Let’s say you learnt how to work on a certain tool or how to use a certain technique in testing. But then years have gone by and now you need a refresher of the concepts learnt some time ago.
Do you refer to your notes?
Git repos?
Saved tutorials?
Do you build how to guide documents for yourself?
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I always make hand-made notes as it is easy for me to recall from physical notes. I always try to make notes in detail as much as possible, even though its one time effort but it will be beneficial for me forever, but because of this reason it takes more time to cover topics.
Even though in recent times I have frequently started using Notion also for notes making but still notes in hard copy is my first preference for revising any topic.
Apart from that i have books also for same purpose.
However when it comes to Git or other resources I hardly use them.
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for the topic of git, i use that setup boilerplate projects with some level of detail that I think is necessary.
I also include a setup guide 
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So far I haven’t explored the boiler-plate of any projects in depth, maybe because of that I didn’t use Git much from a reference perspective,
but I recently started putting my automation scripts in public repos and for that I’m putting details in readme.md
Readme.md is a great way to add details about the project or repo for anyone who explore the repos.
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These days I keep all those notes in a wiki with a sensible folder structure. However, I’ve got a 25-year legacy of text files, Word documents, spreadsheets etc., scattered across our file server in places that presumably made sense at the time but are now unfindable except by accident.
I used to have a really bad habit of writing notes without recording the version of the tool they relate to. I suspect I’m not alone in this.
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or in my case making notes for setting up appium + webdriver io + android studio on windows then trying to use them Mac OS
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This is exactly why I created my newsletter “Failure is Feedback”. After the third time writing the same documentation for a different organization (I’ve switched jobs a few times) , I realized I wanted to have a space for documentation, learning, and resources I could reference at any point, wherever I was in my career. I have a terrible memory and doing this has been so helpful for me.
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I always go back to my notes, Example: I’ll open the tool and much will still feel familiar but if I need something “special” I’ll just look it up in my own notes.
#ObsidianNotetaking
BUT Another cool thing to do is do some testing labs online, I keep doing hackthebox, THM, etc … it’s refreshing and keeping my mind “up to date”
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hey @jmosley5 can you recheck the URL to your newsletter?
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We have now a comprehensive catalogue of confluence documents with spaces dedicated to products and teams that we’ve built over time. The difficult bit with documentation is it becomes out of date very quickly as often they get produced to solve an immediate knowledge gap. So you need either a culture or a person that worries about the accuracy of your supporting documentation as an ongoing task.
On top of that I mentioned on another post, our team meetings will always have a section for demo’s. We do a round robin where we demo either a product, framework, test problem etc. and record them. Then we’ll add those recordings to documents and that will always be prompt to give the docs a refresh or write a new one to support it.
As part of those demo’s as we go around everyone, we don’t run out of subjects. Worst case we’ll repeat a demo again to show what has changed since and thats a good prompt to refresh any stale reference notes/docs.
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I like the demo idea!
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Obsidian rules!
the only tool not invited to the party is one note
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Yes! Can you reach it here? https://failureisfeedback.beehiiv.com/
Definitely create both “How to” document guides and also “Best Practices” documents.
Also practicing by creating projects where you apply your knowledge, besides your day-to-day job.
I prefer to forget to clear my mind and then relearn it in a different way or with whatever resources I find.
I used to collect thousands of files/notes in each company. I rarely used them, except a few who were critical in the product development.
I also seem to change quite often the technology stack, business domain, tools (except basic ones), and most techniques, I use with each employer.
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if only the universe gave me time for that
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I sort my notes into disposable and important. The disposable ones go in the bin.
As for daily use stuff, everything is a google search or chatgpt prompt away 
When I first started a previous role in support, one of the other team members gave me a ~ 2GB Outlook .pst file of previous support queries, directed me to install Google’s desktop search tool (now long since defunct) and told me, “Armed with this and little questioning and debugging skill, you can be as effective as someone who’s been here for five years.” He wasn’t far off the mark! I don’t find outlook’s search tool half as useful in comparison.
.pst file is something new for me, I guess it’s a collection of outlook emails?
That’s right! I think it’s an older format, but then I’m an older person 
But to answer the question of your thread, I’m not sure I can recommend “save every email you ever receive” unless you’ve got a good search tool.
I know you’ve already dissed OneNote, but it works for me.