Taking a note feels productive: it captures the thing, files it away, lets you move on. The note isn’t the work, it’s the beginning of the work. Most notes never get returned to. They accumulate into an archive that’s more comfort than tool, a collection that grows without producing the insight that [[Better thinking over better note-taking]] is after. The harder discipline is writing notes worth returning to and then actually returning to them.
[[Evergreen notes should be atomic]] is the structural condition that makes returning useful: a narrow focused note can be built on, while a broad one just gets more bloated. [[Notes grow in value when written to evolve]] is the practice, and [[Non-linear note making]] is what makes returning feel like discovery rather than maintenance: you find the note by following a connection, and it turns out to be relevant to something you didn’t expect.