How to Take Smart Notes

One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers

eBook, 188 pages

English language

Published March 10, 2022 by Sönke Ahrens.

ISBN:
978-3-9824388-1-8
Copied ISBN!
4 stars (10 reviews)

The key to good and efficient writing lies in the intelligent organisation of ideas and notes. This book helps students, academics and nonfiction writers to get more done, write intelligent texts and learn for the long run. It teaches you how to take smart notes and ensure they bring you and your projects forward. The Take Smart Notes principle is based on established psychological insight and draws from a tried and tested note-taking-technique. 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. It suits students and academics in the social sciences and humanities, nonfiction writers and others who are in the business of reading, thinking and writing.

Instead of wasting your time searching for notes, quotes or references, you can focus on what really counts: thinking, understanding and developing new ideas in writing. It …

5 editions

Really liked it

4 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's well-written on a small scale (pages, chapters) but the overall structure is a mystery to me.

Did I find a way how to organize a mess in my notes? Not exactly, but I've found some good hints.

Good bits:

  • GTD doesn't work for non-linear writing. Academic writing is non-linear. I was taught otherwise.
  • Organize your notes around the context in which they're going to be useful. Not by topic. Organizing by topic is almost the same as organizing them by year. Looks neat, but it's hard to find a note you need right now.
  • Quotes are useless. If you need to apply the information you've found somewhere, rewrite it in your own words.
  • Brainstorming is useless. Sure, it produces ideas, but they're going to be of a very low quality.

Bad bits:

  • There's a lot of barely related information. The book tries …

Excellent reference of Luhmann's zettlekasten system

4 stars

The subtitle describes the book well, in that the book is aimed to students, academics, and book writers. While a great source of knowledge around Luhmann's zettlekasten and the theory around it, it does spend a lot of time focusing on the academic side of the system.

Dr. Ahrens breaks down the key parts of Luhmann's system, how to implement it yourself, and points out new starter pitfalls by directing you to understand that it is a system of note-taking, not a component part that you can easily integrate.

Worthy of a read if you're interested in PKM, knowledge management, and note taking.

Subjects

  • notes
  • study
  • academia
  • Science