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Methodology — markdown-neuraxis

This document captures the evolving methodology behind markdown-neuraxis, combining the most effective practices from GTD, PARA, Sunsama, Logseq, and Kanban into a cohesive, markdown-first life and work management system.

📥 Task States & Flow

Based on GTD principles, all tasks flow through explicit states to ensure nothing falls through cracks:

State Values

  • INBOX - Unprocessed capture; requires triage to determine next action
  • ACTION - Actionable, bite-sized work that has been fully considered (replaces meaningless "TODO")
  • DOING - Currently active work (limit WIP for focus)
  • WAITING - Blocked on external dependency; tracked with context
  • SOMEDAY - Deferred but potentially valuable; reviewed periodically
  • SCHEDULED - In the calendar on a specific day (as per GTD method)
  • DONE - Completed work; archived for reference
  • ABANDONED - Explicitly discarded; useful for learning patterns - i.e. I had planned to do this, I might even have started, and now I'm not going to do it any more.

Flow Rules

  • TODO is banned - it's a synonym for unprocessed INBOX and has become meaningless, nay toxic - it's become a synonym for "I know I need to do something with this but I'll put off all proper thinking about it till later, and mix it up with things I've thought really hard about", and as David Allen rightly points out, that's a sure fire way to descend into chaos and overwhelm. The move to INBOX/PROJECT/ACTION categorization is a key feature of GTD that must be absorbed to be effective.
  • ACTION signifies this is explicitly actionable, not a project with subtasks
  • Items must be fully considered before becoming ACTION (what exactly will I do?)
  • WAITING items require context (waiting for what/who?)
  • Regular manual review can be used to move SOMEDAY back to INBOX for reconsideration or ABANDONED

🗓 Daily Journaling

  • Inspired by The Unicorn Project, Logseq, and engineering team habits.
  • Each day opens a fresh journal/YYYY_MM_DD.md file.
  • Items may be immediately marked with INBOX, ACTION, WAITING, etc.
  • Structure is flat, quick to capture — encourages flow.
  • Plugins can automatically collect and index inbox-type entries from journals.

🎯 Goal Tracking

  • Rare but critical.
  • Goals are written as outlines and/or files, and can be uniquely ID’d for reference from other files/bullets.
  • Tasks and entries anywhere in the system can link directly to goals via ((uuid)), forming an unbroken chain from life vision → actions.
  • Fractal outlines allow arbitrarily deep nesting and linking.

e.g.

# goals.md

- finance
  - work
    - get a promotion
      id:: 68951faf-4df2-4851-9c38-12474ce9806a <-- hidden id to allow cross-linking logseq-style
    - invest in skills
  - investing
  - assets
  - cost control
- happyness
  - be excellent
    - improve skills
      - see also ((68951faf-4df2-4851-9c38-12474ce9806a)) <-- auto-linked to "get a promotion"
# journal/yyyy-mm-dd.md

- meditated (not really, kids up first)
- made coffee
- ACTION check email
- INBOX bob called, call him back
- DOING watch ai coding course
  goal::((68951faf-4df2-4851-9c38-12474ce9806a)) <-- magic cross-link to above goal bullet in different file
- ACTION reflect & journal

🧬 Fractal Notes, Not Projects

  • Unlike GTD, we don’t enforce a separate “project” level.
  • Notes and tasks exist as nested outlines and/or markdown files.
  • Every item can act as a project or task depending on its children — hierarchy is emergent, not imposed.
  • Projects are a perspective, not a type.

📂 PARA Folder Default

  • Folder layout uses a PARA structure: 
    0_Inbox/
1_Projects/
2_Areas/
3_Resources/
4_Archive/
  • Notes and folders naturally evolve toward PARA.
  • Resources may be linked into projects/goals without duplication.

Note that the author of PARA references the work of GTD, so it's no surprise to see an "inbox" in PARA that mimics the inbox of GTD - they are the same thing, the temporary holding pen for unprocessed inboud "stuff" and self-generated ideas and todos.

🏷 Tagging for Focus

  • Inline #tags represent areas of focus or context.
    • E.g. #client-abc, #personal, #chore, #@laptop
  • Tags are used for filtering dashboards and queries.
  • Tags can be freeform but work best when somewhat standardized.

🧱 Kanban & WIP Visualisation

  • Core plugin or external service can render Kanban boards:
    • Statuses (INBOX/ACTION/DOING/WAITING/DONE)
    • Stages (e.g. GTD stages, marketing pipelines, delivery flows)
  • Inspired by The Toyota Way, The Goal, and Trello’s visual simplicity.
  • The visual kanban allows you to easily see when you've planned too much, or where your bottleneck is.

☀️ Daily Planning

  • At start of day, pick a reasonable set of priorities using a "daily triage" UI.
  • Pull from inboxes, goals, and queries.
  • Intent is to:
    • Act from clarity
    • Align actions with goals
    • Limit scope (Sunsama-style)
  • May be supported by offline daily journaling (e.g. Supernote tablet).

🔍 Query-Driven Views

  • Simple syntax like query:: status:: DOING to generate dashboards.
  • Queries power:
    • Kanban views
    • Focus views
    • Daily/weekly planning

📝 Notes as Markdown Files

  • All content stored in .md files.
  • Outlines via bullets are optional — works with flat markdown too.
  • Ideal for documenting complex software processes, analysis, etc.
  • Supports backlinks, headings, and metadata (property:: value).
  • Supports normal filesystem folders to give "namespacing" as needed. No odd separator characters in filenames, and better interoperability with other systems.

📥 Universal Inbox Folder

Pulling from the GTD concept that you must capture everything that needs (or demands) your attention into a universal "inbox" for processing - something that has had a huge positive impact on my calmness of mind in a busy life - the plan is a strong support for a simple filesystem based inbox, using filesystem dates to track when they were added.

  • /0_Inbox/ folder accepts anything:
    • Markdown notes
    • Emails
    • Screenshots
    • PDFs
    • Scans
    • Shared links
    • Anything else the OS can hold
  • Journal notes and markdown pages are scanned for the INBOX prefix on bullets and those are merged in to the virtual universal inbox on the fly ready for triage.
  • Future plugins & services may populate from:
    • Browser extension
    • Android share intents
    • Email forwarding
    • Screenshot services
    • Drag & drop from file manager

The system will provide low-friction ways to process INBOX entries into where they should live - whether that's PARA folders for future reference, an addition to the hierarchy of goals, a specific project, an action for the action list, etc etc. or just to have their status flipped to SOMEDAY, WAITING, or ABANDONED.

🧠 Philosophy

  • Low friction capture & organization
  • Markdown first, text as truth
  • Flow over control — organize when needed, not pre-emptively
  • Fractal structure — from daily notes to multi-year goals
  • Opinionated plugin-first UX, keeping the core tool minimal
  • Extensible but sane — start simple, build naturally