You know that note you wrote three months ago? The one with the brilliant idea, or the important detail from a meeting, or the recommendation from a friend? Good luck finding it.
Most note-taking apps give you two options: scroll through everything chronologically, or remember the exact words you used so you can search for them. Neither works very well when you're trying to piece together everything related to a project, a person, or an idea.
There's a better way: @mentions.
What's an @mention?
You already know how @mentions work from social media or messaging apps. Type @ followed by someone's name, and you've created a link to that person.
In Refpoint, you can @mention anything—people, projects, places, notes, events, even ideas you're still working through. When you mention something, you create a connection. And that connection works both ways.
A quick example
Let's say you're planning a trip to Portland. You create a page called @Portland Trip and start adding notes—restaurants to try, friends to visit, things to pack.
In your notes, you mention @Sarah because she recommended a coffee shop. You mention @Work because you need to request time off. You mention @Budget because this trip affects your spending.
Now here's where it gets useful: when you open your @Sarah page, you'll see that Portland Trip reference right there. When you check your @Budget page, the trip shows up. Everything stays connected without you having to organize anything into folders or remember where you put things.
You don't need a system
The beauty of @mentions is that you don't have to decide on a structure upfront. You don't need to create the perfect folder hierarchy or tag taxonomy before you start writing.
Just write naturally and mention things as they come up. The structure emerges from the connections you make. Over time, you'll notice patterns—certain projects or people that keep showing up together, ideas that cluster around a theme.
Practical tips
Start with what's already on your mind. Create pages for the people, projects, and topics that occupy your thoughts right now. Don't try to build a comprehensive system on day one.
Be consistent with names. @Mom and @Mother are two different pages. Pick one and stick with it.
Don't overthink it. If something feels related, mention it. You can always remove a mention later, but you can't benefit from connections you never made.
The payoff
After a few weeks of using @mentions naturally, something clicks. You stop worrying about where to put things. You stop losing track of scattered notes. When you need to find everything related to a project or person, it's just there—because you built the connections as you went.
Your notes become a web of everything that matters to you, and any thread can lead you to the rest.