Take smart notes
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We store the ideas someone else has put in our short-term memory. Highlighting and underlining don't work because we don't work with the text. I have a better understanding of what I read.Zettelkasten made me aware of the role and place of these ideas. In the same way, I didn't know what to do with the ideas that came to me during buffer time (walking, washing up, showering). But sometimes one idea is worth more than the whole book. While reading, I used to concentrate so much on the text that I would let my thoughts loosely related to the book drift away. I have ideas, stories, and references on paper when I start writing. With the Zettelkasten method, blank sheets are eliminated. Then you gather resources at best, procrastinate at worst. You make yourself do it, sit down at your desk and then freeze, staring at the blank paper. If you're working on a task with a well-defined end product, such as a submission, essay, thesis, a short story, or the script of your YouTube video, you're familiar with the blank page syndrome. This new approach is the Zettelkasten method, which has helped me to notice the following positive changes: It was not my notes, but my thinking that was transformed by a radically different approach to note-taking, which I had tried simply to take better notes. I realized that note-taking has a much bigger role to play in the success of those living and working as a knowledge worker than I had first thought. I have tried different learning methodologies and note-taking techniques ( mind-maps, Cornell method).Įach one was a small step towards smart note-taking, but the breakthrough was not until I discovered the Zettelkasten method. I tried countless apps (Evernote, Roam Research, Notion). To do that, I needed to have good notes.įor two years I have been trying to develop the perfect note-taking system, which you can follow on the blog. Once I started blogging it became important to find an anecdote illustrating the idea of an article in my notes. I wanted to remember the lessons, to work on the ideas I had come up with while reading. This time I wanted to use the knowledge I had acquired. There was one important difference between the two: However, the notes, underlined sentences, and comments written in the margins of the paper were nothing like the notes I took in my university classes. The list of books I read on marketing, self-improvement, productivity, personal finance, and mindfulness grew steadily. I read about subjects that interested me alongside formal education. These notes ended up in the bin at the end of the semester. For me, notes were a sketchy record of lessons, a source of study, and a means to a single end: a grade. For a long time, I considered note-taking a necessary evil.