A ndy Matuschak proposed the term Evergreen Notes to describe a system of note-taking that aspires towards cumulative personal knowledge, rather than simply information capture.
![Evergreen notes are a fundamental unit of knowledge work. They're a way to build up a personal library of clear opinions, beliefs, and original thoughts.](https://res.cloudinary.com/dxj9qr5gj/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto:best,w_1200/v1626013083/maggieappleton.com/notes/evergreen-notes/Evergreen_Notes_03_cyjnrl_shrink_urtoqe.png)
The idea builds off many other note-taking philosophies like Niklas Luhmann’s Zettelkasten method Andy also wrote a good post Comparing Evergreens vs Zettles , and Sonke Ahren’s How to Take Smart Notes system.
My personal notes system has been heavily influenced by the Evergreening ethos. In both my Roam Garden Tending Evergreen Notes in Roam Research
A walkthrough of how I manage and tend Evergreen notes in Roam and on this very Digital Gardening A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden
A newly revived philosophy for publishing personal knowledge on the web website. My notes taxonomy flows from “Seedlings” to “Budding” to “Evergreens”
To help myself internalise some of the main Evergreen principles, I illustrated them out below. These aren’t a comprehensive explanation, so I recommend reading the original source material if this piques your interest.
Evergreen Notes Should Be…
![Atomic notes should capture one single idea concisely and in its entirety](https://res.cloudinary.com/dxj9qr5gj/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto:best,w_900/v1626013083/maggieappleton.com/notes/evergreen-notes/Evergreen_Notes_13_ecugdv_shrink_o8p6pr.png)
![Densely-linked notes help you connect them through organic associations rather than heirarchical structures](https://res.cloudinary.com/dxj9qr5gj/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto:best,w_900/v1626013083/maggieappleton.com/notes/evergreen-notes/Evergreen_Notes_05_bz2g7l_shrink_nlx03o.png)
![Notes should have imperative and declarative titles that make clear statements](https://res.cloudinary.com/dxj9qr5gj/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto:best,w_1000/v1626013083/maggieappleton.com/notes/evergreen-notes/Evergreen_Notes_09_qaql67_shrink_kzbsed.png)
![Notes should be concept-oriented. This means they're based around big ideas rather than specific books, articles, or media](https://res.cloudinary.com/dxj9qr5gj/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto:best,w_1100/v1626013083/maggieappleton.com/notes/evergreen-notes/Evergreen_Notes_17_cqejme_shrink_vyhjaq.png)