How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking

by Sönke Ahrens

Writing is not what follows research, learning or studying, it is the medium of all this work.

That is why good, productive writing is based on good note-taking. Getting something that is already written into another written piece is incomparably easier than assembling everything in your mind and then trying to retrieve it from there.

To sum it up: The quality of a paper and the ease with which it is written depends more than anything on what you have done in writing before you even made a decision on the topic.

What does make a significant difference along the whole intelligence spectrum is something else: how much self-discipline or self-control one uses to approach the tasks at hand (Duckworth and Seligman, 2005; Tangney, Baumeister, and Boone, 2004).

Having a meaningful and well-defined task beats willpower every time. Not having willpower, but not having to use willpower indicates that you set yourself up for success.

A good structure is something you can trust. It relieves you from the burden of remembering and keeping track of everything. If you can trust the system, you can let go of the attempt to hold everything together in your head and you can start focusing on what is important: The content, the argument and the ideas.

3.1). A good structure enables flow, the state in which you get so completely immersed in your work that you lose track of time and can just keep on going as the work becomes effortless (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975).

He did not just copy ideas or quotes from the texts he read, but made a transition from one context to another. It was very much like a translation where you use different words that fit a different context, but strive to keep the original meaning as truthfully as possible.

We need a reliable and simple external structure to think in that compensates for the limitations of our brains.

Write exactly one note for each idea and write as if you were writing for someone else: Use full sentences, disclose your sources, make references and try to be as precise, clear and brief as possible.

core idea of the slip-box: Focus on the essentials and don’t complicate things unnecessarily.

THE FOUR UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES

Writing Is the Only Thing That Matters

Simplicity Is Paramount

Nobody Ever Starts From Scratch

Let the Work Carry You Forward

THE SIX STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL WRITING

Separate and Interlocking Tasks

Give Each Task Your Undivided Attention

Multitasking is not a good idea

Give Each Task the Right Kind of Attention

Get Closure

Read for Understanding

Read With a Pen in Hand

Keep an Open Mind

Get the Gist

The ability to distinguish relevant from less relevant information is another skill that can only be learned by doing.

“Nonage [immaturity] is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one’s own mind without another’s guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) ‘Have the courage to use your own understanding,’ is therefore the motto of the Enlightenment.” (Kant 1784)

Learn to Read

“If you can’t say it clearly, you don’t understand it yourself.” –John Searle

Learn by Reading

Take Smart Notes

Make a Career One Note at a Time

Think Outside the Brain

literature notes is a form of deliberate practice as it gives us feedback on our understanding or lack of it, while the effort to put into our own words the gist of something is at the same time the best approach to understanding what we read.

Taking permanent notes of our own thoughts is a form of self-testing as well: do they still make sense in writing? Are we even able to get the thought on paper? Do we have the references, facts and supporting sources at hand? And at the same time, writing it is the best way to get our thoughts in order. Writing here, too, is not copying, but translating (from one con...

Learn by not Trying

Develop Ideas

“Every note is just an element in the network of references and back references in the system, from which it gains its quality.” – Luhmann 1992

Make Smart Connections

Compare, Correct and Differentiate

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.” – Steve Jobs

Facilitate Creativity through Restrictions

Instead of having the choice between all kinds of fancy notebooks, papers or writing formats, or being able to employ the whole range of productivity tools available for note-taking, learning and academic or nonfiction writing, everything is reduced to a single plain-text format and collected in a single, simple slip-box system with no frills or features.

Share Your Insight

From Brainstorming to Slip-box-Storming

“Remember the lesson: ‘An idea or a fact is not worth more merely because it is easily available to you.’” – Charles T. Munger

Getting Things Done by Following Your Interests It is not surprising that motivation is shown to be one of the most important indicators for successful students – next to the feeling of being in control of one’s own learning course.

If you encounter resistance or an opposing force, you should not push against it, but redirect it towards another productive goal.

Becoming an Expert by Giving up Planning