How to Take Smart Notes  🔗 **Source:** [How to Take Smart Notes]() > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: [note-taking, zettelkasten, knowledge-management] > author: Mike Gaston > source: YouTube > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw > date created: 2024-12-19 15:30 > > # 🏷️ Title: How To Take Smart Notes - Transform Your Thinking and Writing > <!-- deep-read:sections start --> ## 🧰 Action Inbox - [H1] Implement three-note system: fleeting, literature, permanent notes — 00:08:43 #productivity - [H2] Set up external zettelkasten system for networked thinking — 00:06:23 #knowledge-management - [H3] Practice writing as thinking rather than copying quotes — 00:04:12 #writing ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - [How to Take Smart Notes on Amazon](https://amazon.com/how-to-take-smart-notes) - [Zettelkasten subreddit](https://reddit.com/r/zettelkasten) ## 📝 Summary - Mike Gaston reviews "How to Take Smart Notes" by Dr. Sönke Ahrens, which reveals Nicholas Luhmann's note-taking system - The system helped Luhmann publish 70+ books and 400+ scholarly articles through networked thinking - Key principles: writing IS thinking, external systems enhance cognition, and emergent approaches beat rigid planning - Three note types: fleeting (quick captures), literature (reading notes), permanent (refined insights) - Bottom line: This system transforms how you think, learn, and produce original insights by externalizing and connecting knowledge ## 📖 Main Content Dr. Sönke Ahrens' book reveals the zettelkasten (slip-box) system used by sociologist Nicholas Luhmann, one of the 20th century's most prolific scholars. The system centers on three revolutionary principles that challenge conventional approaches to learning and writing. **Writing as Thinking**: Rather than thinking first then writing, the act of writing becomes the mechanism for thinking itself. This means distilling ideas into your own words rather than copying quotes, forcing active engagement with material. **External Systems**: The zettelkasten serves as an external memory and thinking partner. Notes are numbered, linked, and networked, creating a web of interconnected ideas that reveals patterns and generates insights over time. **Emergent Approach**: Instead of forcing topics, projects emerge organically from the accumulated and connected notes. This allows for following natural interests while maintaining multiple projects simultaneously. ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=0) — [H1] Book Introduction and Impact Claims - Key idea: "How to Take Smart Notes" has life-transforming potential through revealing Luhmann's system - Evidence: "Helped Nicholas Luhmann publish over 70 books and over 400 scholarly articles" #### ⏱️ [01:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=103) — [H2] Book Structure Overview - Key idea: Simple 150-page book with three clear sections for practical implementation - Evidence: "Everything you need to know, four underlying principles, and six steps to successful writing" #### ⏱️ [02:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=153) — [H1] Core Takeaway: Writing IS Thinking - Key idea: Writing should be the process of thinking, not just recording pre-formed thoughts - Evidence: "The process of writing is actually a way to think, a very powerful way to think" #### ⏱️ [04:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=252) — [H2] Distillation Over Copying - Key idea: Transform passages into your own words rather than highlighting or copying quotes - Evidence: "Take that passage and write about that passage and try to distill that passage down into your own words" #### ⏱️ [05:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=323) — [H1] External System Value - Key idea: Human memory is insufficient; external systems create networked thinking infrastructure - Evidence: "There's too much typically for the human mind to remember" #### ⏱️ [06:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=383) — [H2] Zettelkasten as Thinking Partner - Key idea: The slip-box system links and integrates notes to reveal connections and insights - Evidence: "You could link your notes... they start relating to each other, they begin to become contextualized" #### ⏱️ [07:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=465) — [H2] Three Note Types Introduction - Key idea: Systematic approach uses fleeting, literature, and permanent notes for different purposes - Evidence: "Three types of notes that Sönke Ahrens suggests" #### ⏱️ [08:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=495) — [H3] Fleeting Notes Definition - Key idea: Quick capture of thoughts and questions for later processing - Evidence: "You have a thought, you just jot it down... on a regular basis either daily weekly you will sit and process" #### ⏱️ [09:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=552) — [H3] Literature Notes Process - Key idea: Active reading notes that distill and connect ideas in your own words - Evidence: "I'm distilling down what I've read into my own words, maybe my own thoughts on it" #### ⏱️ [10:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=603) — [H3] Permanent Notes as System Core - Key idea: Refined notes that become networked knowledge base serving lifetime learning - Evidence: "Things that you want to capture, the things that you want to own... serve you over a lifetime" #### ⏱️ [11:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=683) — [H1] Emergent Approach Benefits - Key idea: Projects bubble up from accumulated notes rather than forced topic selection - Evidence: "Your content, your writing bubbles up, it emerges from this note-taking process" #### ⏱️ [12:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=765) — [H2] Personal Impact Results - Key idea: System delivers tangible benefits in comprehension, insight generation, and professional success - Evidence: "Getting way more out of what I'm reading... significantly more insights... high paying consulting projects" #### ⏱️ [14:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=873) — [H2] Book Strengths - Key idea: Well-written, accessible, practical book with good examples and organization - Evidence: "Great writer, highly digestible, leads with the facts... easy to read" #### ⏱️ [15:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw?t=912) — [H3] Areas for Improvement - Key idea: Could use more hands-on implementation details for beginners - Evidence: "Wanting more data information on how exactly do I do this zettelkasten" ## 📚 References - [How to Take Smart Notes by Dr. Sönke Ahrens](https://amazon.com/how-to-take-smart-notes) - [Zettelkasten subreddit](https://reddit.com/r/zettelkasten) - [Roam Research](https://roamresearch.com/) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - The zettelkasten system transforms note-taking from passive copying to active thinking by requiring you to rewrite ideas in your own words and link them to other concepts - An external note system serves as a thinking partner that reveals patterns and connections your brain alone couldn't maintain across thousands of ideas and sources - Rather than forcing yourself to write about predetermined topics, let writing projects emerge organically from your growing network of interconnected notes and insights ## 📰 Newsletter **Transform Your Learning with Smart Note-Taking** Fellow WordPress builders, here's a game-changing approach to managing the constant influx of documentation, tutorials, and technical insights we encounter daily. The zettelkasten system revealed in "How to Take Smart Notes" offers a powerful alternative to bookmark chaos and forgotten highlights. Instead of copying code snippets and quotes, try distilling concepts into your own words and linking related ideas together. Imagine having a searchable, networked knowledge base where that performance optimization technique connects to your accessibility notes, which link to your design system insights. Over time, this external thinking system generates original solutions and reveals patterns you'd never spot otherwise. **Quick Implementation**: Start with three simple note types - fleeting captures during the day, literature notes while reading docs, and permanent refined insights for your growing knowledge network. Resources: [Learn WordPress](https://learn.wordpress.org/), [Developer Docs](https://developer.wordpress.org/), [WP-CLI](https://wp-cli.org/) ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Education: Develop zettelkasten workshops for developer learning systems, office hours on knowledge management - Developer experience: Create networked documentation that links concepts across different areas - Community management: Implement community knowledge gardens where insights connect and evolve #### OSPO - License Compliance: Build networked compliance knowledge base linking policies, precedents, and training materials - Developer Support: Create consultation knowledge system that captures and connects recurring patterns - Strategic Alignment: Develop emergent OKR system that allows goals to surface from accumulated insights #### Community - Contributors: Design onboarding knowledge network that connects skills, projects, and mentorship opportunities - Sponsors: Create transparent impact knowledge base linking funding to emergent outcomes - Ecosystem: Build cross-project insight network revealing collaboration opportunities #### WordPress - Core: Implement networked decision documentation connecting performance budgets, user needs, and technical constraints - Documentation: Create HelpHub/DevHub knowledge network linking concepts across different skill levels - Training: Develop learning path system where educational content emerges from networked foundational concepts - Community: Build meetup knowledge sharing system connecting local insights with global patterns #### The WPCC - Programs: Create fellowship knowledge network connecting mentors, projects, and emerging opportunities - Funding: Develop grant decision knowledge base linking criteria, outcomes, and community impact patterns ## 🧪 Hypotheses - Networked note-taking systems increase knowledge retention and insight generation compared to linear approaches - Writing-as-thinking produces more original ideas than think-then-write methodologies - External knowledge systems with linking capabilities reveal patterns invisible to individual cognition - Emergent project selection based on accumulated notes leads to higher engagement and better outcomes ### 📊 Methodology - A/B test traditional vs zettelkasten note-taking approaches measuring retention and insight generation - Longitudinal study tracking idea originality and connections across different note-taking systems - Network analysis comparing insight emergence in linked vs isolated knowledge systems ### ❓ Questions - How do digital vs analog zettelkasten implementations affect thinking quality and pattern recognition? - What optimal linking strategies maximize serendipitous insight discovery in large knowledge networks? - How can team-based zettelkasten systems enhance collective intelligence while preserving individual thinking development? ### 🔮 Future Research - Integration of AI-assisted pattern recognition with human zettelkasten systems - Collaborative knowledge networks that maintain individual agency while enabling collective insight - Adaptive note-taking systems that learn individual thinking patterns and suggest optimal connections ### 💡 Implications - Practice: Fundamental shift from information consumption to active knowledge construction and synthesis - Education: Move from lecture-based to network-based learning where insights emerge from connected concepts - Security: Knowledge systems require backup and version control strategies to protect intellectual investment - Funding: Long-term knowledge development requires sustained resource allocation rather than project-based thinking ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment Reading level estimate: Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 9.2 #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: Examples of note connections, system diagrams implied through description - Improve: Actual zettelkasten screenshots, network visualization diagrams, note linking examples #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: Video format with clear verbal explanations and personal narrative - Improve: Podcast version, audio examples of thinking-through-writing process #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: Clear definitions, analogies to card catalogs and hyperlinking, concrete examples - Improve: More metaphors for abstract concepts, comparison tables of note-taking approaches #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: References to physical card systems, hands-on implementation discussion - Improve: Step-by-step setup guides, practice exercises, template downloads #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: Clear cause-and-effect relationships, systematic three-note framework, numbered steps - Improve: Decision trees for note classification, flowcharts for linking strategies #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: Community references (Reddit), sharing of personal experience and results - Improve: Study group guides, peer review processes for note systems, collaborative exercises #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: Individual system development, personal reflection on learning transformation - Improve: Self-assessment rubrics, private journaling prompts, solo practice schedules #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: Organic emergence metaphors, natural pattern recognition discussion - Improve: Ecosystem analogies for knowledge networks, growth pattern examples ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: Clear heading structure, descriptive timestamps - Improve: Alt text for any visual examples, ARIA labels for interactive elements #### Keyboard navigation - Present: Standard video controls accessible via keyboard - Improve: Transcript navigation, chapter jumping capabilities #### Contrast and readability - Present: Standard video player contrast - Improve: High contrast video player option, adjustable text size for descriptions #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: Responsive video player - Improve: Reflowable transcript format, adjustable line spacing #### Media and captions - Present: Full transcript provided - Improve: Time-synced captions, downloadable SRT file #### Forms and interactions - Present: Standard YouTube interaction elements - Improve: Accessible note-taking templates, screen reader friendly examples ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: Universal learning principles, accessible academic references - Improve: Examples from diverse knowledge traditions, multilingual note-taking considerations #### Inclusive language - Present: Gender-neutral language, accessible explanations of academic concepts - Improve: Plain language alternatives for jargon, cultural context for German terms #### Neurodiversity support - Present: Clear structure, concrete examples, multiple implementation options - Improve: ADHD-friendly chunking strategies, autism-friendly systematic approaches #### Representation - Present: Focus on methodology over personality, diverse implementation options - Improve: Examples from varied professional contexts, acknowledgment of different learning needs #### Psychological safety - Present: Encouraging tone, acknowledgment of individual preferences - Improve: Explicit permission for adaptation, validation of different approaches ### ✅ Logical Validity #### Strong reasoning - Deductive strength: Clear logical progression from principles to implementation to outcomes - Inductive strength: Personal experience evidence supports broader claims about system effectiveness - Causal reasoning: Establishes clear links between note-taking methods and thinking <!-- deep-read:sections end --> ## Highlights - 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. By breaking down the amorphous task of “writing a paper” into small and clearly separated tasks, you can focus on one thing at a time, complete each in one go and move on to the next one (Chapter 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). Something like that does not happen by chance. - Note: I need more clarity in my writing. I enjoy reading and organizing ideas. I love the GTD approach to work. I aspire to systematize areas of my life like this. - Having a clear structure to work in is completely different from making plans about something. If you make a plan, you impose a structure on yourself; it makes you inflexible. To keep going according to plan, you have to push yourself and employ willpower. - Note: Frameworks for how to work can be freeing and helpful. With no next actions, I easily forget ideas. With a workflow to read, process, process, write, I don’t need to store my next actions in my head or left to highlights. - In psychology, this is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect (Kruger and Dunning, 1999). Poor students lack insight into their own limitations – as they would have to know about the vast amount of knowledge out there to be able to see how little they know in comparison. That means that 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. - Even if you don’t aim to develop a grand theory and just want to keep track of what you read, organise your notes and develop your thoughts, you will have to deal with an increasingly complex body of content, especially because it is not just about collecting thoughts, but about making connections and sparking new ideas. - Note: It feels much like building our own mini-internet of connected notes and ideas. - The best way to deal with complexity is to keep things as simple as possible and to follow a few basic principles. - Only if nothing else is lingering in our working memory and taking up valuable mental resources can we experience what Allen calls a “mind like water” - the state where we can focus on the work right in front of us without getting distracted by competing thoughts. - Everything needs to be taken care of, otherwise the neglected bits will nag us until the unimportant tasks become urgent. - Studies on highly successful people have proven again and again that success is not the result of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but rather the result of smart working environments that avoid resistance in the first place - Intuitively, most people do not expect much from simple ideas. They rather assume that impressive results must have equally impressively complicated means. - Note: I am still amazed at how often the idea of learning how others have achieved results and learning from their experience evades folks. As an educator, it is ingrained to always think from the learner’s perspective and to learn from others. - Whenever he read something, he would write the bibliographic information on one side of a card and make brief notes about the content on the other side (Schmidt 2013, 170). These notes would end up in the bibliographic slip-box. - He did not just copy ideas or quotes from the texts he read, but made a transition from one context to another. - The trick is that he did not organise his notes by topic, but in the rather abstract way of giving them fixed numbers. - Searching through a file system with strings of discussions, plenty of material and ideas is, believe it or not, fun. It does not require the kind of focused attention you would need to formulate a sentence or to understand a difficult text. Your attention is rather at ease and it even helps to have a playful mindset. - Note: Can research be playful? I do love this idea. - Writing these notes is also not the main work. Thinking is. Reading is. Understanding and coming up with ideas is. And this is how it is supposed to be. The notes are just the tangible outcome of it. - Note: Synthesizing information with unique perspectives is the main work of research, and it can be fun. - Writing is, without dispute, the best facilitator for thinking, reading, learning, understanding and generating ideas we have. - Note: I believe publishing on my blog or other professional outlets to be one of the main destinations for my research. - Thinking, reading, learning, understanding and generating ideas is the main work of everyone who studies, does research or writes. - Make fleeting notes. Always have something at hand to write with to capture every idea that pops into your mind. - Note: This is a takeaway for me: always be taking notes. - Tags: favorite - Make literature notes. Whenever you read something, make notes about the content. Write down what you don’t want to forget or think you might use in your own thinking or writing. - Note: I struggle in this step in particular. I highlight key texts, but turning these into my own ideas or words is a challenge. I think here is where I go back to “How to Read a Book” to consider if I agree or disagree with the author’s premise. My brain craves a framework for what to write in literature notes. - Make permanent notes. Now turn to your slip-box. Go through the notes you made in step one or two (ideally once a day and before you forget what you meant) and think about how they relate to what is relevant for your own research, thinking or interests. - The idea is not to collect, but to develop ideas, arguments and discussions. Does the new information contradict, correct, support or add to what you already have (in the slip-box or on your mind)? Can you combine ideas to generate something new? What questions are triggered by them? - 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. Throw away the fleeting notes from step one and put the literature notes from step two into your reference system. You can forget about them now. All that matters is going into the slip-box. - Note: After random ideas and well-crafted responses, permanent notes feel like the rough draft of a book report. - Filing each one behind one or more related notes - Adding links to related notes. - Making sure you will be able to find this note later by either linking to it from your index or by making a link to it on a note that you use as an entry point to a discussion or topic and is itself linked to the index. - Tags: favorite - Develop your topics, questions and research projects bottom up from within the system. - you will have developed ideas far enough to decide on a topic to write about. Your topic is now based on what you have, not based on an unfounded idea about what the literature you are about to read might provide. - Turn your notes into a rough draft. - Edit and proofread your manuscript. - Academic writing in itself is not a complicated process that requires a variety of complicated tools, but is in constant danger of being clogged with unnecessary distractions. - Note: Keeping things simple yet standardizing how we process information is vital when we need to locate information again later. - reduce distractions from the main work, which here is thinking. - Note: Giving ourselves time to think and a way to process information for future retrieval is vital to our retention of information and preparation for future needs. - ·     Something to write with and something to write on (pen and paper will do) ·     A reference management system (the best programs are free) ·     The slip-box (the best program is free) ·     An editor (whatever works best for you: very good ones are free) - You need something to capture ideas whenever and wherever they pop into your head. - The reference system has two purposes: To collect the references (duh) and the notes you take during your reading. - The slip-box. Some prefer the old-fashioned pen and paper version in a wooden box. - Finally, the editor: - Soon, you will be able to access the whole digitalised slip-box online. Add to this understanding recent psychological insights about learning, creativity and thinking, and we also get a pretty good picture why it works. - Students should not only learn to write papers, but also learn facts, be able to discuss their ideas in seminars and listen carefully to lectures. - Note: Can I recall important lessons from books I’ve previously read? How are they shaping my life now? - Studying does not prepare students for independent research. It is independent research. Nobody starts from scratch and everybody is already able to think for themselves. Studying, done properly, is research, because it is about gaining insight that cannot be anticipated and will be shared within the scientific community under public scrutiny. There is no such thing as private knowledge in academia. - Attending lectures is also one of the best ways to get an idea about the current state of research, not to mention the ability to ask and discuss questions. - Focusing on writing also doesn’t mean to stop giving presentations or finding other ways of making your thoughts public. - Where else could you get feedback for your ideas? - Note: I want to view the notes I take from books as ideas to be presented in significant talks. Synthesizing ideas from many sources into a solid idea or topic of a presentation. - You will become more focused on the most relevant aspects, knowing that you cannot write down everything. You will read in a more engaged way, because you cannot rephrase anything in your own words if you don’t understand what it is about. By doing this, you will elaborate on the meaning, which will make it much more likely that you will remember it. - Deliberate practice is the only serious way of becoming better at what we are doing - In the old system, the question is: Under which topic do I store this note? In the new system, the question is: In which context will I want to stumble upon it again? - The slip-box is designed to present you with ideas you have already forgotten, allowing your brain to focus on thinking instead of remembering. - Note: I want to let go of remembering, rereading, and holding it all in my brain. I cannot contain the significant facts in my brain while also being pulled into the worries of the day. - Fleeting notes, which are only reminders of information, can be written in any kind of way and will end up in the trash within a day or two. - Permanent notes, which will never be thrown away and contain the necessary information in themselves in a permanently understandable way. - Project notes, which are only relevant to one particular project. They are kept within a project-specific folder and can be discarded or archived after the project is finished. - A typical mistake is made by many diligent students who are adhering to the advice to keep a scientific journal. - The second typical mistake is to collect notes only related to specific projects. On first sight, it makes much more sense. - The third typical mistake is, of course, to treat all notes as fleeting ones. - Fleeting notes are only useful if you review them within a day or so and turn them into proper notes you can use later. - Permanent notes, on the other hand, are written in a way that can still be understood even when you have forgotten the context they are taken from. - The things you are supposed to find in your head by brainstorming usually don’t have their origins in there. Rather, they come from the outside: through reading, having discussions and listening to others, through all the things that could have been accompanied and often even would have been improved by writing. - Having trouble finding the right topic is a symptom of the wrong attempt to rely heavily on the limitations of the brain, not the inevitable problematic starting point, as most study guides insinuate. - develop your thinking in writing, open questions will become clearly visible and give you an abundance of possible topics to elaborate further in writing. - Sometimes we feel like our work is draining our energy and we can only move forward if we put more and more energy into it. But sometimes it is the opposite. Once we get into the workflow, it is as if the work itself gains momentum, pulling us along and sometimes even energizing us. This is the kind of dynamic we are looking for. - Note: Spending more time does not increase productivity. Getting into a routine and the right headspace makes for more productive work. Implement methods that will get you into the zone. - Feedback loops are not only crucial for the dynamics of motivation, but also the key element to any learning process. Nothing motivates us more than the experience of becoming better at what we do. And the only chance to improve in something is getting timely and concrete feedback. Seeking feedback, not avoiding it, is the first virtue of anyone who wants to learn, - Note: A feedback loop helps us to improve ourselves, refine our ideas, and share our ideas concisely. - Expressing our own thoughts in writing makes us realise if we really thought them through. - Note: Our permanent notes become our feedback loop. These provide feedback and help us view the content as if it were an original idea we discovered. - Give Each Task Your Undivided Attention - Multitasking is not a good idea - Writing a paper involves much more than just typing on the keyboard. It also means reading, understanding, reflecting, getting ideas, making connections, distinguishing terms, finding the right words, structuring, organizing, editing, correcting and rewriting. All these are not just different tasks, but tasks requiring a different kind of attention. It is not only impossible to focus on more than one thing at a time, but also to have a different kind of attention on more than one thing at a time. - The good news is that we can train ourselves to stay focused on one thing for longer if we avoid multitasking, remove possible distractions and separate different kinds of tasks as much as possible so they will not interfere with each other. - Note: Separating tasks and single-tasking helps us to be more productive. Practicing this habit will increase our focus and attention span. - Give Each Task the Right Kind of Attention - Proofreading, for example, is obviously part of the writing process, but requires a very different state of mind than the attempt to find the right words. - Note: Select which tasks to do at which times. Write when in the most creative state, and proofread in a different state. - It is also easier to focus on finding the right words if we don’t have to think about the structure of the text at the same time, which is why a printed outline of the manuscript should be always in front of our eyes. - Note: Use an outline to guide the big picture of a polished writing work. - Outlining or changing the outline is also a very different task that requires a very different focus on something else: not on one thought, but on the whole argument. - Reading, of course, is also different. Reading in itself can require very different kinds of attention, depending on the text. Some texts need to be read slowly and carefully, while others are only worth skimming. - Become an Expert Instead of a Planner - Get Closure - Attention is not our only limited resource. Our short-term memory is also limited. We need strategies not to waste its capacity with thoughts we can better delegate to an external system. - Note: Closure on ideas comes by taking notes and refining these ideas into more published work. - While we want to remember some things as long as possible, we don’t want to clog our brains with irrelevant information. And the way we organise everyday information makes a big difference not only for long-term memories, but short-term as well. - Note: It is freeing to move ideas and topics out of our brains into secure sources to revisit later. - To be able to focus on the task at hand, we have to make sure other, unfinished tasks are not lingering in our head and wasting precious mental resources. - The first step is to break down the amorphous task of “writing” into smaller pieces of different tasks that can be finished in one go. - Note: Writing the ideas down is step one. - The second step is to make sure we always write down the outcome of our thinking, including possible connections to further inquiries. - Note: Write the outcome of your ideas. Follow up with yourself. Your future self will then have the data to refer back. - Reduce the Number of Decisions - Note: Decision fatigue is real. Slim down the quantity of decisions you have to make. - In the way we organise our research and writing, we too can significantly reduce the amount of decisions we have to make. While content-related decisions have to be made (on what is more and what is less important in an article, on the connections between notes, the structure of a text, etc.), most organisational decisions can be made up front, once and for all, by deciding on one system. - Note: Templates of posts can help reduce our decisions, as can standardizing where we take notes and our process for reviewing the notes. - Read With a Pen in Hand - the mere copying of quotes almost always changes their meaning by stripping them out of context, even though the words aren’t changed. This is a common beginner mistake, which can only lead to a patchwork of ideas, but never a coherent thought. - Note: Taking notes into our own words preserves the context of the quote while avoiding plagiarism. - After finishing the book I go through my notes and think how these notes might be relevant for already written notes in the slip-box. It means that I always read with an eye towards possible connections in the slip-box.” - Note: Allow time after books for reviewing our notes and looking for connections to other notes. - Sometimes it is necessary to slowly work our way through a difficult text and sometimes it is enough to reduce a whole book to a single sentence. - Note: Does the act of outlining a book and practicing how to read the book make an impact on retention? - The only thing that matters is that these notes provide the best possible support for the next step, the writing of the actual slip-box notes. - In a small but fascinating study, two psychologists tried to find out if it made a difference if students in a lecture took notes by hand or by typing them into their laptops (Mueller and Oppenheimer 2014). They were not able to find any difference in terms of the number of facts the students were able to remember. But in terms of understanding the content of the lecture, the students who took their notes by hand came out much, much better. After a week, this difference in understanding was still clearly measurable. - Handwriting makes pure copying impossible, but instead facilitates the translation of what is said (or written) into one’s own words. - Keep an Open Mind - While we should seek out dis-confirming 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. - Developing arguments and ideas bottom-up instead of top-down is the first and most important step to opening ourselves up for insight. - Note: How do you approach your argument or purpose of a written passage? - Confirm that we have separated tasks and focus on understanding the text we read, ·    Make sure we have given a true account of its content ·    Find the relevance of it and make connections. - Everything can contribute to the development of thoughts within the slip-box: an addition as well as a contradiction, the questioning of a seemingly obvious idea as well as the differentiation of an argument. What we are looking for are facts and information that can add something and therefore enrich the slip-box. - Note: Our notes enrich our PKM, and are not perfunctory. - Get the Gist - The ability to distinguish relevant from less relevant information is another skill that can only be learned by doing. - Note: Ongoing practice helps us determine if the content is important or worthwhile to take notes upon. - As we are forced to make this distinction when we read with a pen in our hand and write permanent note after permanent note, it is more than mere practice: it is deliberate practice repeated multiple times a day. - Taking smart notes is the deliberate practice of these skills. Mere reading, underlining sentences and hoping to remember the content is not. - Note: To put our knowledge to work for us, we take notes. Reading alone does not help us retain the information. - Learn to Read - The most important advantage of writing is that it helps us to confront ourselves when we do not understand something as well as we would like to believe. - Now we are faced with a clear choice: We have to choose between feeling smarter or becoming smarter. And while writing down an idea feels like a detour, extra time spent, not writing it down is the real waste of time, as it renders most of what we read as ineffectual. - The mere-exposure effect would fool us here, too: Seeing something we have seen before causes the same emotional reaction as if we had been able to retrieve the information from our memory. - Note: Rereading our notes brings the content to mind as if it were the first time. - Learn by Reading - Learning itself requires deliberate practice, and I mean actual learning that helps us to increase our understanding of the world, not just the learning that makes us pass a test. And deliberate practice is demanding; it requires effort. - Note: Learning requires intentionality. Start each day by considering what we will learn today. - that the best-researched and most successful learning method is elaboration. - Note: Reviewing notes is one method, but improved retention happens when we do something with our notes. - Elaboration means nothing other than really thinking about the meaning of what we read, how it could inform different questions and topics and how it could be combined with other knowledge. - Note: Expound upon your notes. Use notes as a jumping off point to form your own presentation of the information. - The slip-box takes care of details and references and is a long-term memory resource that keeps information objectively unaltered. That allows the brain to focus on the gist, the deeper understanding and the bigger picture, and frees it up to be creative. Both the brain and the slip-box can focus on what they are best at. - Note: Having a second brain can clear up the working memory. Trust your notes to recall details needed. - Writing brief accounts on the main ideas of a text instead of collecting quotes. And she also stresses that it is no less important to do something with these ideas – to think hard about how they connect with other ideas from different contexts and could inform questions that are not already the questions of the author of the respective text. - Taking 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. - Tags: favorite - We have seen in the first step that elaboration through taking smart literature notes increases the likelihood that we will remember what we read in the long term. - Transferring these ideas into the network of our own thoughts, our latticework of theories, concepts and mental models in the slip-box brings our thinking to the next level. - Learning would be not so much about saving information, like on a hard disk, but about building connections and bridges between pieces of information to circumvent the inhibition mechanism in the right moment. It is about making sure that the right “cues” trigger the right memory, about how we can think strategically to remember the most useful information when we need it. - If we instead focus on “retrieval strength,” we instantly start to think strategically about what kind of cues should trigger the retrieval of a memory. - What does help for true, useful learning is to connect a piece of information to as many meaningful contexts as possible, which is what we do when we connect our notes in the slip-box with other notes. - The first step of elaboration is to think enough about a piece of information so we are able to write about it. The second step is to think about what it means for other contexts as well. - Adding Permanent Notes to the Slip-Box - Add a note to the slip-box either behind the note you directly refer to - Add links to other notes or links on other notes to your new note. - Make sure it can be found from the index; add an entry in the index if necessary or refer to it from a note that is connected to the index. - Build a Latticework of Mental Models - After adding a note to the slip-box, we need to make sure it can be found again. This is what the index is for. - Keywords should always be assigned with an eye towards the topics you are working on or interested in, never by looking at the note in isolation. - 12.2   Make Smart Connections - The first type of links are those on notes that are giving you the overview of a topic. - A similar though less crucial kind of link collection is on those notes that give an overview of a local, physical cluster of the slip-box. - Equally less relevant for the digital version are those links that indicate the note to which the current note is a follow-up and those links that indicate the note that follows on the current note. - note-to-note links. They have no function other than indicating a relevant connection between two individual notes. - By dealing with actual notes, we are also less prone to imagine connections where there aren’t any, as we can see in black and white if something makes sense or not. - Our ideas will be rooted in a network of facts, thought-through ideas and verifiable references. - The brain is very good at making associations and spotting patterns and similarities between seemingly different things and also very good in spotting differences between seemingly similar things, but it needs to have them presented objectively and externally. It is much easier to see differences and similarities than to detect them by mere thinking. - Without external help, we would not only take exclusively into account what we know, but what is on top of our heads.[35] - looking out for the most powerful concepts in every discipline and to try to understand them so thoroughly that they become part of our thinking. - 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. - 1.  Pay attention to what you want to remember. 2.  Properly encode the information you want to keep. (This includes thinking about suitable cues.) 3.  Practice recall. (Ibid., 31) - We learn something not only when we connect it to prior knowledge and try to understand its broader implications (elaboration), but also when we try to retrieve it at different times (spacing) in different contexts (variation), ideally with the help of chance (contextual interference) and with a deliberate effort (retrieval). - It is the intuition that comes from the intimate knowledge of a practice that can lead us to new insights. - Even groundbreaking paradigm shifts are most often the consequence of many small moves in the right direction instead of one big idea. - C]reative people are better at recognizing relationships, making associations and connections and seeing things in an original way—seeing things that others cannot see“ (Andreasen 2014). - Comparing, differentiating and connecting notes are the basis of good academic writing, but playing and tinkering with ideas is what leads to insight and exceptional texts. - Creativity cannot be taught like a rule or approached like a plan. But we can make sure that our working environment allows us to be creative with ideas. - What kind of answer can you expect from asking a question in this particular way? What is missing? - Taking simple ideas seriously. - treating a digital note as if the space were limited. - Not having to make choices can unleash a lot of potential, which would otherwise be wasted on making these choices. - The biggest threat to creativity and scientific progress is therefore the opposite: a lack of structure and restrictions. - Instead of widening the perspective to find as many possible lines of thought to which an idea might contribute, it is now about narrowing the perspective, making a decision on one topic only and cutting out everything that does not directly contribute to the development of the text and support the main argument. - The brain more easily remembers information that it encountered recently, which has emotions attached to it and is lively, concrete or specific. - We constantly make explicit how ideas and information connect with each other and turn them into literal connections between our notes. By doing this, we develop visible clusters of ideas that are now ready to be turned into manuscripts. - Being intimately familiar with something enables us to be playful with it, to modify it, to spot new and different ideas without running the risk of merely repeating old ideas believing they are new. - Nothing motivates us more than seeing a project we can identify with moving forward, and nothing is more demotivating than being stuck with a project that doesn’t seem to be worth doing. - The ability to keep control over our work and change course if necessary is made possible by the fact that the big task of “writing a text” is broken down into small, concrete tasks, which allows us practically to do exactly what is needed at a certain time and take the next step from there. It is not just about feeling in control, it is about setting up the work in a way that we really are in control. - The key is to structure the draft visibly. - Another key point: Try working on different manuscripts at the same time. - If we read something that is interesting, but not directly relevant to our current project, we can still use it for another project we are working on or might work on. - Note: Take notes in such a way as to have research done for additional projects beyond the current work. - The projects we work on can be in completely different stages of completion. Some of them might not even have come to our attention. - This is advantageous not only because we make progress on the next papers or books while we are still working on the current one, but also because it allows us to switch to other projects whenever we get stuck or bored. - Estimate realistically the time they would need to finish a paper. 2.  Estimate additionally how long they think they would need a.       if everything goes as smoothly as possible or b.      if everything that could go wrong would go wrong. - The lesson to draw is to be generally sceptical about planning, especially if it is merely focused on the outcome, not on the actual work and the steps required to achieve a goal. - One of the most difficult tasks is to rigorously delete what has no function within an argument – “kill your darlings.”[42] - To put it differently, good intentions don’t last very long, usually. - The trick is not to try to break with old habits and also not to use willpower to force oneself to do something else, but to strategically build up new habits that have a chance to replace the old ones. - Tags: favorite - As soon as we have developed a new routine, we can do what intuitively feels right, which requires no effort. - First of all, the long-term, cross-topic organization of notes, which is guided only by one’s own understanding and interest, is very much at odds with the modular, compartmentalised and top-down approach in which the curricula of universities and colleges are organised. - It allows the learner to let his or her own thinking become decentralised within a network of other ideas. - Learning, thinking and writing should not be about accumulating knowledge, but about becoming a different person with a different way of thinking. This is done by questioning one’s own thinking routines in the light of new experiences and facts. - If we are just storing information, there would be no need to use a slip-box. To reap its benefits, we need to change our working routines. And the basis for that is a deep understanding on how and why it works and how the different steps and tasks of writing fit together.