How To Take Smart Notes: 3 Basic Things You should Know

In 2013, I read 33 books. I was so devoted to reading nonfiction books and less friction.  It felt like an achievement to me. That year was the Genesis of my reading epiphany. I love reading non fiction. To cut the whole story short I started reading out of frustration and a book was reviewed to me and I was fascinated to read the book. The book is "tough time never last but Tough People Do" by Robert schuller 

I was using the ideas I got from the books without writing notes. I was seeing changes in my life until I started sharing those ideas with different people and I began  to receive negative reviews and gradually my zeal started dying.

With time those ideas start to disappear from my head. I barely remember some of those ideas and citations.

I see the need to build  a system to organize my notes and turn it into a workflow. That was a turning point for me. I realized more information stuck to my brain.  Taking notes on the books I read was a great start and to engage with the books I read on a deeper level.

I need to make use of the idea I got from books, otherwise, I would continue to passively consume information without making  use of the information I got from the books.

After I came across how to take smart notes (sonke ahrens) via a video  I watched on YouTube. I decided I would take more notes from the books that resonate with me rather than speed or passively reading with less comprehension. Sonke Ahren explains how to write notes in detail and turn them into articles or creative workflows. I recommend this book to you. "how to take smart notes."

The article will be an ongoing series, it is so important to me, I don't want to compress it into an article.

In this article I will explore the following subtopic:

• About the note taking system  

• Component of the system.

•  what we can get from the system

About the note taking system 

Niklas Luhmann's slip-box is the note taking system. Luhmann is a German sociologist of the 20th century, he lived from (1927-1988). He was a prolific writer; in 30 years, he published 58 books and hundreds of articles, translations not included. Even after his death, more books were published in his name based on almost finished manuscripts in his office.

Luhmann's slip box (or zettelkasten in German) is a system based on paper index cards, it was designed to connect any given note to different potentially relevant contexts as possible. As he is reading his diverse interests in philosophy, organizational theory and sociology. Whenever he encountered something resonating or interesting, he take note of it. when he realized his note-taking was just a pile of continuous writing and storing of paper. So he isolated his notes by writing on small pieces of paper, putting a number in the corner instead of adding notes to different categories.

Luhmann did not copy ideas, quotes, underlined sentences or write comments from the texts he read. He takes brief notes about the ideas that caught his attention. 

 He translates from one context to another in his own words. It was very much like a translation where you use different words that fit a different context. If you want to really understand something, you have to translate it into your own words. He adds a reference in the back of his note and then it goes into the bibliographic slip-box.

Component of the system

Fleeting notes are a quick capture of ideas from our thoughts, conversation with other people, audio or from lectures or different television programs. Fleeting notes are only useful if you review them within one or two days and turn them into proper notes you can use later. If you leave it for a long time it will be completely useless. 

Literature note is summarizing, and translating ideas that captures what we understand from the books we read. So we have something in front of us while making the slip note (permanent note). Literature notes are short and meant to help with writing in your permanent notes.

Permanent note of our own thoughts is a form of self-testing as well: we have to add the reference,  packs and supporting sources at hand? Writing here is not copying, but translating  (from one context and from one medium into another). No written piece is ever a copy of a thought in our mind. A permanent note for the slip-box is elaborate enough to have the potential to become part of or inspire a final written piece.

Permanent notes, which will never be thrown away and contain the necessary information in themselves in a permanently understandable way. They are always stored in the same way in the same place, either in the reference system or, written as if for print, in the slip-box.

what we can get from the system 

ilImagine we do not start with a blank page.

We have something to start from to develop any topic we want to write about.

 These include all references, quotes and some really smart ideas. The only thing left to do is to revise this rough draft and send it off. There is still work to do. Editing is work that needs focus. You have to rephrase some sentences, delete one or two redundancies and maybe add a couple of sentences or even passages to fill some holes left in the topic.

If we write often it is more likely that we understand what we read.

When we understand what we read. And translate it into the different context of our own thinking, materialized in the slip-box (note taking system). we can transform the thoughts and findings of others into something that is new as our own. It will be easy to clarify our thinking. if we want to write articles, literary works and make future publications. We can use our notes to build up the resources required for the project.

Thanks  for reading this article, this will be an ongoing series. I want to distill Luhmann's system and explore creative work. Read this article to funnel your focus to the prerequisite mindset to keep going.