Outliner — block structure as the atom of every note
What if a statement did not lie in sentences, but stood as a block — written once, referenced everywhere? Block structure cuts the upkeep time per reuse by around 65%, because each statement exists exactly once; the migration effort stays at roughly two person-days per 100 existing Word documents.
- Unfamiliar at first — linear, sentence-style writing seems quicker, but costs more in the next quarter.
- Without discipline you end up with a 14-level outline depth that nobody reads any more. A stop rule at depth 4 holds against this.
- Migration out of Word loses formatting — tables, Track Changes and comments must be handled separately.
Why the outliner comes first
If you use only one feature in mium, make it the outliner. Block references, tags, backlinks, queries, templates — every one of them assumes that a statement is addressable. And it becomes addressable only once it is a block of its own.
The rules
Atomicity is the only discipline that counts. If a block carries two statements, you can reference only one of them — the other gets lost in the backlink noise.
Tab and Shift-Tab are the only tools for parent-child relationships. Bullet lists out of Word are not outlines — they are itemised points at the same depth.
The path of a statement in the outline is a view — the block’s UUID is the truth. You may move it any time, and the backlink follows.
A collapsed outline is a table of contents. You edit only what you need right now. Depth 4 is the reading limit — anything below that needs a sub-page.
Unlike the final Word document, an outline is a living document. Statements migrate into concept pages, return as a backlink, get restructured. That is the point — not the bug.
Before / after
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Q2_competitor_analysis.docx··12 pages of running text··quarter change = a refactoring project | page Q2-competitor··outline of 38 blocks··every statement ((blockref)) citable in Q3, Q4, … |
When one block should become two
- When the block carries an “and” that joins two separate statements.
- When the block holds a citation in brackets — the citation belongs in a child block.
- When the block carries a “but” — the counter-position needs a block of its own, or it gets lost.
- When you already reference the block from three other places — it is a concept and belongs on its own page.
- When the block runs over two screen lines without being a list.
- Atomicity
- A note is atomic when it holds exactly one self-contained statement. Atomicity is the precondition for reuse — only an atomic statement can stand in another place without loss of context.
The human side
Outliner discipline is a writing technique, not a feature of the product. At first the extra Tab keystroke feels like bureaucracy. After four weeks you see that linear, sentence-style writing only seemed quicker because the next-quarter effort stayed invisible.
Atomic notes are not an end in themselves. They are the basis for every reuse — and so for every hour you do not work twice.
Done in three weeks
- Week 1: learn outliner discipline — keep one note a day deliberately atomic.
- Week 2: migrate three existing Word documents — deliberately “one statement = one block”.
- Week 3: set your first block refs — reference a statement from document A in document B instead of copying it.