Days are ticking so fast man! 2020 doesn’t even feel like a thing anymore! Anyway, I’m going to write about note-taking today. It may be pretty in-depth. It most likely will be. But, I don’t plan to bracket everything about note-taking into this blog; I will do a series of blogs on this topic as a whole.
Recently, I read a book called ‘How to take smart notes‘ by Sönke Ahrens. It’s amazing! First, some context…
How to take smart notes book
Before reading this book, I was basically at odds with the idea of note-taking. The thought itself haunted me and was down on my list of ‘things I hate‘. I was in love with active recall(where you ‘recall’ everything you have learnt without looking at notes) and basically just listened to classes with rarely any pen on paper.
Interestingly, I used to barely read back then as well! Reading was something that was concealed deep under the ocean bed.
All of a sudden, I was enticed by the note-taking app ‘Roam Research’. My life took a turn! OK, maybe I exaggerated that a little, but it has helped me. And with it came a cult of super interesting people.
Fortunately, the book ‘How to take smart notes’ was popular amongst the cult. Everywhere I went, the book followed me. And I decided, enough is enough, let me see what’s so great about this book!
Now, having read that book, I have built a fairly decent habit of reading and love note-taking! But they have some conditions.
Reading
The book has been a gate-opener for me into the book world. I have read a few books in the past however my craving for non-fiction was established after the completion of this book.
Currently, I am reading ‘Make it Stick’ which is also about studying and I have been reading on my iPad’s Apple Books app. It’s a brilliant app that allows highlights, notes and easy navigation which has all contributed to my reading habit.
I generally read for about 15 mins which is very little and my reading pace is rather snail-like. However, I enjoy the time that I read and tend to fall asleep immediately.
Reading at night
Recently, I have encountered many readers talking about how valuable a book is and my attraction for reading more has prospered. This is why I aim to increase my reading speed and time to really appreciate the value that a book can bring.
As a result, I have recently dabbled with the idea of audiobooks which has gone in vain. It was actually a disaster. Sadly. But there were multiple reasons for that:
- I was at home(where else would you be now?). I constantly tried to find something else to do while listening to a book at home and found nothing ‘productive’. Despite the fact that listening to a book is productive, I had an urge to do something else and just couldn’t. If I was commuting to work, yeah, definitely, I would’ve enjoyed it more. But it’s just too tough at home.
- No notes. It was such a grind to pause, open Roam, type notes, repeat. I just HATED it! So, I kinda didn’t like the whole idea.
In spite of these, I did find that listening to audiobooks at a faster playback speed was a neat little hack to speed through the books. I did enjoy that while listening to Shoe Dog. But, I guess audiobooks are a pass for me.
A bit off-topic here…
If you’re looking to build a habit of reading, here are my suggestions:
- Pick up anything interesting and just read a page. Trick your brain into doing something for 5 minutes and if you enjoy it, you’ll unconsciously continue reading.
- Join online communities where reading is common. You’ll automatically be inspired to read and I’m sure you’ll find lots of invaluable book recommendations.
- Read books that affect you. Reading book titles that are recommended to you can seem interesting, but if you pick up something that closely affects you(note-taking in my situation), you’ll be drawn right into it and would be more likely to go back into it.
- Just do it. As I’ve mentioned in the first post, motivation is a result of starting something. Once you start reading, you’ll automatically be interested and continue it.
Alright, enough about reading.
Note-taking
There are heaps of note-taking apps out there and a dictionary of note-taking methods and systems which vary person to person. My interest in note-taking grew from the book ‘How to take smart notes’, therefore, I use the Zettelkasten method. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Essentially, you read something and create small note snippets. The golden rule is that you do not copy anything verbatim. You must ‘translate’ it into your own ‘language’ so that you push your brain into understanding the subject fully. Then, you connect it with an existing note.
This is generally the confusing part, but all you do is this:
Process
There are reams of benefits from this system which come naturally built-in and I highly recommend reading the book to get a good intuition. Notably, though, the Zettelkasten process makes the idea generation process super easy and more successful. This is because new ideas come from connections of existing ideas. Once you have a library of connections, idea generation becomes a stroll in the park. This is why Zettelkasten note-takers aim to maximise connections over notes. One of the trending tools that enables this is Roam Research which I’ve written more about here.
Zettelkasten Notes
My process now for any content I consume involves Roam. I essentially ‘scope’ the content as I am consuming it to give me a general overview of what I have just engrossed. Then I expand on the topics while translating it into my language. And traditionally, the Zettelkasten system requires the ‘connecting the dots’ step at the end, however, with Roam I can make the connections as I go which is a delight. This has become a habit for me now and I love it! I enjoy it too, which is important!
There are some days where I just want to enjoy the content and not take notes on literally everything. And I do excuse myself because ultimately, the objective should be to enjoy the process!
I’m going to write about note-taking methods and ways in which the Zettelkasten is robust in a future blog…
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