I think that's a good solution. This eliminates synchronization via the cloud and thus probably also a large part of the risk of synchronization errors. Another approach is probably to divide the reference and support material into several smaller notebooks instead of one large notebook and to backup regularly all the notebooks.
BTW, I have never had a problem with OneNote (ON) synchronization. I wish I could say the same about Outlook.
I guess I'll share a bit more. (I've become an extreme OneNote fan in the last five years as I've explored and started taking better advantage of its capabilities.) I have ON pinned to my Windows task bar in position 1. (Win-1 opens ON.)
How Many Notebooks?
I didn't mention it, but I have about 2 dozen notebooks currently. A couple are usually closed and I consider them archive information.
I have many areas of interest so some are categorized that way, one for each "hobby". I also have some specific reference notebooks in addition to my general reference notebook. I usually have about a dozen open (which constrains the search to those). I can easily open all of them if necessary, but it is almost always enough to search the core set that I keep open. (The only reason I have some closed is to keep the list of notebooks shorter for when I want to change to a different notebook)
This partial list of my notebooks and their sections might give some of you ideas:
- (Notebook Name)
- GTD - I started this when I discovered GTD and before I ever though about a GTD specific tool.
- inbox - my default inbox when quickly sending things to ON to file properly later
- GTD - This has information about GTD, notes that I have written, etc.
- lists - this section is for all the general lists: places I have been, concerts I have been to, interesting things that I have done, books to read, etc.
- As I have change task managers over the years having this in ON, and in fact keeping all long term things (lists, reference, someday/maybe) in ON made change easier.
- And, the issue I had until I started using Nirvana none of the task managers supported GTD lists.
- Life Planning - 20,000 to 50,000 feet. I started it in ON about ten years ago
- Someday/Maybe - again, started about 10 years ago. Even know, if a someday/maybe item in Nirvana starts gathering notes and additional information I move it to ON. These don't get review weekly like items in Nirvana, but less often. This could be come a separate notebook, but I haven't felt the need because I have someday/maybe spread across topics (maybe not a good idea?)
- Projects - I originally had a projects section in the GTD notebook, but as it grew I moved it to a separate notebook. Now I create a page, or a section with support materials for project in Nirvana
These can be considered hobbies
- Development - I am a software developer with many personal projects and copious notes about development
- Inbox - this is the section theme for my topic/hobby notebooks. I group the related parts of the general GTD lists here, as this can be considered "play time" stuff. Nothing in these notebooks is actually required. All that is in Nirvana
- Projects
- Someday/Maybe
- Computer and Phone Tips - shared with family and friends
- Motorcycle - I ride and race off-road motorcycles - This has projects, someday/maybe and reference all in the same notebook
- Machining - I trained as a machinist and it is a hobby of mine. This has projects, someday/maybe and reference all in the same notebook
These are all reference
- Reference - this is general reference and the ones below are specialized reference notebooks
- Finance - I only keep this local, but I could encrypt it with ON if I felt the need
- software licenses
- receipts
- tax information
- property information
- Medical
- Computer Info - notes I've made over the years about working with computers and software
Moving things around
I alluded to this about but moving sections to a different notebook, or pages to a different notebook or section is very easy in ON. If a page gets too big, make it a section. If a section gets to big, make it a notebook. If something would be better in another place then move it. (ctrl-alt-m)
A couple notes about search
ON can search on the current page (ctrl-f), but more importantly search an expanded area (ctrl-e). I have my search defaulted to the current section of the current notebook, but at any time I can change that to the current notebook or all notebooks. This can be done without changing the search, as an afterthought which is helpful.
Inbox
Before I started using Nirvana, I used to put my ideas into ON. This was my projects and someday/maybe. I used Toodledo for task management back then. I had an inbox in each notebook, or section, depending on the organization, so I could quickly capture things. I would sort them later. I still maintain some ON inboxes, such as for a project that I am working on. If I have the notebook open and I'm doing research I often just put useful information in the inbox so that I can capture it quickly. Later I can think about it and organize it better. One thing to note is that if you copy something from a web page and paste it into ON it will also paste the link to the web page by default. This is very useful.
A related issue, I often send to ON, from email, print to ON, use office lens, and I have it set to send things to a ON inbox by default for those times when I don't want to take the time and make a specific selection of where to put it.
Screen Capture
Windows 10 introduced nice screen capture (Win-shift-s), but ON had it a long time ago. I used to use Win-s to rubber-band part of the screen with ON on Windows 7. I often use screen capture, paste into ON, mark it up with the drawing tool, screen capture the marked up version in ON and then past it back into ON as a single image. I sometimes save that image to a file and share it or email it. It is very handy for writing tips for others.
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Many thanks to
@Roman (German speaking) for making me think about all this again and consider whether it all still makes sense. As I'm sure you all realize, GTD is a learning and growing process and how you approach it will change with time.