Distill and express: turning saved notes into finished work

For the last two steps of Tiago Forte's method, Noodle gives you a note per item, summaries and answers with sources. It has no highlighting and nowhere to write. Most people will want a writing app next to it. Here's what each step asks and how far Noodle gets you.

Both steps come from Building a Second Brain, which explains them far better than a blog post can, so read it. Noodle isn't affiliated with Tiago Forte or Forte Labs.

How Progressive Summarization works

Distilling means making a save quick to understand later. The book's technique, Progressive Summarization, does it in layers, one each time you come back to a note:

1. the note as you saved it, say an article on composting
2. the key sentences in bold
3. the best few of those highlighted
4. a few lines at the top in your own words

Most notes never get past the first layer, and that's fine. Only the ones you keep returning to earn more work, so your effort goes where it pays.

What Noodle offers for distilling

Noodle skips the middle layers. You can't bold or highlight anything you've saved. But it has a few ways to get from a long save to its point.

Your own note on each item is the book's top layer. Open the composting article, tap the pencil (Edit item), tap Add a note and write "Turn weekly, keep it damp as a wrung sponge, no citrus". Search reads your note too, so you can find the item by how you described it.

If you've downloaded Ask Noodle, items with a lot of text (about 1,000 words or more) show Summarize on their screen. You get the gist of a 40-minute lecture or a 30-page report without opening it. It's a small assistant on your phone, so summaries are plainer than big online ones and can get things wrong. See the summaries guide.

You can also ask a question across everything you've saved, like "what did people say about watering tomatoes in a heat wave?" The answer has numbered sources you can tap, and a video source starts at the moment it's quoting. When your saves don't hold the answer, it says so. See Ask Noodle.

What the Express step asks for

The book treats Express as the reason for everything before it. You use what you saved to make something: a talk, a school choice, a holiday plan for eight people.

The book suggests working in intermediate packets. Instead of one big finished piece, you build small reusable ones, like a list of quotes, a rough outline, a set of photos or notes from a call. Each is useful alone, and you combine them later.

It also describes creative work as swinging between divergence (gathering options) and convergence (cutting down and finishing). Your second brain holds the gathering. And it suggests a Hemingway Bridge: end each session by noting what to do next, so tomorrow starts easily.

What Noodle offers for expressing

An item with several parts makes a good packet. On the + tab, build "Garden ideas" from three videos, a photo of the neighbor's fence, a voice note from the nursery and your own list of plants. Later, Add to this item at the bottom of its screen grows it. See the save page guide.

Plan it works as a Hemingway Bridge. On the item's screen, tap the ⋯ button, then Plan it, and pick Thursday. That puts a task on Thursday in Plan, linked to the save, so Thursday's task opens exactly what you were working from.

To get text out, select and copy anything you've saved, or use Copy on an answer from Ask Noodle. Share on an item's screen sends its link, or its title and note, to another app.

A week with Noodle and a writing app

Say you're giving a ten-minute talk at work on the 28th.

On Monday, ask Noodle "what have I saved about giving presentations?" and tap through the sources. Then open the + tab and type a note with the three best points and why each matters. On Tuesday, copy those lines into your writing app and rough out an outline there. Before you stop, Plan it on that item for Wednesday so you know where to pick up. The writing happens in the writing app. Noodle keeps the pile of material and finds the right piece when you need it.

If you're new to the series, start with the overview of Building a Second Brain and Noodle.