“Every time you add a layer of highlighting to a note, you are doing the work of your future self.” — Tiago Forte
Most people’s notes are exactly as they found the information — raw, unprocessed, and surrounded by context that made sense at the time but will be opaque months later. Opening an old note often feels like reading someone else’s research. You remember saving it, but the effort required to re-extract the valuable pieces feels almost as great as reading the original source.
The Distill step addresses this problem. Its goal is to make every note future-proof — readable and useful in seconds, not minutes, regardless of when you return to it.
Forte’s signature technique for distillation is Progressive Summarization — a multi-layered approach to highlighting that allows you to find the essence of any note without rereading it in full.
The technique works in four layers, applied across time rather than all at once:
This is the note as you first captured it — a passage copied from a book, a set of highlights from an article, notes from a meeting. Unedited, unfiltered, raw.
When you apply it: At the moment of capture.
Read through the note and bold the most important sentences — roughly 10–20% of the total. You are looking for the sentences that would still make sense if you read only those.
When you apply it: The next time you visit the note (usually when organizing or starting a related project).
Read through your bolded passages and highlight the most important of those — perhaps 10–20% of the bolded text. This becomes your “executive summary” of the note.
When you apply it: When you’re actively working with the note for a project or creative output.
For especially important notes, write 2–3 sentences at the top summarizing the entire note in your own words. This is the highest layer of distillation and should be used sparingly.
When you apply it: Only for the most important and frequently referenced notes.
Why work in layers rather than doing it all at once? Because you don’t know in advance which details will matter.
When you first read an article, you can identify the generally interesting parts. But you can’t yet know which specific passage will become crucial six months from now when you’re working on a particular project. Progressive Summarization lets you add layers of emphasis as you understand the note’s relevance more deeply.
Progressive Summarization respects your time:
And crucially, you don’t have to do all layers immediately. Layer 0 is done when you capture. Layer 1 might happen weeks later when you revisit the note. Layers 2 and 3 happen only when you’re actively using the note for something.
A common mistake is to distill everything immediately — to read every note you capture and carefully summarize it on the spot. This is exhausting and unnecessary. Remember: most notes you save will never be needed again. Don’t invest time distilling what you haven’t yet confirmed is relevant.
The principle: Distill when you retrieve, not when you capture.
When you open a note because it’s relevant to something you’re working on, that’s the moment to add a layer of highlighting. The relevance of the moment tells you the note is worth the investment.
Think of yourself not as a student trying to understand everything but as a curator preparing an exhibit for a future visitor. That future visitor is your future self, who will arrive at this note with a specific question or project in mind. Your job is to make the most valuable material immediately visible to them, without requiring them to reread everything.
This curator’s mindset keeps your distillation purposeful and prevents you from over-summarizing.
One of the most valuable and underused forms of notes is the thinking note — a record of your own observations, reactions, and connections as you encounter information.
When you read something interesting, the most valuable thing you can save is not the passage itself but your response to it: “This reminds me of X” or “I disagree because…” or “This could apply to my project on Y.” This metacognitive layer is what transforms information into personal knowledge.
Pull up one of your older notes — something you saved more than six months ago. Can you extract the key insight in under 30 seconds? If not, what would it take to make it that accessible? Practice adding a single layer of bold or highlight to that note right now.