to investigate possible relationships between them. Use the topic from day 66 as X and the one from day 67 as Y in the prompt below. How does X relate to Y? - 069: Today, let us add another chapter of your book into the mix. Choose either another topic from your book of life (from Day 1) or a topic you would love to learn more about as X. Set your timer to 10 minutes. What is X? - 070: Let us identify a connection with yesterday’s idea. Use the topic from day 67 as X and the topic from day 69 as Y in the prompt below. Set your timer to 10 minutes. How does X relate to Y? - 071: Every book has a cover. The cover contains THE KEY IDEA represented across the whole book. Some people choose an idea and depart from there, but our book of life is a bit different. It contains all of your interests, experiences, and knowledge that you have gathered over the years. An idea is not already “given”. Instead, it “emerges” by putting it all together. I call this emergent idea the Southern Cross. So today we will do something a little different. It is a super quick shortcut to the whole [**Southern Cross exercise**](https://biancapereira.gumroad.com/l/southern-cross-guided-exercise) to set us up for tomorrow’s reflection. Set your timer to 2 minutes (or use the one provided below - a bell will ring after 2 minutes). Read what you wrote on Day 68. Rewrite the relationship you found using Template 1 below. Set your timer to 2 minutes. Read what you wrote on Day 70. Rewrite the relationship you found using Template 1 below. Set your timer to 6 minutes. Identify a relationship that integrates the result of steps 3 and 6. (see Template 2 examples below). - Template 1 - The goal is to represent the relationship between X and Y in a single sentence. The shorter and simpler the better. - Here are a few options (just as guidelines): - X-based Y - X of Y - X verb Y - Example 1 - X = Role Models - Y = Recommendation Systems - Result: Role Model-based Recommendation Systems - Example 2 - X = Recommendation Systems - Y = Personal Development Planning - Results - Recommendation of Personal Development Planning items - Plan-based Recommendation Systems - Template 2 - Again, let us combine it into a single phrase or sentence. The shorter the better. - Example 1 - X = Semantic mapping of accessibility elements - Y = Crowdsourced development of semantic maps - Result: Crowdsourced semantic mapping of the accessibility of footpaths - Example 2 - X = Role model-based Recommendation Systems - Y = Recommendation of Personal Development Planning items - Result: Role model-based Recommendation of Learning Plans - 072: Yesterday you came up with a new idea. It was embedded in what you have written in previous days and yet, it was not explicitly written there. Today, let us reflect on what you mean by this new idea. I invite you to do that through prompted freewriting. Get the last phrase you created in yesterday’s exercise (Day 71). Set your timer to 10 minutes. What is X? - 073: Let us close this theme by writing one more entry to your book of life. I invite you to do that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of the idea generated on Day 71 (the last phrase generated). How could this newly created idea become a story in your “book of life”? - Writing your book (Days 74-90): There are many book styles and formats to choose from. The simplest one is known as an anthology: a collection of articles organised in a coherent way (by theme, chronologically, or creating some sort of “reading flow”). Let us now create your 100 days of note-taking anthology 😊 - 074: A book is a piece of communication to.. someone. Your future self. One of your kids. One of your parents. A family member. A friend. A customer. A work colleague. A person you dislike. A celebrity. Today, I invite you to envision one individual as the sole reader of your book. This exercise will help us set a direction for what we will work on over the next two weeks. Let’s do that through multi-prompt quick jots - What is ONE specific individual (not a category or “type” of people) you would like to share your knowledge and experiences with? - What type of knowledge would you love to share with them? - How much jargon can you use when communicating with them? - Are they likely to listen to you? If not, how can you encourage them to stop and listen? - What do they prefer: stories, philosophical reflections, or analytical/technical thinking? - 075: You could take so many directions to create your anthology, so instead of starting from unwritten knowledge, let us play **Treasure Hunting** through the notes you have written. Today I invite you to hunt for “interesting ideas” you would like to include in your book. Remind yourself of who is the reader for your book (from Day 74). Read your notes from Day 1 to Day 11. Extract interesting ideas written in your text and add them as bullet points in a list. Using this format: - Day 1 - Idea X - Idea Y - Day 2 - Idea Z - Idea H - 076: Today I invite you to build a storyline with (some) of the ideas you picked up yesterday. What is a storyline? A coherent story connecting multiple ideas (e.g. a timeline, a begin-middle-end story, a logical argument). Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Choose up to 3 ideas you identified yesterday (Day 75). How can you connect these ideas through a coherent story? (Feel free to consider more than one possible storyline) - 077: Time to write an entry for your book. No pressure! No one will read it (today or for as long as you wish) and it is just normal freewriting. I invite you to do that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of your reader (Day 74) and use it as X in the prompt below. Tell X your story - 078: Today I invite you to continue our Treasure Hunt through your notes. Remind yourself of who is the reader for your book (from Day 74). Read your notes from Day 12 to Day 25. Extract interesting ideas written in your text and add them as bullet points in a list. Using this format: - Day 12 - Idea X - Idea Y - Day 13 - Idea Z - Idea H - 079: Today I invite you to build a storyline with (some) of the ideas you picked up from your notes. Choose ideas that you are particularly interested in talking about. What is a storyline? A coherent story connecting multiple ideas (e.g. a timeline, a begin-middle-end story, a logical argument). Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Choose up to 3 ideas you identified either yesterday (Day 78) or on Day 75. How can you connect these ideas through a coherent story? (Feel free to consider more than one possible storyline) - 080: It's time to write the 2nd entry for your book. No pressure! No one will read it (today or for as long as you wish) and it is just normal freewriting. I invite you to do that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of your reader (Day 74) and use it as X in the prompt below. Remind yourself of a storyline you created (Day 79). Tell X your story. - 081: By now you know how it will work already 😊. Let’s continue our Treasure Hunt through your notes. Remind yourself of who is the reader for your book (from Day 74). Read your notes from Day 26 to Day 37. Extract interesting ideas written in your text and add them as bullet points in a list. Using this format - Day 26 - Idea X - Idea Y - Day 27 - Idea Z - Idea H - 082: Let’s build a storyline with (some) of the ideas you picked up from your notes. Choose ideas that you are particularly interested in talking about. What is a storyline? A coherent story connecting multiple ideas (e.g. a timeline, a begin-middle-end story, a logical argument). Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Choose up to 3 ideas you identified either yesterday (Day 81) or on Days 75 and 78. How can you connect these ideas through a coherent story? (Feel free to consider more than one possible storyline) - 083: It’s time to write the 3rd entry for your book. No pressure! No one will read it (today or for as long as you wish) and it is just normal freewriting. I invite you to do that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of your reader (Day 74) and use it as X in the prompt below. Remind yourself of a storyline you created (Day 82). Tell X your story. - 084: We are already halfway there! Let’s continue our Treasure Hunt through your notes. Remind yourself of who is the reader for your book (from Day 74). Read your notes from Day 38 to Day 53. Extract interesting ideas written in your text and add them as bullet points in a list. Using this format: - Day 38 - Idea X - Idea Y - Day 39 - Idea Z - Idea H - 085: Let’s build a storyline with (some) of the ideas you picked up from your notes. Choose ideas that you are particularly interested in talking about. What is a storyline? A coherent story connecting multiple ideas (e.g. a timeline, a begin-middle-end story, a logical argument). Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Choose up to 3 ideas you identified either yesterday (Day 84) or on Days 75, 78, and 81. How can you connect these ideas through a coherent story? (Feel free to consider more than one possible storyline) - 086: It’s time to write the 4th entry for your book. No pressure! No one will read it (today or for as long as you wish) and it is just normal freewriting. I invite you to do that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of your reader (Day 74) and use it as X in the prompt below. Remind yourself of a storyline you created (Day 85). Tell X your story. - 087: Time to complete our Treasure Hunt through your notes. Remind yourself of who is the reader for your book (from Day 74). Read your notes from Day 59 to Day 73. Extract interesting ideas written in your text and add them as bullet points in a list. Using this format: - Day 59 - Idea X - Idea Y - Day 60 - Idea Z - Idea H - 088: Let’s build a storyline with (some) of the ideas you picked up from your notes. Choose ideas that you are particularly interested in talking about. What is a storyline? A coherent story connecting multiple ideas (e.g. a timeline, a begin-middle-end story, a logical argument). Let’s do that through prompted freewriting. Choose up to 3 ideas you identified either yesterday (Day 87) or on Days 75, 78, 81, and 84. How can you connect these ideas through a coherent story? (Feel free to consider more than one possible storyline) - 089: It’s time to write the 5th entry for your book. No pressure! No one will read it (today or for as long as you wish) and it is just normal freewriting. I invite you to do that through prompted freewriting. Remind yourself of your reader (Day 74) and use it as X in the prompt below. Remind yourself of a storyline you created (Day 88). Tell X your story. - 090: By now you have an audience for your book, the title you could put in the cover, and 8 entries. Now it is time to play the role of book editor and put everything together. Let’s do this through multi-prompt quick jots. Remind yourself of the idea in the cover (from Day 71). Open your notes for days 30, 62, 73, 77, 80, 83, 86, 89. Answer the prompts for today. There is no need to go into extreme details about each, just give enough context so that your future self will understand what you mean. Feel free to think before writing down or just do it freewriting style. - What title would you give to the story from day 30? - What title would you give to the story from day 62? - What title would you give to the story from day 73? - What title would you give to the story from day 77? - What title would you give to the story from day 80? - What title would you give to the story from day 83? - What title would you give to the story from day 86? - What title would you give to the story from day 89? - Given the book title from Day 71, in which order would you tell those stories? - Where we were, where we are, where we will be: From time to time, it is essential to stop, take stock of where we are, and ensure we are heading in the direction we truly want. In the days ahead, I invite you to reflect on your own knowledge practice. - 091: Let us start with the “facts”. Today I invite you to reflect on which days of this 100 days of note-taking challenge were easy or enjoyable. Let’s do that through reflective journaling. Remind yourself of your practice during all days during this challenge as you explore the prompt questions. No need to follow the timer today. It will be there to give you an awareness of time but feel free to write for as short or as long as you wish. Follow any (or all) of the prompts below. - Which days were easy? - In which way were they easy? - What made them easy? - Which days were enjoyable? - In which way were they enjoyable? - What made them enjoyable? - 092: Today, let us investigate what the feelings of ease and joy feel like. Let’s do it again through reflective journaling. Remind yourself of your practice during all days during this challenge as you explore the prompt questions. No need to follow the timer today. It will be there to give you an awareness of time but feel free to write for as short or as long as you wish. Follow any (or all) of the prompts below. - What did ease feel like.. - .. in your body (i.e. any physical sensations)? - .. in your thoughts (i.e. any type of thoughts that seem to come to mind? How does your mind react)? - .. as emotions (e.g. calm, grumpiness, boredom)? - What did joy feel like.. - .. in your body (i.e. any physical sensations)? - .. in your thoughts (i.e. any type of thoughts that seem to come to mind? How does your mind react)? - .. as emotions (e.g. excitement, crying, fulfilment)? - 093: Let us reflect on the external factors that contributed to the feelings of ease and joy. Let’s do it through reflective journaling. Only if you wish, read again what you wrote on days 31 and 33. Remind yourself of your practice during all days during this challenge as you explore the prompt questions. Set your alarm to 10 minutes. No need to follow the alarm today. It will be there just to give you an awareness of time, but feel free to write for as short or as long as you wish. Follow any (or all) of the prompts below. - When your practice was easy, what was the contribution of your… - .. physical environment (temperature, sounds, visual organisation, spatial organisation, etc.)? - .. time of the day (morning, afternoon, evening)? - .. behaviour (e.g. the way you sit, the way you write, the things you do before/during/after the practice)? - .. mindset (i.e. the way you approach the task inside your mind)? - When your practice was enjoyable, what was the contribution of your… - .. physical environment (temperature, sounds, visual organisation, spatial organisation, etc.)? - .. time of the day (morning, afternoon, evening)? - .. behaviour (e.g. the way you sit, the way you write, the things you do before/during/after the practice)? - .. mindset (i.e. the way you approach the task inside your mind)? - 094: You have reflected on what worked well for you. Before diving into what did not go as expected, take a moment to pause and consider: Why did you want a daily note-taking practice in the first place? What was your goal? Today I invite you to do that through multi-prompt quick jots. Set your timer to 10 minutes Answer the prompts for today. There is no need to go into extreme details about each, just give enough context so that your future self will understand what you mean. Feel free to think before writing down, write in bullet points, or just do it freewriting style. - Why did you start this 100 days of note-taking challenge (i.e. what was your original purpose?) - Will you continue a daily note-taking practice beyond these 100 days? Why? - Looking back at your original purpose and comparing to your current purpose (whether you will keep the practice or abandon it), what has changed? - 095: You started this practice, you trusted me (on a daily basis 🙏🏻), and we have arrived here. The question is: was it worth it? Today I invite you to reflect on how you and your life have changed—whether for better or worse—since you began this daily note-taking practice. Let’s do that through triggered freewriting. Set your timer to 10 minutes. What impact has your daily practice had on you and your life? - 096: Now let us investigate what didn’t go so well and how we can improve it. Let’s do that through reflective journaling. Remind yourself of your practice during all days during this challenge as you explore the prompt questions. Set your timer to 10 minutes. No need to follow the timer today. It will be there to give you an awareness of time but feel free to write for as short or as long as you wish. Follow any (or all) of the prompts below. - What struggles have you encountered more than once during your practice? - In what ways were they a struggle? (we are not trying to identify the causes here, just to observe how you recognized it as a struggle and how it felt.) - How did these struggles manifest for you: - in your body (i.e. any physical sensations)? - in your thoughts (i.e. any recurring thoughts? How does your mind react)? - as emotions (e.g. anger, calm, frustration, anxiety)? - 097: Let us reflect on the external factors that contributed to any struggles. Let’s do it through reflective journaling. Only if you wish, read again what you wrote on days 31 and 33. Remind yourself of your practice during all days during this challenge as you explore the prompt questions. Set your alarm to 10 minutes. No need to follow the alarm today. It will be there just to give you an awareness of time, but feel free to write for as short or as long as you wish. - When your practice was challenging, what was the contribution of your… - .. physical environment (temperature, sounds, visual organisation, spatial organisation, etc.)? - .. time of the day (morning, afternoon, evening)? - .. behaviour (e.g. the way you sit, the way you write, the things you do before/during/after the practice)? - .. mindset (i.e. the way you approach the task inside your mind)? - 098: Considering your purpose for this daily practice, what has brought you joy so far, and what has been challenging, I now invite you to reflect on one change you can make to improve your practice. Not all possible changes, just 1 (because change is hard 🫤). Let’s do that through triggered freewriting. Remind yourself of your purpose (Day 94). Remind yourself of what joy feels like (Day 92). Remind yourself of the struggles you have encountered more than once (Day 96). Set your timer to 10 minutes. Read the prompt below. Write your thoughts starting from the question then just follow wherever your mind goes. Don't worry about typos or things not making sense. Just keep writing until the 10 minutes are over. Knowing what you know now, what is 1 thing you would change to make your practice more enjoyable? - 099: When everything is said and done, one question remains that only you can answer. Today I invite you to do prompted freewriting. Set your timer to 10 minutes. Write your thoughts as they come to mind starting from the prompt provided. When no more thoughts are coming to mind, go back to the prompt again. What next? - 100: Today is a time to celebrate. The new year, the new you, and the end of this cycle. Today I invite you to write a letter to someone very dear to you and me. Let’s do that through gratitude journaling. Here’s how it will work. Set your timer to 10 minutes. There is no need to follow the timer today. It will be there just to give you an awareness of time, but feel free to write for as short or as long as you wish. Read the prompt below. Write down as little or as much as you wish. No one ever needs to read that letter. That is just for you. Write a letter to your past self from 100 days ago, thanking them for guiding you through this experience.