Loose sources get lost

Source material needs as much order as the notes it feeds. Leave it alone and it scatters. The recording ends up in one app, the PDF in Downloads and the link in a chat you can’t find. It’s the same problem with a hundred exhibits for a case or two hundred papers for a thesis.

Give each source one home, next to the note that uses it, and let it move through stages. It comes in as the original, you pull the useful text out, then you use it in a note. Most sources sit at the first stage for ages. That’s fine, as long as you can see where each one is.

Once the content is safely in your notes, you can let the original go. Keep the text and a note of where it came from. There’s no point holding on to a file you’ll never open again.