At the end of the day, it’s up to you to get the most value out of reconfigured. Unfortunately, we can’t read your mind. Yet.
Here’s a couple of tips/best practice we’ve gathered along the way:
1. Get very familiar with keyboard shortcuts
The app was designed for a keyboard-first experience - the whole idea is the journal is as non-intrusive as possible. Mastering the keyboard shortcuts is the first step in creating a new habit with reconfigured:
Get comfortable with Show/Hide journal command keys. Only pull up the journal when you really need it.
Operate most of the app via Sidekick, you can add notes, create quests, select etc. directly from there.
Check the full list of commands here.
2. Experiment with the idea of Quests
Think of Quests as containers for your thoughts on a specific theme. They help keep related notes together without forcing you into rigid categories.
For example:
If you’re debugging a user retention issue, create a quest called “Retention Analysis” and dump all your related notes there.
If you’re experimenting with a new data pipeline, keep all insights under “Pipeline Performance” instead of scattering them across different places.
Quests don’t have to be perfectly structured—they just need to help you find the right notes when you need them.
3. Annotate activity trails with a clear hint:
To enhance the clarity and retrievability of your notes, begin each entry with a specific category label:
Decisions: Document key choices made during data modeling or analysis.
Questions: List inquiries for clients, colleagues, or future self-investigation.
Tasks: Outline follow-up actions or items requiring further attention.
This structured approach simplifies the process of reviewing and locating pertinent information later.
Shoutout to Timo Dechau for this one.
4. Commit Often, especially half-baked thoughts
A lot of great insights get lost because we assume we’ll remember them later. Spoiler: We won’t.
Whenever you notice something interesting—an unexpected data trend, a stakeholder question, an “aha” moment—write it down immediately. Especially if you are about to make a design decision about something trivial like a data model or excel formula.
And don’t just capture the insight itself—write down why it mattered at that moment. Future You will thank you when you come back and instantly recall the context.
5. Use AI to make sense of notes.
Something that works for me personally is to infodump as much as possible, without limiting my creativity or thinking too hard about whether an insight is 100% relevant. What I tend to do is:
Upload 10-20 raw notes at a time.
Chat with the AI to sort out what’s useful and what’s noise.
Ask it to summarize the key points.
This turns a chaotic pile of thoughts into a structured summary you can act on. And acts as sort of a “milestone” moment you can go back to.
P.S. You can always re-open a chat with our AI by finding it in the activity trail.
6. Convert Chapters to related quests
Sometimes a single quest can turn out to be bigger than expected, with multiple angles of investigation. To keep things neatly organized, try converting your chapters into related quests or manually add parent/child quest relations.
This will allow you to further isolate relevant notes within a container, without losing the connection between topic.
7. Challenge yourself to a 2-3 day streak
Like any habit, reconfigured takes a little time to feel natural. But once you get into the rhythm, it stops feeling like “note-taking” and starts feeling like thinking more effectively.
Set a challenge for yourself:
Try capturing notes every day for a 2-3 days.
Review your entries at the end of the week and see what insights emerge.
Stick with it until it feels effortless.
That should be enough time for you to get a feel whether reconf is for you or not. Hopefully it is - some people have even reported they've stopped using pen and paper.
TL;DR: Make reconfigured Work for You
Master shortcuts so capturing notes is frictionless.
Use Quests to keep related thoughts together.
Commit notes immediately before they slip away.
Use AI to organize and summarize your findings.
Stay consistent until it becomes second nature.
Adopt these habits, and reconfigured will become an extension of how you think—not just another tool.
Extra: Timo Dechau’s workflow with reconfigured.
Definitely check out Timo’s article on how he uses reconfigured for his analytics work.