Once they did, international shipping exploded, setting the stage for Asia to become an economic power among many other historic changes. Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter and get my best tips on how to use technology to be more productive. Your writing will be based on what you already have, not on an unfounded guess about what the literature you are about to read might contain. Then I'll go through each idea and decide what existing or new topic area within my database it's most relevant to. It is only when all the work becomes part of an integrated process that it becomes more than the sum of its parts. He reported that it continuously surprised him with ideas he’d forgotten he had. It also isn’t much of a challenge to turn a working outline full of relevant arguments into a rough draft. According to a 2006 study by psychology professor Arlen Moller, “When people experienced a sense of autonomy with regard to the choice [of what to work on], their energy for subsequent tasks was not diminished” (Moller 2006, 1034). They are not meant to capture an idea in full detail, but serve more as reminders of what is in your head. But how can you decide on an interesting topic before you’ve read about it? Or even if you do feel some spark when revisiting the highlight, it might be a different interpretation. Principle #6: Our work only gets better when exposed to high-quality feedback, Principle #7: Work on multiple, simultaneous projects, The ability to increase the chances of such future accidental encounters is a powerful one, because the best ideas are usually ones we haven’t anticipated. 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. How to do This In Roam. The blank page, the white canvas, the empty dance floor: Our most romantic and universal artistic motifs seem to suggest that “starting from scratch” is the essence of creativity. But this book is not written in the usual way. We are told to “make a plan” upfront and in detail. It’s no wonder that nearly every guide to writing begins with “brainstorming.” If you don’t have notes, you have no other option. Once they did, international shipping exploded, setting the stage for Asia to become an economic power among many other historic changes. It’s by creating structure that you make sense of your web of notes. We need a. 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. We need to be able to make small, constant adjustments to keep our interest, motivation, and work aligned. The most interesting topics are the ones we didn’t plan on learning about. From manufacturing to packaging to final delivery, the design of ships, cranes, trucks, and harbors all had to align around moving containers as quickly and efficiently as possible. How to Take Smart Notes aims to provide the most accurate presentation of the "Zettlekasten" system Luhmann developed, and regardless of the accuracy, it is a phenomenal system for getting more out of what you read. As you detect holes in your argument, fill them or change the argument. © Nathaniel Eliason, 2020 | You're looking great today | This site built on, A Simple Exercise to Discover What Skills You Should Learn, Self-Education: Teach Yourself Anything with the Sandbox Method, How to Break Through Any Learning Plateau and Never Stop Growing, Grab your own copy of How to Take Smart Notes, Get a good notebook for taking notes as you read, Handwrite ideas as you have them while reading, and reference where they came from, Upload your highlights and ideas once you finish a book, File those ideas in their most useful contexts. Take Smart Notes . The primary question when deciding where to put something becomes “In which context will I want to stumble upon this again?”, In other words, instead of filing things away according to where they came from, you file them according to where they’re going. Something went wrong while submitting the form. This number could be referenced from any other card, because it would never change. This makes it look less complex, but quickly becomes overwhelming. So the last step with each of your Smart Notes is to move them to where you most want to re-discover them, and to add any additional contexts you think could be relevant in the future. Ahrens uses the excellent analogy of how the invention of shipping containers revolutionized international trade to demonstrate the role of note-taking in modern writing. Be extra selective with quotes don't copy them to skip the step of really understanding what they mean. Let’s look deeper at the main principles that Luhmann used in his work, which Ahrens has adapted to the modern age. But at the same time, it increases the chances that you will actually move the work forward. Feedback also helps us adjust our expectations and predictions about how much we can get done in an hour or a day. If you want to understand an idea, you have to translate it into your own words. For the Ideas, I'll re-type them from my notebook and expand on them to make them into coherent thoughts. Few people will ever publish their work in an academic journal or even on a blog. These notes build up as a byproduct of the reading we’re already doing anyway. They might file notes on a psychology paper under “misjudgments,” “experimental psychology,” or “experiments.”, Principle #9: Always follow the most interesting path, Plans are meant to help us feel in control. . This is the work that adds value, and now we have the time to do it more effectively. It isn’t very hard to write down notes in the first place. Write these permanent notes as if you are writing for someone else. He described his system as his secondary memory (, ). You fill your slip-box with notes by following this process: 1) make notes as you read. Now that we understand what Smart Notes are, let’s take a look at how to do this in Roam Research. In other words, when we have a choice about what to work on and when, it doesn’t take as much willpower to do it. Working with a slip-box naturally leads us to save ideas that are contradictory or paradoxical. This is why the slip-box isn’t yet another technique. As they worked, the team followed their intuition and interest, developing the actual research program along the way (Rheinberger 1997). By identifying the principles that stand the test of time despite huge changes in the underlying technology, we can better understand the essential nature of the creative process. 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. – our tendency to take into account only information that confirms what we already believe. Every paragraph has a point, and I struggled to leave anything out of this summary. Take Smart Notes . But it is much more important to actually be in control, which means being able to steer our work towards what we consider interesting and relevant. While producing published written works is the end goal, is it not the only goal. But it took multiple failed attempts before it was successful, because it wasn’t actually about the container, which after all is just a box. Ahrens recommends the following 8 steps for taking notes: He notes that Luhmann actually had two slip-boxes: the first was the “bibliographical” slip-box, which contained brief notes on the content of the literature he read along with a citation of the source; the second “main” slip-box contained the ideas and theories he developed based on those sources. With so many ideas at our disposal, we are no longer threatened by the possibility that a new idea will undermine existing ones. Taking - Study Skills How to do, Band 1: Amazon.de: Azizi, Ala Eddine: Fremdsprachige Bücher It’s Iike learning to swim – you have to learn by doing it, not by merely reading about it. But the important part is the principle: Work as if writing is the only thing that matters. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers. Access a free summary of How to Take Smart Notes, by Sönke Ahrens and 20,000 other business, leadership and nonfiction books on getAbstract. The 8 Steps of Taking Smart Notes. I also thought you have to visualize everything to generate new ideas. of the shipping supply chain was changed to accommodate it. it was simple and easy, not in spite of it? Thank you to Kathleen Martin, Fadeke Adegbuyi, Norman Chella, Fred Terenas, Maruthi Sandeep Medisetty for their feedback and suggestions on this article. Ahrens gives the example of the team that discovered the structure of DNA. By following the links, you encounter new and different perspectives than where you started. For example, you could memorize the fact that arteries are red and veins are blue. It is the system in which all the techniques are linked together. TakeSmartNotes is a project dedicated to helping students, academics and nonfiction writers get more done - ideally with more fun and less effort. By saving all the byproducts of our writing, we collect all the future material we might need in one place. Translate them into something coherent and embed them into the context of your argument. is a book on note-taking for students, academics, and non-fiction writers. When I discovered this book — How to take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens — I didn’t expect it would have anything to do with this, but it ended up giving me an insight into the learning and writing process of academics. We look in our notes and follow our interests, curiosity, and intuition, which are informed by the actual work of reading, thinking, discussing, and taking notes. It is a form of learning. That is, use full sentences, disclose your sources, make explicit references, and try to be as precise and brief as possible. A librarian asks “Where should I store this note?” Their goal is to maintain a taxonomy of knowledge that is accessible to everyone, which means they have to use only the most obvious categories. The explosion of technology and connectivity has inundated us with an overabundance of information. Skills (How to do Book 1) (English Edition) eBook: Azizi, Ala Eddine: Amazon.de: Kindle-Shop It presented a radical new theory that not only changed sociology but also provoked heated discussions in philosophy, education, political theory, and psychology. They were awarded funds to find a treatment for cancer. According to a 2006 study by psychology professor Arlen Moller, “When people experienced a sense of autonomy with regard to the choice [of what to work on], their energy for subsequent tasks was not diminished” (Moller 2006, 1034). Writing works well in improving one’s thinking because it forces you to engage with what you’re reading on a deeper level. Durch einen einfach zu definierenden Import übernimmt SmartNotes die Basisdaten aus LucaNet und aktualisiert automatisch sämtliche Tabellen, Fließtextzahlen oder auch Diagramme und zeigt Ihnen genau an, welche Zahlen sich durch den … He reported that it continuously surprised him with ideas he’d forgotten he had. Once this step is done, throw away (or delete) the fleeting notes from step one and file the literature notes from step two into your bibliographic slip-box. You’ll read differently, becoming more focused on the parts most relevant to the argument you’re building. Luhmann was a prolific note-taker, writer, and academic. It requires, – we need to copy, translate, re-write, compare, contrast, and describe a new idea in our own terms. Advice #2: Always use your own words. Do we really need even more people broadcasting half-baked opinions and theories online? (Page 75). But it is much more important to actually. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you turn fleeting and literature notes into permanent notes: As answers to these questions come to mind, write down each new idea, comment, or thought on its own note. Without a standard format, the larger the collection grows, the more time and energy have to be spent navigating the ever-growing inconsistencies between them. I’ve been dabbling in the Zettlekasten’s principles through two sources: Sönke Ahrens’ book How to Take Smart Notes and RadReader Shu Omi’s YouTube channel. It promises to help readers adopt “a … This is why we must spend as much time as possible working on things we find interesting. Writing is not only for proclaiming fully formed opinions, but for developing opinions worth sharing in the first place. Completing these tasks is exceedingly difficult inside the confines of our heads. Luhmann wrote down interesting or potentially useful ideas he encountered in his reading on uniformly sized index cards, He wrote only on one side of each card to eliminate the need to flip them over, and he limited himself to one idea per card so they could be referenced individually, Each new index card received a sequential number, starting at 1. There was never an overarching system for turning notes into concrete results. It is about becoming a different kind of person with a different way of thinking. Even a few ideas from a couple books dropped into a topic form a jumping off point for a bunch of other ideas, and make it easier to get past writer's block.Â. This may seem like a staggering number until you realize that it amounts to only six notes per day. Sönke’s method follows a different order: first research while taking notes, connect the research notes into ideas then explore these ideas until you find themes upon which you write. This might still seem like a radical principle. It suits students and academics in the social sciences and humanities, nonfiction writers and others who are in … The core idea of Smart Notes is that purely extracting highlights is generally a waste of time. And all this pre-research also involves writing. Don’t simply copy your notes into a manuscript. And if an article seems important enough, they might make the effort to save an excerpt. Ahrens’ approach to note-taking was inspired by the 20th-century German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998). them into something coherent and embed them into the context of your argument. When the time comes to produce, we aren’t following a blindly invented plan plucked from our unreliable brains. And if you don't already take book highlights, even better! . A highlight speaks to you when you take it, but if you don't capture the idea that the highlight gave you, you're unlikely to remember the importance of that highlight later. But recently I picked up How To Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens. this is … How to Take Smart Notes is a detailed guide that promotes the Zettelkasten note-taking method created by Niklas Luhmann. So … It is written using an external thinking system, which I call a. For that to happen, it has to be written down. Many people still take notes, if at all, in an ad-hoc, random way. The evidence is clear: Instead of squeezing as many pages as possible out of one idea. These are concrete, near-term deliverables and not abstract categories. The problem is that the meaning of something is not always obvious. In his eponym book, Dr. Sönke Ahrens shares the simple method used by German sociologist Dr Niklas Luhmann to publish more than 70 books and nearly 400 scholarly articles in his lifetime. It doesn’t just enhance your writing process; it makes it possible. Smart notes are learning, thinking, and creating rolled into one. Each time we try, we practice the core skill of insight: distinguishing the bits that truly matter from those that don’t. In the new system, the question is: In which context will I want to stumble on it again? The slip-box is a thinking tool, not an encyclopedia, so completeness is not important. This just makes sure that once I move it, I'll know where it originally came from. With typing, it's easier to just re-type what you're reading (or worse, copy & paste), and not capture the whole context of the idea. Our only criterion for what to save is whether it connects to existing ideas and adds to the discussion. The only gaps we do need to be concerned about are the gaps in the final manuscript we are working toward. You’ll be more focused, more curious, more rigorous, and more demanding. We never again have to face that blank screen with the impossible demand of “thinking of something to write about.”. How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens presents a very different take on taking notes. How To Take Smart Notes is a book on note-taking for students, academics, and non-fiction writers. Like hyperlinks on a website, they give you many ways to associate ideas with each other. This is the true power of the Smart Notes system: since you're constantly capturing the ideas that you're getting from disparate sources and organizing them in their most important contexts, you can quickly develop ideas for new articles, books, scripts, whatever it is you create from your ideas. If I encounter a novel engineering method, it may be useful for completely different reasons depending on whether I am working on an engineering textbook, a skyscraper, or a rocket booster. It suits students and academics in the social sciences and humanities, nonfiction writers and others who are in … You write notes with a clear purpose: your future self is going to be reorganizing them and using them to produce articles or books. It argues that moving things into an external system enables learning and frees up our … Instead of organizing by topic and subtopic, it is much more effective to organize by context. It’s now time to add the permanent notes you’ve created to your slip-box. How To Take Smart Notes With Org-mode. – a repeatable process for collecting, organizing, and sharing ideas. You want each of these ideas to be fully formed thoughts that you can reference in a bunch of different areas later.Â. It doesn’t just enhance your writing process; it makes it possible. The same principle applies to the steps of processing our notes. Ultimately, learning should not be about hoarding stockpiles of knowledge like gold coins. Specifically, the context in which it will be used. But recently I picked up How To Take Smart Notes (affiliate link) by Sönke Ahrens. Almost every aspect of your life will change when you live as if you are working toward publication. Good systems don’t add options and features; they strip away complexity and distractions from the main work, which is thinking. The card for fellow German sociologist Jürgen Habermas, for example, was labeled 21/3d26g53, As he read, he would create new cards, update or add comments to existing ones, create new branches from existing cards, and create new links between cards on different “strands”. In the old system, the question is: Under which topic do I store this note? You're going to dramatically level up your reading comprehension and retention. He described his system as his secondary memory (zweitgedächtnis), alter ego, or reading memory (lesegedächtnis). It is a form of learning. Just because you read more doesn’t automatically mean you have more or better ideas. Upon his death, Luhmann’s slip-box contained 90,000 notes. With so many standardized notes organized in a consistent format, you are now free to develop ideas in a “bottom up” way. He intended his notes not just for a single project or book but for a lifetime of reading and researching. References, the highlights that I got ideas from and want to extract, Ideas, the thoughts that I had while reading the book. The beauty of this approach is that we co-evolve with our slip-boxes: We build the same connections in our heads as we deliberately develop them in our slip-box. Early in his academic career, Luhmann realized that a note was only as valuable as its. Not only did this create a system that could extend infinitely in any direction, but it also gave each index card a permanent ID number. And once it is, what the author meant doesn’t matter – only the actual words written on the page matter. Luhmann distinguished between three kinds of notes that went into his slip-boxes: fleeting notes, literature notes, and permanent notes. This is the tension at the heart of the creative process: You have to research before you pick what you will write about. Because we try to do all the steps at once. We need to regularly confront our errors, mistakes, and misunderstandings. Available on. Comments are reserved for site members only. 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. Oops! As you go through them, think about how they relate to your research, current thinking, or interests. Follow the connections between notes and collect all the relevant notes on the topic you’ve found. This principle requires us to expand our definition of “publication” beyond the usual narrow sense. I wrote Org-roam because Org-mode simply didn’t have the utilities to enable the kind of note-taking workflow I wanted. For example that first bullet on profitability makes the most sense to live in the "Profitability" note. But the important part is the principle: Work. That works fine for a library, but not for a writer. This is the first comprehensive guide and description of this system in English, and not only does it explain how it works, but also why. The Take Smart Notes principle is based on established psychological insight and draws from a tried and tested note-taking-technique. When I first looked into digital note taking about 8 years ago, I was in love with OneNote and the idea of using my computer to take written notes with a stylus. There are many forms of feedback, both internal and external – from peers, from teachers, from social media, and from rereading our own writing. You’ll ask sharper questions, no longer satisfied with vague explanations or leaps in logic. By adding my own contextual notes to my highlights, and taking time after finishing a book to process and better organize those notes, I'm able to generate more ideas as I read and put those ideas to better use. If I falter for a moment, I put the matter aside and do something else” (Luhmann et al., 1987, 154f). This is a problem you can ensure you will never face again if you learn how to take smart notes. How can I combine ideas to generate something new? It often raises new questions and opens new paths of inquiry. If writing on paper, only write on one side, so you can quickly review your notes without having to flip them over. download it once and read it on your kindlevice pc phones or tablets. I especially avoided “how-to” style books on the subject. Perhaps you read it for a certain purpose – to gain some familiarity with a topic you’re interested in or find insights for a project you’re working on. If you've ever looked back at your book highlights and thought to yourself, "why did I highlight this?" If they had stuck religiously to their original plan, they probably wouldn’t have discovered a cure for cancer and certainly wouldn’t have discovered the structure of DNA. What questions are triggered by these new ideas? Luhmann rejected alphabetical categorization of his notes, along with fixed categories like the Dewey Decimal System. How to Take Smart Notes is a book by Sonke Ahrens explaining the "Zettlekasten" methodology developed by Niklas Luhmann, a 20th century Sociologist who published a prodigious amount of work: 70 books and more than 400 articles before his death. it teaches you how to take smart notes and ensure they bring you and your projects forward. This book is so full of insights that it broke my usual approach to summarizing books. He developed a simple system based on paper index cards, which he called his “slip-box” (or zettelkasten in German). Luhmann's note-card system is different from that of others because of the way … Your submission has been received! The Take Smart Notes principle is based on established psychological insight and draws from a tried and tested note-taking-technique. You can also do advanced searches and sorts on every note. A good note-taking system is: Simple; Well thought out; Helps you to stay focused on what really counts: Reading, Thinking and Writing. Overview notes help to structure your thoughts and can be seen as an in-between step in the development of a manuscript.