Calendar Note-Taking Inspired by Sam Altman
How many times did you open your calendar today? Right after waking up, on the subway, before a meeting, over lunch, to check when you can head home—most of us glance at it dozens of times. If it’s the screen we see most, could it be more than a schedule?
Could it be the best place to hold our thinking, too?
Sam Altman—rather than a glossy notebook—carries a small spiral pad. His criteria for a “good notebook” are surprisingly simple:
- It must be maximally accessible: pocketable and ready the moment you need it.
- Pages should tear out easily and lay flat side-by-side.
- Finished notes should be easy to discard without guilt.
In short: write anywhere, rearrange freely, and throw away what you don’t need. He often fills a spiral in two or three weeks. The edge isn’t a fancy tool; it’s a few disciplined principles.
What does that look like in 2025, when most of our work lives are digital? Bring those principles to the place you look most—the calendar. Think of it as writing on time.
Why write on calendar?
We already check the calendar constantly. Unlike paper, it’s always with you, already organized along a timeline. Past and future sit on one continuum, so you can “tear out and reshuffle” without the mess.
That’s the core of time-based note-taking.
1. Context, saved automatically
When you write inside an event, your note is stamped with time, place, and people. Later, instead of searching for “that idea from last Thursday’s lunch,” you simply scroll to the slot and the context is there. Paper can’t do that.
2. Threading fragments in order
Altman lays sheets across the floor to expand his thinking. On a calendar, your fragments are already sequenced by day and time. Drag to reorder, duplicate into a follow-up slot, or attach to a repeating event to spot patterns. The physical shuffling becomes easier—and reversible.
3. One surface for doing and reviewing
A note in your calendar becomes a gentle reminder now and a review artifact later. When tasks, meetings, and notes live in the same place, record → act → reflect closes into a single loop. Paper drifts into drawers; calendar notes stay in the flow of time.
Bringing the Altman philosophy into your calendar: five practical steps
1. The 15-minute idea block
Altman once said, “If I sit quietly for 11 minutes, I write.” Do the same with a 15-minute block. For quick ideas, skip the title and jot two or three lines right in the event name. For longer thoughts, write in the event notes.
“On my commute (9:15–9:30) I capture ideas straight into the calendar. Five minutes before a meeting, ten minutes after lunch—those slivers become an idea reservoir.”
2. “Tear out” by moving or duplicating
Like ripping out a page, drag an event to next week, or duplicate part of a meeting note into another project block. Use colors or tags to keep context intact as volume grows.
“Monday’s draft for the weekly update gets dragged into Wednesday’s team meeting; the key bit is duplicated into a separate Product Ideas block.”
3. Weekend 'floor spread'
Reserve an hour on Saturday morning to scroll your week vertically—your digital floor. Delete low-value notes (crumple and toss), and move keepers into topic calendars or project spaces.
“A weekly hour to skim last week’s grid: archive the insights, and clear the one-offs. The pile gets lighter; the signal gets clearer.”
4. “Crumple” finished notes with status or color
When something is done, mark the block Done or switch its color. Filtering for completed notes later gives you a clean ledger of thinking. Removing the clutter calms both screen and mind.
“Completed ideas get a checkmark or color change—my visual ‘crumpled paper.’ What remains is deliberately unfinished.”
5. Share with a single link
Sometimes you just want to drop an idea where others can see it. Sending the event link via slack or email carries the when with the what, so teammates grasp the context without extra explanation.
"“Sharing Tuesday’s improvement idea takes one event link—time and context included.”
Let the tool fade into the background
If you’ve read this far, it might sound like the takeaway is “just use a calendar-based collaboration tool.” I do use an integrated calendar that handles schedules, tasks, and notes in one view. But as Sam Altman’s message suggests—“an expensive notebook isn’t the answer”—habits and principles come before tools.
Accessibility:
If it takes more than three seconds to open and write, it will fail. Secure instant capture anywhere. Like Altman pulling a spiral notebook from his pocket, you should be able to start a note with two taps or clicks—on a always-on monitor or your phone.
Composability:
As if tearing out a page, you should be able to freely move, duplicate, and overwrite notes. If your system has heavy data lock-in (making retrieval/reuse slow), rethink it. Your notes should remain yours.
Cleanup cadence:
Before your “floor” gets covered in paper, clear it every weekend. Records without reviews become clutter. Just as Altman finishes a spiral in 2–3 weeks and starts a fresh one, tidy your digital notes regularly.
Practical Tips for Effective Calendar Note-Taking
1. Visually separate events and notes
Keep the calendar from feeling crowded by color-coding events and notes.
For example: blue = meetings, green = idea notes, red = critical tasks.
2. Apply the 15-30-60 rule
Use 15-minute blocks for quick capture, 30-minute blocks for organizing and clarifying, and 60-minute blocks for deep thinking and planning. Tie block length to the depth/purpose of the note.
3. Set up automatic backups of calendar notes
Have important ideas and notes auto-sync to another system (Notion, Evernote, etc.) so they don’t get buried by time and can also be organized by topic.
4. Ritualize the weekly review
Every Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, spend 30 minutes reviewing the week’s calendar notes. Ask: What patterns do I see? Which ideas progressed? What should carry into next week?
Conclusion: "Notes Are a Lab for Thinking"
Sam Altman calls writing the best tool for clarifying thought. Crumpling paper onto the floor is a way to boldly test and discard incomplete ideas. In the digital world, our “floor” is a timeline.
Start by dedicating a single calendar slot as your lab. Fifteen minutes before work, ten after lunch, five on the bus home—those small fragments will eventually form a large map of ideas.
“Good tools fade into the background; what remains is the depth of your thinking.”
The lighter your hand feels when you write, the farther your thoughts can travel. Trust that the small notes you leave on time will connect tomorrow’s decisions—and your team’s vision.
Build Your Own Calendar Note System- Checklist
- Accessibility: Is your calendar on the home screen? One-tap to a new event?
- Purpose labels: Do you distinguish common note types (idea, task, meeting recap)?
- Colors: Have you assigned colors by note type (e.g., ideas = yellow, tasks = red, meetings = blue)?
- Weekly review: Is “note cleanup” blocked as a recurring event?
Bring time and ideas together on a single canvas. With a few simple rules, you can open a quieter, sharper way of working—where your best thoughts are exactly where you’ll see them next.