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How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers
- Chapter 1: Everything You Need To Know
- Chapter 2: Everything You Need To Do
- Chapter 6: Simplicity Is Paramount
A book by Dr. Sönke Ahrens.
Chapter 1: Everything You Need To Know
I never force myself to do anything I don't feel like. Whenever I am stuck, I do something else.
— Niklas Luhmann, creator of Zettelkasten
The goal of a good note-taking process is to free yourself from the structures that get in the way of discovering and capturing ideas. This reminds me of The Zettelkasten Method - LessWrong 2.0, in which the author finds the linear approach of filling a whole page restricting, and instead prefers taking many small notes and building connections.
Taking better notes builds a knowledgebase which, as it builds in content and in trust, allows you to hold less in your head, freeing you up and improving focus. While my Work log does a good job of archiving what I've been up to, the handful of fuller, separate documents I occasionally write up tend to be more useful, and certainly easier to find what I need in.
Chapter 2: Everything You Need To Do
Don’t cling to an idea if another, more promising one gains momentum. The more you become interested in something, the more you will read and think about it, the more notes you will collect and the more likely it is that you will generate questions from it.
The Slip-box is intended to give you the freedom of hopping from one train of thought to another, following distractions and disjointed ideas, and having them all saved for later expansion and development. The insights gained from following a variety of things that catch your interest and the connections that form will be worthwhile, and the whole point is to enjoy the process rather than force it down your own throat.
Take fleeting notes and literature notes while reading through something, and take some time (ideally, that same day while they're still fresh) to form them into broader permanent notes based on your own thoughts, questions, and goals. Write them out fully, as though explaining them to someone else, because these notes will be what explains them to you again later on. Link them together in broader topics that serve as an index to a variety of thoughts and ideas. These notes can later be referenced when building up a full piece. In all likelyhood, they won't be copied straight in, but instead built upon further.
Chapter 6: Simplicity Is Paramount
A typical mistake is made by many diligent students who are adhering to the advice to keep a scientific journal. A friend of mine does not let any idea, interesting finding or quote he stumbles upon dwindle away and writes everything down. He always carries a notebook with him and often makes a few quick notes during a conversation. The advantage is obvious: No idea ever gets lost. The disadvantages are serious, though: As he treats every note as if it belongs to the “permanent” category, the notes will never build up a critical mass. The collection of good ideas is diluted to insignificance by all the other notes, which are only relevant for a specific project or actually not that good on second sight. On top of that, the strict chronological order does not offer any help to find, combine or rearrange ideas in a productive sense. It is not surprising that my friend has a bookshelf filled with notebooks full of wonderful ideas, but not a single publication to show.
The goal is to build a Slip-box thats value only grows the more that is added to it. This requires the notes that are added permanently to be sufficiently well written to be understood later, and also to be found when needed. Doctor Ahrens describes three separate types of notes at play: fleeting notes, project notes, and permanent notes.
Fleeting notes are not meant to be the Slip-box, or at least not for long. Theyr'e meant as quick snippets captured while doing something else. They're intended to be taken with minimal interruption, and revisited within the day or so while they're fresh to be elucidated upon, and then discarded once notes of value are generated from them.
Project notes exist for the specific purpose of supporting a particular effort, and should be clearly delineated from the rest of the notes, while still being a part of the overall collection. This is done to allow them to be discoverable while working on the project, but easily filtered when not, and to eventually be archived off when the project is complete.
Permanent notes are the ones that remain valuable independent of any particular project. It is these that you'll retain and revisit, and should be clearly written with enough context to be understandable on their own.
Fleeting entries lack substance or context and clutter the collection. Project-specific notes hold little relevance beyond the project itself, in content and in timeliness. They should be regularly pruned and archived to keep the experience of the Slip-box frustration-free. To reiterate an idea from earlier chapters, the ideas is to keep the experience pleasant, and avoid losing trust in the quality and usefulness of the tool. By remaining diligent about what goes into the Slip-box and what stays, you can avoid falling into the trap of large repeated clean-ups and other chores.