Bold 10-20% of a note's text on first revisit — select only core-idea passages, making future scans 5-10x faster

Why This Is a Rule

This is Layer 2 of Tiago Forte's progressive summarization (Layer 1 is the original captured text). On your first revisit to a note, you bold the passages that capture the core ideas — typically 10-20% of the total text. This single pass converts a wall of text into a scannable document where future-you can identify the key points in seconds rather than minutes.

The 10-20% ratio is the compression sweet spot. Below 10%, you're being so selective that important context is lost — the bold passages become cryptic fragments. Above 20%, too much text is emphasized, defeating the purpose: when everything is bold, nothing is bold. The constraint forces genuine selection — you must decide which passages actually carry the core ideas and which are supporting detail, transition text, or examples that reinforce but don't add to the main point.

The "first revisit" timing serves two functions. First, it's just-in-time processing — you don't bold during initial capture (when you don't yet know what matters) or in a batch processing session (when you have no specific need). You bold when you actually revisit the note for a purpose, which means the bolding reflects demonstrated importance. Second, it creates a progressive investment structure: notes that are never revisited receive zero processing effort (correct, since they weren't useful), while notes that are revisited receive proportional processing.

When This Fires

• On first revisit to any captured note in your system
• When a note you captured months ago becomes relevant to current work
• When Evaluate search results by reading only the bolded/highlighted passages from progressive summarization — skip full-text scanning's search results show a note you need to evaluate
• Complements Highlight 10-20% of bolded passages on subsequent revisits — this second compression layer targets your active needs, not generic importance (Layer 3: highlighting) and Write a 3-5 sentence executive summary at the top of a note only after 3-4 revisits — proven importance earns the investment (Layer 4: executive summary) as the first distillation pass

Common Failure Mode

Bolding everything that "seems important" — usually 40-60% of the text. This produces notes where most of the text is bold, providing zero acceleration for future scanning. The discipline is in the 10-20% constraint: if you've bolded more than 20%, go back and un-bold the least essential passages until you're within range.

The Protocol

(1) When you revisit a note for a specific purpose, read through the note and bold the passages that capture core ideas, key claims, surprising insights, and actionable takeaways. (2) Target 10-20% of the text. After bolding, visually check: does the bold text form a readable summary of the note's main points? Can you get the gist of the note by reading only the bold? (3) Do not bold examples, transitions, or supporting evidence unless they're more valuable than the claims they support. (4) The bold should survive extraction: if you pulled only the bold passages into a new document, would it make sense? (5) This is a one-time operation per note. Once Layer 2 is applied, future revisits use it (Evaluate search results by reading only the bolded/highlighted passages from progressive summarization — skip full-text scanning) rather than re-bolding.