Note-taking is a creative process
Note-taking is a creative process. It's not simply copying the author's ideas but actively engage with the written piece.
When you take note, you develop a deeper understanding of the information presented to you.
Once you understand something, it's easier to remember.
Our brain works on repetition. If you want to remember something long-term, you need to repeat it in your heads many times.
Taking notes is how you repeat ideas in your head. As have to explain the idea in your own terms — through examples, stories, quotes, linkage to past relevant points.
Also, as you say something again and again, it becomes embedded in your belief system.
Since your beliefs control your behavior, by taking notes, you’re more likely to take actions on what you read.
That may explain why so many successful people are prolific note-takers.
Niklas Luhmann — a German scholar and freakishly productive writer who published 70 books and 400 scholarly articles across various subjects was notable for his Zettelkasten system of 90,000 notes accumulated over the course of 40 years.
According to Luhmann, notes are important elements of producing and developing ideas. When you take one note, you can use it over and over again in other contexts. The measure of effectiveness of a note is the number of contexts you can make use of it.
A great book is not only filled with ideas but also examples, stories, and research. These expansions on the ideas are not possible if you rely solely on your memory.
William James puts it so well:
“If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. It would take as long for us to recall a space of time as it took the original time to elapse, and we should never get ahead with our thinking.”
Memorizing everything is as good as memorizing nothing.
So while it's essential to remember what you read, you need to get rid of the unnecessary. To make room for the important.
Also, it's important that you should take creative notes.
Your should write notes in your words, link to your past knowledge or experiences, then replicate it in many ways. Only then that your notes are meaningful and benefit learing and creation.
That said, you shouldn't force yourself to take notes. Things are only effective when you do it unforcefully.
People found upon his death that Luhmann left behind 90,000 slip notes in his Zettelkasten drawer. But if you do the calculation, that only accounts for 6 notes per day. And he was a remarkably productive writer, crafting 70 books and 400 scholarly articles.
For the majority of us who don’t intend to write that much, think how much we can achieve if we only write 1 creative note per day.
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