I foil myself trying to save time

I’ve always been a note taker and journal writer. I just came across several notebooks of writings from lectures I’d attended in the 80’s. Good stuff I wanted to recall forever. But the notes are half written using a shorthand that I don’t recognize anymore. Isn’t it funny how I foil myself by not thinking things though? If information is to be helpful to me, I have to not only take it in, but be able to understand it well enough to spit it back out without relying on notes that may or may not be there in the future to guide my way.