The OutlineEdit Way of Outlining

There are many ways of taking structured notes. This is the OutlineEdit method.

1. Collect Top Level Items

Collect only top level items in your domain.
Try to keep each shorter than a full sentence.
Then bring top level items into an order that fits the task at hand – ordering is a first critical step in identifying an overall structure.

Add only the most important detail to each top level item, by adding indented subitems.
Feel free to use short but complete sentences on this level for each item. Avoid multiple sentences in an item if possible.
If there is logical structure in the detail, indent lower level items to a third level.
Avoid more than two detail levels.

All longer form and rich content goes into item notes and image attachments.
In contrast to subitems, notes and images are not hidden by collapsing the outline structure. Therefore think about the right place to add notes and images.
Usually they should either go into the deepest level of the outline or add essential context to a higher level item.
Avoid more than two attachments (note, images) per item.

Create a named categories for each important concept that can appear in mutliple disconnected locations.
Assign items to categories either by going sequentially through the outline or by iterating categories.
If you ever want to assign multiple categories to an item, this is a sign to break it down into more subitems first.

Browse through your outline by folding its structure, hoisting item groups and filtering by categories.
Balance out parts of the outline that have too many indentation levels by creating higher level detail items.
If necessary, also introduce additional top level items. Make sure that this cannot be achieved by adding detail items first.
If the association of items is stronger by category than by outline structure, consider making the category a top level item instead.

Continuously reassign item categroies, if they are part of a progress tracking system.
Use checkboxes to mark items as done.
Break out open item groups into a new outline and begin again, if there is a significant imbalance of finished to open items.