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

by Sönke Ahrens

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).

Willpower is, as far as we know today,1 a limited resource that depletes quickly and is also not that much up for improvement over the long term

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.

“Notes on paper, or on a computer screen [...] do not make contemporary physics or other kinds of intellectual endeavour easier, they make it possible,” neuroscientist

Ironically, it is therefore often the highly gifted and talented students, who receive a lot of praise, who are more in danger of developing a fixed mindset and getting stuck.

Having been praised for what they are (talented and gifted) rather than for what they do, they tend to focus on keeping this impression intact, rather than exposing themselves to new challenges and the possibility of learning from failure. Embracing a growth mindset means to get pleasure out of changing for the better (which is mostly inwardly rewarding) instead of getting pleasure in being praised (which is outwardly rewarding).

The ability to express understanding in one’s own words is a fundamental competency for everyone who writes – and only by doing it with the chance of realizing our lack of understanding can we become better at

THE SIX STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL WRITING 9 Separate and Interlocking Tasks 9.1 Give Each Task Your Undivided Attention According to a widely cited study, the constant interruption of emails and text messages cuts our productivity by about 40% and makes us at least 10 IQ points dumber.

We can hold a maximum of seven things in our head at the same time, plus/minus two (Miller 1956).

Acts of self-control, responsible decision making, and active choice seem to interfere with other such acts that follow soon after.

If you decide to write your notes by hand, just keep them in one place and sort them alphabetically in the usual way: “SurnameYear.” Then you can easily match them with the bibliographic details in your reference system. But whether you write them by hand or not, keep in mind that it is all about the essence, the understanding and preparation for the next step — the transferring of ideas into the context of your own lines of thoughts in the slip-box.

While we should seek out disconfirming arguments and facts that challenge our way of thinking, we are naturally drawn to everything that makes us feel good, which is everything that confirms what we already believe we know.

This is a good rule of thumb: If insight becomes a threat to your academic or writing success, you are doing it wrong.

‘Have the courage to use your own understanding,’ is therefore the motto of the Enlightenment.” (Kant 1784)

In short: Pure re-viewing just doesn’t make any sense, neither for understanding nor for learning. It is debatable if we even can call it learning.

“The results of several recent studies support the hypothesis that retention is facilitated by acquisition conditions that prompt people to elaborate information in a way that increases the distinctiveness of their memory representations.” (Stein et al. 1984, 522)

A writer asks: In which circumstances will I want to stumble upon this note, even if I forget about it? It is a crucial difference.

1. The first type of links are those on notes that are giving you the overview of a topic. These are notes directly referred to from the index

A truly wise person is not someone who knows everything, but someone who is able to make sense of things by drawing from an extended resource of interpretation schemes.

Even sudden breakthroughs are usually preceded by a long, intense process of preparation.

It is very good to know what has already proven to not work if we try to come up with new ideas that do work.

Each note should fit onto the screen and there should be no need of scrolling.

The biggest threat to creativity and scientific progress is therefore the opposite: a lack of structure and restrictions.

Indifference is the worst environment for insight.

We know from sports that it doesn’t help when athletes imagine themselves as winners of a race, but it makes a big difference if they imagine all the training that is necessary to be able to win. Having a more realistic idea in mind not only helps them to perform better, it also boosts their motivation (Singer et al. 2001).

According to the famous law of Parkinson, every kind of work tends to fill the time we set aside for it, like air fills every corner of a room (Parkinson 1957).

If there is one piece of advice that is worth giving, it is to keep in mind that the first draft is only the first draft.

we most certainly act according to our intention if we happen to intend to do exactly what we used to do before.