How to Take Smart Notes

by Sönke Ahrens

Productive writing is based on good note-taking.

It is not so important who you are, but what you do

Dunning-Kruger effect → those who are not very good at something tend to be overly confident, while those who have made an effort tend to underestimate their abilities

Writing is not a linear process. We constantly have to jump back and forth between different tasks.

Only if you can trust your system, only if you really know that everything will be taken care of, will your brain let go and let you focus on the task at hand

2 Everything you need to do

Writing notes accompanies the main work and, done right, it helps with it. Writing is, without dispute, the best facilitator for thinking, reading, learning, understanding and generating ideas we have

Double scope of writing:

1. helping understand, only when we write down concepts we can link them and find holes in our knowledge. In our disorganized and chaotic mind, everything seems to make sense, but only when we are free of the burden of storing the knowledge we have the cognitive resources to see the full picture
2. reducing work, while we learn we also build up resources for the future

Writing, steps:

1. fleeting notes → unorganized, can be on whatever you want
2. literature notes → notes about what you read, be selective and write only what you think you’ll need. Also, don’t copy, but re-elaborate them to understand the concepts more clearly
3. permanent notes → take notes from the first two steps and try to relate them to your thinking, write questions and new ideas that generate. Write one idea per note and as if you are writing for someone else, so make references, write full sentences and be as precise as possible.
4. add them to the slip-box →
   1. Put them behind one or more related notes
   2. Link related notes
   3. Make it accessible by writing it in the main index or in a topic index which is itself linked in the main index
5. develop them → just go with the flow
6. after a while, write about some topic → you’ll have enough developed ideas
7. turn notes in a rough draft → dont copy them, translate them and write coherent stuff
8. edit and proofread the manuscript

Four Underlying Principles

1. Writing is the only thing that matters ⇒ makes you in a deliberate state of mind since you need to write in your own words what you are reading. And deliberate practice is the only way to improve in what you are doing.
2. Simplicity is paramount ⇒

   in which context will I want to stumble upon it again? Fleeting notes are for quick ideas while you are busy doing something else → review them at the end of the day Permanent notes are literature and main notes Project notes will finish in the bin when the project is done

3. Nobody ever starts from scratch ⇒ idea of the hermeneutic circle. Brainstorming cannot work because the things you are supposed to find are not in the brain, but in other resources.
4. Let the work carry you forward ⇒ a good workflow is the only way to do good work. External stimuli are only short-term solutions, they don’t establish a positive feedback loop. A growth mindset (always seeking feedback) is essential for long-term success. This means having a circular model: having feedback while working on it, not at the end.

Six Steps to Successful Writing

1) Separate and Interlocking Tasks

1. give each task your undivided attention
2. multitasking is not a good idea → multitasking is actually switching attention really fast, which fatigues us in the long term. But people who do it feel more productive, when actually they aren’t.
3. give each task the right kind of attention → proofreader, critic and writer are all different roles with different tasks that needs to be done at different times
4. become an expert instead of a planner → trainees lack the experience to judge a situation so they blindly follow the rules that they have been taught. Experts have internalized the rule and rely on intuition.
5. get closure → we can hold maximum (+/- two) things in our head at the same time, We remember it better if we find connections or we understand it. Another effect to be considered is the Zeigarnik effect
6. reduce the number of decisions → motivation is another limited resource, when it is depleted we call it ego depletion

limited resources:

• attention
• short-term memory
• motivation

2) Read for Understanding

1. read with a pen in hand → the idea is not to copy, but having a “meaningful dialogue” with the text. Why copying is bad:
   • you don’t translate so you don’t make the idea your own
   • copying quotes anyways changes their meanings by stripping them out of context
   • forms a patchwork of ideas, not a coherent thought The length of the note does not matter, especially in the beginning of exploring a new idea the length will be higher. In terms of medium, it seems like writing on paper makes understand better, and does not impact in terms of things remembered. The explanation is because handwriting is slower.
2. keep an open mind → we are constantly plagued by the confirmation bias: we are naturally drawn to what makes us feel good, in this case things we can understand, while we should seek out dis-confirming arguments that challenges our way of living. To counter it:
   • develop ideas bottom-up instead of top-down ⇒ postpone the decision on what to write, first build a critical mass in the slip-box
   • gather any relevant information regardless of what argument it will support
3. get the gist → reading with a pen in hand forces yourself to be in a deliberate practice mode where you need to find the core of what you are reading. Reading becomes easier and we can more easily spot patterns and improve understanding, which in turn can increase our set of thinking tools.
   • Always asks the question: What is not meant, what is excluded if a certain claim is made?
   • With practice you will be able to express concepts in simpler terms, but not simplified → will impact also speaking
4. learn to read → writing helps us test if we understood the knowledge, and can only be done with writing or explaining. But learning is understanding, so it is crucial
5. learn by reading → cramming (rereading multiple times) doesn’t work for long term learning. The best method is elaboration, which is thinking about the meaning of what we read.

3) Take Smart Notes

Two problems with inexperienced readers:

1. not reading with questions in mind and relating to other approaches
2. de-contextualize information Solution:

• write a brief summary on the main ideas of the text
• do something with these ideas