How a “Normal Person” Built a Powerful Logos Notes Workflow (with BOOX and Zero Guilt)
What Chuck Kelley taught me about turning Logos Notes, shared notebooks, and a simple e‑ink tablet into a joyful, distraction‑free Bible study habit.
If you’ve ever opened Logos, seen ten panels and twenty buttons, and thought, “This is for professors, not for me,” you’re in good company.
In my interview with Chuck Kelley, I met a brother who came to Christ just recently, fell in love with Scripture, and then ran straight into the same wall many of us hit: he wanted the power of Logos, but not the guilt and overwhelm.
The way he solved that tension is beautifully simple—and deeply encouraging if you’re a pastor, teacher, or “just a normal person” who wants to love the Word more than you love your tools.
Let shared notebooks be your “training wheels” for doctrine
Chuck’s story with Logos Notes didn’t start with his own brilliance; it started with borrowed wisdom. He found a shared LSB translation notebook and the Westminster Confession notebook through the Logos community and imported them into his own account.
Suddenly, his Bible was dotted with green and yellow stars—visual anchors telling him, “This verse is a key text for the Westminster Confession” or “This passage shows up in the 1689 London Baptist Confession.”
Here’s a look at what I mean, and stay tuned to learn how you can do the same.
A bit of overview to the process follows, but don’t hesitate to ask me clarifying questions in the comments following this article:
Search in your Logos Documents pane for shared notebooks like LSB Translation Notes, Westminster Confession, or LBC 1689. Add those Documents to your own account so their notes appear in your Bible as you read.
Turn public notebooks into personal study companions
Once you’ve added a shared notebook, duplicate it into a personal notebook so you can change colors, icons, and formatting without breaking the original.
Use a consistent icon system (for Chuck, green stars = Westminster, yellow stars = 1689) so your eyes learn to recognize these doctrinal “mile markers” at a glance.
Use shared notebooks to disciple others
If you’re leading a Sunday School class through the confessions, imagine everyone reading the same passage and seeing the same anchors in their Bible—without flipping to a separate workbook.
You can even build a custom notebook for your class and share it, giving your people a guided tour through Scripture aligned with what you’re teaching.
If you don’t yet have a Logos library that includes these classic resources, consider upgrading to something like a Logos Pro subscription so your notes sit on top of a rich set of confessional and theological works.”
Build a “second brain” for theology with Logos Notes
At some point, Chuck realized he wasn’t just underlining verses—he was building a whole theological map inside Logos. He created notebooks for the Five Solas, TULIP (Calvinism), and F.A.C.S. (Arminianism), then anchored those notes to specific passages.
Here’s what that looked like:
Five Solas notebook – A note explaining each sola, with Scripture references and quotes, anchored to key verses with a black star icon.
TULIP notebook – A series of notes for each point of Calvinism, anchored to dozens of verses with a pink flower icon.
F.A.C.S. notebook – A parallel notebook for Arminianism, so that as he reads he sees both sides represented in the text.
You can adopt the same pattern:
Create topical notebooks for real questions
Instead of trying to “master Logos,” start with questions you or your people actually have: “What is grace alone?” “Where does Scripture teach unconditional election?”
Make a notebook per topic (or per framework) and paste in short definitions, helpful quotes, and key references as you study.
Anchor your learning directly to the passage
As you gather verses, anchor your notes to the relevant passages so that icons appear in your Bible text.
Use emojis or shapes that make sense to you (Chuck uses different icons and colors to distinguish “my note” from “class note” or “confession anchor”).
Read like a disciple, not just a researcher
When you’re in “reading mode,” you may not open every note—but the icons remind you, “This verse matters in that larger conversation.”
When you’re in “learning mode,” you can open those notes, review the Scriptures, and slowly refine your understanding as you grow.
If you want your notes workflow to scale as you grow, a subscription like Logos Pro gives you access to smart search, syncing across devices, and enough tools to make your ‘second brain’ genuinely useful without buying everything up front.
See the New Testament use of the Old Testament on mobile
This might be my favorite part of Chuck’s story, because it’s where a limitation becomes a spiritual opportunity. He loves how the Legacy Standard Bible uses small caps to show when the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, but when he switched to the ESV, those cues disappeared.
On desktop, you can create a visual filter that highlights OT quotations in the NT—but visual filters don’t work on mobile, and Chuck does almost all his reading on mobile and BOOX—e-ink reader style (more on that in a moment).
So he built his own workaround:
Start with a passage list
Use search or community resources to build a passage list of “NT use of OT” references.
Save that list in Logos so you can revisit and expand it as you go.
Create one note per NT–OT connection
For each reference, create a note that includes the OT passage being quoted and a short description if needed.
Anchor that note to both the NT verse and the OT verse, and apply a custom highlight style (Chuck uses a double green underline labeled “NT use of OT”).
Read with connections turned on
On mobile or BOOX, when he sees the green underline, he taps and instantly sees which OT passage is being quoted—without leaving his reading view.
Reading a psalm and seeing that it’s quoted all over the New Testament gives him a sense o f how deeply the apostles lived in those texts.
This is exactly the kind of workflow that turns Logos from “complicated software” into a companion that helps you see how Scripture interprets Scripture.
Build a distraction‑free reading setup with BOOX and audio
Like a lot of us, Chuck owns an iPad, loves the Logos mobile app—and finds the notifications unbearable when he’s trying to be still with the Lord. Texts, email, social media: all of it pulls him away from the Text that really matters.
So he bought a BOOX Go 7: a small, color e‑ink tablet with physical page‑turn buttons that runs Android. He installed Logos, set up his favorite layout, and—almost by accident—turned it into a “single‑purpose Bible device.”
A few details that stood out:
On BOOX, the top status bar (time, battery, etc.) is basically invisible in Logos, which frustrated him at first and then became a blessing: there’s nothing on the screen reminding him of time pressure.
The physical buttons let him turn pages without swiping, and once he tuned the display settings, scrolling became smooth enough for normal reading.
Because it’s the same Logos mobile app, all his notes, highlights, and shared notebooks still show—just without the noise of a general‑purpose tablet.
Then he adds one more layer: audio. Chuck has strong audio focus and weaker visual focus, so he often plays the audio Bible or uses text‑to‑speech in Logos while he reads along on BOOX.
You could borrow this pattern:
Dedicate one device to Scripture
It doesn’t have to be a BOOX, but an e‑ink device (or even an old tablet with notifications disabled and no social apps installed) can become a “Scripture‑only” space.
The goal is not minimalism for its own sake; it’s removing friction so you can give God your whole attention.
Let Logos read to you while you read along
When an audio Bible is available (for example, in ESV), tap the speaker icon and listen as you follow the text.
If there’s no audio Bible, use text‑to‑speech as a bridge, trusting that this habit can help you stay present longer, especially if you share Chuck’s attention challenges.
Keep the same workflows everywhere
Remember: the notebooks and highlights you set up on desktop follow you onto your phone, iPad, and BOOX.
You only have to “architect” this once; after that, your system walks with you wherever you open Logos.
If you’re going to invest in this kind of long‑term workflow, consider pairing your hardware setup with a robust Logos library and a perk-heavy Logos subscription such, so you’re never starved for trustworthy resources when those notes lead you deeper.
Recommended Logos Resources
Here are three Logos products that especially complement the kind of workflows Chuck models:
Why it fits: Chuck only jumped into Logos because the subscription lowered the cost of entry, then he discovered features like smart search, synced notes, and the broader ecosystem.
How it helps your workflow: You can start with a reasonable monthly cost, build out your notebooks and reading habits, and then grow your library as your ministry and study needs grow.
Why it fits: Once Chuck got comfortable, he began buying libraries so Logos had “more to pull from” when he searched and studied.
How it helps your workflow: A robust base library means your notes, highlights, and searches connect to solid commentaries, theologies, and reference works that actually answer your questions.
BDAG & HALOT Bundle (or similar original‑language lexicon set)
Why it fits: As your note‑based “second brain” grows, you’ll eventually want more precision with key Greek and Hebrew terms—and Logos shines when paired with high‑quality lexicons.
How it helps your workflow: You can link your notes to specific word studies, giving you an anchored trail from text, to lexicon, to theology, and back again.
Bringing it Home
What I love most about Chuck’s story is that he never set out to become “advanced” in Logos. He just wanted to read his Bible everywhere, pay attention to what God was saying, and build a system that would grow with him as he grew in Christ.
That’s the heart behind Logos Coach, too: you are the one God has called to feed people with his Word; Logos is just a tool in your hands. My job is to help you put down the guilt, stop chasing every feature, and build a few simple, durable workflows that will still serve you ten years from now.
So here’s a gentle challenge:
This week, don’t try to “learn Logos.” Instead, pick one of Chuck’s practices—shared notebooks, a theology notebook, NT/OT highlights, or distraction‑free reading—and set up a tiny version of it in your Logos. Then use it with one real passage and one real person in mind.
If you’d like help sketching that out, hit reply to this email or leave a comment with where you’re feeling stuck. I’d be honored to come alongside you and help you design a workflow that fits your real life, not someone else’s ideal.
Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. If you choose to purchase through them, it doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it helps support the work I’m doing through Logos Coach so I can keep serving pastors and Bible students like you.
Wow man! Thank you. Great article! Thanks for making me sound smarter than I am! 😉