Sonke Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking - For Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. North Charleston. 2017.
- Read with a pen in hand
- Take smart notes
- Make connections between notes
- Write what you come up with
Additional Resources
- Interview with Srini Rao, The Unmistakable Creative: How to take smart notes (1 hour interview)
- Interview on Coaching for Leaders: Real Thinking Requires Some Form of External Scaffolding
- Potential digital aids
Summary
Abridged Index
- Introduction
- Everything you need to know
- good solutions are simple and unexpected
- the slip-box
- the slip-box manual
- Everything you need to do
- Writing notes is the tangible outcome from thinking, reading, understanding and coming up with ideas
- Writing a paper step by step
- make fleeting notes
- make literature notes
- make permanent notes
- add your notes to the slip-box
- develop your topics, questions, and research projects bottom up from within the system
- after a while, you have developed ideas far enough to have a topic to write about
- turn your notes into a rough draft (translate and enhance your notes)
- edit and proofread your manuscript
- Everything you need to have (the toolbox)
- something to write with and on
- a reference management system
- the slip-box for permanent notes
- an editor
- A few things to keep in mind
- Everything you need to know
- The Four Underlying Principles
- Writing is the only thing that matters
- Simplicity is paramount
- fleeting notes
- permanent notes
- project notes
- Nobody ever starts from scratch
- Let the work carry you forward
- expressing understanding in your own words is a fundamental competency for everyone who writes
- facts connected together in a network of mental models becomes easier to make sense of new information; learn, remember, retrieve
- The Six Steps to Successful Writing
- Separate and interlocking tasks
- give each task your undivided attention
- multitasking is not a good idea
- give each task the right kind of attention
- writing (formulating, proofreading, outlining, combining and developing)
- reading (careful, skimming, flexible)
- dont' make plans (see next)
- become an expert (planning is like rails)
- experts rely on embodied experience (intuition)
- writing is for gaining insight and making it public
- Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus: five-grade "expert" scale
- get closure
- open tasks occupy short term memory until done (Zeigarnik effect)
- break writing to tasks
- write down the outcome of your thinking, with connections to further inquiries
- reduce the number of decisions
- reliable and standardized work environment
- using a defined structure and workflow preserves available mental energy
- breaks are crucial for learning
- Read for understanding
- read with a pen in hand
- keep an open mind (slip-box criterion)
- whether something adds to a discussion in the slip-box
- connect or is open to connections (including contradictions)
- get the gist
- learn to read
- not writing down an an idea is a waste of time, rendering most of what you read ineffectual
- learn by reading
- elaboration is most successful learning method: think about what's read, how it could inform questions and topics, how it could be combined with other knowledge
- Take smart notes
- make a career one note at a time
- think outside the brain
- show your work
- external scaffolding necessary for developing thinking
- learn by not trying
- forgetting actually facilitates long term learning
- focus on building "retrieval strength" - cues and connections
- add permanent notes to the slip-box
- add it behind a note you directly refer to, or at the end
- add links to other notes or links on other notes to the new note
- make sure you can find it from the index
- new entry
- refer to it from a note already connected to the index
- build a latticework of mental models
- Develop ideas
- develop topics
- assign index keywords to connect a note to topics you are working on or interested in - connecting to larger context
- good keywords are usually not already mentioned in the note
- make smart connections (4 types of cross-references)
- links on overview note (linked in index) - with two words indicating what you'll find
- links on cluster-summary note - breadcrumbs for line of thought
- links showing predecessor note
- note-to-note links between ideas (weak ties)
- search for meaningful connections is a crucial part of thinking
- compare, correct, and differentiate - easiest when presented externally
- assemble a toolbox for thinking - people learn best when:
- connect to prior knowledge
- understand broader implications through elaboration
- retrieve at different times, in different contexts
- retrieve with help of chance
- retrieve with deliberate effort
- use the slip-box as a creativity machine (slow hunches)
- think inside the box
- abstracting ideas frees them from their original context
- confront yourself with your errors, mistakes, and misunderstandings
- focus on the main ideas behind the details to grasp the gist
- facilitate creativity through restrictions
- format
- length
- one idea per note
- citation structure
- organizational structure
- develop topics
- Share your insight
- Make it a habit
- take notes when reading
- turn findings into permanent notes
- Separate and interlocking tasks
- Afterword
- Read with a pen in hand
- Take smart notes
- Make connections between notes
- Write what you come up with
- Bibliography
Read. Think. Write