(2020-02-04) Forte How To Take Smart Notes: 10 Principles To Revolutionize Your Note-taking And Writing

Tiago Forte on How To Take Smart Notes: 10 Principles to Revolutionize Your Note-Taking and Writing. Recently I picked up How To Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens. Ahrens is a Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of Duisburg-Essen and also coaches students, academics, and professionals with a focus on time management, decision-making, and personal growth.

This book is so full of insights that it broke my usual approach to summarizing books.

It promises to help readers adopt “a reliable and simple external structure to think in that compensates for the limitations of our brains.” By adopting such a system, Ahrens promises that we will be able to “efficiently turn our thoughts and discoveries into convincing written pieces and build up a treasure of smart and interconnected notes along the way.”

Ahrens argues convincingly that turning one’s thoughts into writing isn’t just useful for writers but for anyone who wants to improve their thinking and learning in general.

Instead of notes becoming a “graveyard for thoughts,” they can become a life-long pool of rich and interconnected ideas we can draw on no matter where our interests lead us.

Ahrens’ approach to note-taking was inspired by the 20th-century German sociologist Niklas Luhmann

Luhmann realized that a note was only as valuable as its context – its network of associations, relationships, and connections to other information (associative)

He developed a simple system based on paper index cards, which he called his “slip-box” (or zettelkasten in German). It was designed to connect any given note to as many different potentially relevant contexts as possible

He reported that it continuously surprised him with ideas he’d forgotten he had. Because of this, he claimed that there was actual communication going on between himself and his zettelkasten

led to a meaningful topography within the system: Topics that had been extensively explored had long reference numbers, making their length informative on its own

Principle #1: Writing is not the outcome of thinking; it is the medium in which thinking takes place

These notes build up as a byproduct of the reading we’re already doing anyway. Even if you don’t aim to develop a grand theory, you need a way to organize your thoughts and keep track of the information you consume.

If you want to learn and remember something long-term, you have to write it down. If you want to understand an idea, you have to translate it into your own words. If we have to do this writing anyway, why not use it to build up resources for future publications?

Writing is not only for proclaiming fully formed opinions, but for developing opinions worth sharing in the first place.

The problem is that the meaning of something is not always obvious. It requires elaboration – we need to copy, translate, re-write, compare, contrast, and describe a new idea in our own terms

Principle #2: Do your work as if writing is the only thing that matters

Having a clear, tangible purpose when you consume information completely changes the way you engage with it.

You’ll naturally seek venues to present your work, since the feedback you receive will propel your thinking forward like nothing else.

Principle #3: Nobody ever starts from scratch

You have to immerse yourself in research before you even know how to formulate a good question

This is why an external system to record your research is so critical. It doesn’t just enhance your writing process; it makes it possible.

It’s no wonder that nearly every guide to writing begins with “brainstorming.” If you don’t have notes, you have no other option. But this is a bit like a financial advisor telling a 65-year-old to start saving for retirement – too little, too late.

Principle #4: Our tools and techniques are only as valuable as the workflow

Principle #5: Standardization enables creativity

The potential of the shipping container was only unleashed when every other part of the shipping supply chain was changed to accommodate it.

Notes are like shipping containers for ideas.

The slip-box is the host of the process outlined above. It provides a place where distinct batches of work can be created, worked on, and saved permanently until the next time we are ready to deploy that particular kind of attention. It deliberately puts distance between ourselves and what we’ve written, which is essential for evaluating it objectively. It is far easier to switch between the role of creator and critic when there is a clear separation between them, and you don’t have to do both at the same time.

Principle #6: Our work only gets better when exposed to high-quality feedback.

There are many forms of feedback, both internal and external – from peers, from teachers, from social media, and from rereading our own writing. But notes are the only kind of feedback that is available anytime you need it. It is the only way to deliberately practice your thinking and communication skills multiple times per day.

Principle #7: Work on multiple, simultaneous projects

We encounter a constant stream of new ideas, but only a tiny fraction of them will be useful and relevant to us at any given moment.

Principle #8: Organize your notes by context, not by topic

Specifically, the context in which it will be used

A writer asks “In which circumstances will I want to stumble upon this note?” They will file it under a paper they are writing, a conference they are speaking at, or an ongoing collaboration with a colleague. These are concrete, near-term deliverables and not abstract categories. Organizing by context does take a little bit of thought

Principle #9: Always follow the most interesting path (interestingness)

Ahrens notes that in most cases, students fail not because of a lack of ability, but because they lose a personal connection to what they are learning.

This is why we must spend as much time as possible working on things we find interesting. It is not an indulgence. It is an essential part of asking our work sustainable and thus successful.

By breaking down the work of writing into discrete steps, getting quick feedback on each one, and always following the path that promises the most insight, unexpected insights can become the driving force of our work.

Principle #10: Save contradictory ideas

By saving ideas that aren’t compatible with each other and don’t necessarily support what we already think, we train ourselves to develop subtle theories over time instead of always jumping to conclusions.

With so many ideas at our disposal, we are no longer threatened by the possibility that a new idea will undermine existing ones.