How To Take Smart Notes (3 methods no one's talking about)

How do you take notes that are actually effective? How to remember what you read? Let's talk about how to take SMART notes, inspired by Sonke Ahrens' book "How to take smart notes".

We'll cover the 3 things that make smart notes smart, and techniques like Q/E/C and the compass of Zettelkasten Thinking to get you started today!

⚡️More Note-Taking & Obsidian videos⚡️

⏱ TIME STAMPS ⏱
0:00 Are your notes smart?
01:23 1/ active smart notes
03:14 2/ atomic smart notes
04:37 3/ connected smart notes
05:04 Compass of Zettelkasten Thinking

#notetaking #zettelkasten #smartnotes #atomicnotes
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[alexei.domorev]

Vicky, thank you for another insightful video - I wish your channel existed 15 years ago when I was doing my MBA. Thansk to your hard work, anyone who watches your channel is able to significantly improve their thinking, decision making and performance. Brilliant work!

[creativeyogi]

Well explained. Most people only ever explain a system from an overview perspective, but fail to provide simple examples to walk the listener's mind through the actual process. Thanks for do the little bit extra!

[willowoodz]

- Q/E/C method (Question, Evidence, Conclusion)
> Identify question
> "Dash" evidence excerpts
> "Dot" conclusions/ideas
- Compass of Zettelkasten Thinking
> North = Origin
> West = "Synonym"
> East = "Antonym"
> South = Purpose/Future

[zeldomaine]

Also when taking notes what I find helps is to reword the content. So if Atomic Habits says "You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems, " I would put that in my notes as "The real limitation to reaching your goals is the systems you employ and not the ambition of the goals themselves"

[Sleepybear]

I thought atomic habits was a book about nuclear physics or something LOL.

[blaiseutube]

Everything about this video is exemplary:
The audio
The photography
The transitions
The structure
The content
The description, with links and timestamps.

[crptideo]

Smart notes about smart notes

Always opt to write actively, not passively, try to summarize the author's idea in your own way.
QEC Method
Q - question ( use ? to mark the questions )
E - evidence ( use - to mark the evidences )
C - conclusion ( use . to mark the conclusion )

Atomic smart notes
Only working with isolated facts is very tricky and can lead you to forgetfulness in your learning journey. However, if you consider the facts and subjects interconnected with one another in an holistic way, it gets easier to connect the dots. Try to resume and interconnect everything together, rearrange them with the compass of Zettelkasten. You get the primary idea and you put it in the middle, north is where the idea comes from, the origins, on west you'll put all that's similiar to the primary idea, east is what competes and opposes and south can be to where the idea leads you.

[madeofcastiron]

huh, i never realised that i’ve been actually using these methods my whole life. i like to think of my knowledge and ideas as ingredients and that they can be combined together into recipes. it’s nice to finally have the names to these methods.

[ceafva]

Vicky, I was excited when I first watched this video, days later I watched again. Then again a week later. Working on the understanding. I decided to research the Q/E/C method and learned this structure has many limitations which you didn't mention in your video. After this I returned to watch your video again to see if I could straighten out some misunderstanding (so I thought I had). The Q/E/C is a limited note-taking method usually with subjects that require argumenting. Definitely non-technical. Great for philosophy as I read some examples. I can't see it as related to Zettlesten's method as you kind of danced around. I can see though how looking if other directions could help, more directions than simply north, east, west, north and south. If you would talk further on this maybe I can connect this further. I feel there's something missing or maybe its just something I'm not smart enough to get and taking your type of "smart" isn't my thing. I do want you to know I am big follower thus far.

[carolinamunoz]

Vicky, thank you for this video! You have a knack for making complex concepts very clear and easy to understand! I’ll be implementing these ideas soon.

P.S.: I love the aesthetic of your channel/videos!! Most YT channels nowadays are visually loud, whereas your old computer vibe/pixelated fonts are crisp and soothing, while still fun👌🏼😊

[chairilanwar]

The compass of zettelkasten is really helpful. Thanks

[shawhat]

I have never heard of the compass thinking but the way you broke it down and used examples from the book was mind opening!! Very, very great video :)

[DATRATMANZ]

I have recently noticed in my notes in college I wasn’t actually absorbing the material. During lectures I would try to write down every little thing. Now I just wrote down the most important pieces, go home and piece everything together adding in more details and connecting the whole picture. One limitation was the medium I was using. I cannot use paper to connect these vast ideas because I only have so much space, but with Microsoft one-note I have a large amount of sosvd and freedom to put things wherever. I add in visuals, explain concepts then give myself and example then a visual of the example. For complex ideas in physics where particles and many forces and charges are at play this comes in handy.

[harriet_louise]

I'm a visual thinker and can therefore really struggle with learning quickly because of my ADHD short-term memory preventing me from being able to organise new information in my head before I forget it, so these tips are a godsend. Also, the way this video is visually formatted actually really helps to get my head around ideas like this - I bet Vicky is also a visual thinker

[Ra_Yeji]

I literally felt my brain making connections with each neuron while watching this video. I'm really mind blown holyyy.

[AndriamanalinaFinaritra]

Thanks! Your video really helped me on my Professional field and businesses
I've learned many things

[labsanta]

Takeaways:

At time: 00:00
The illusion of competence occurs when we highlight, underline, and take notes without actually learning new information.
Smart notes are active and involve restructuring other people's thoughts into our own structure.
The Q/E/C method (Question, Evidence, Conclusion) is a great structure to use when taking smart notes.
Smart notes should be atomic, meaning the size and ideas on them matter.
Organizing notes in one giant document limits our ability to think, and creating atomic notes can help us become more powerful thinkers.

03:28
Using atomic ideas instead of a giant document allows for 3D thinking and easier recollection of ideas.
Making each question, evidence, and conclusion its own atomic note is crucial for rearranging and connecting ideas.
Connecting new ideas to existing ones helps combat the illusion of competence.
The compass of the Zettelkasten thinking can be used to connect new ideas to existing ones in four different directions.
Focusing on systems rather than goals is important for forming good habits and breaking bad ones.

06:57
Thinking in multiple directions can help generate solutions for climate change and diversity issues.
Connecting ideas is important for problem-solving.
The speaker suggests checking out their Zettelkasten guide for taking smart notes to the next level.
The speaker concludes the transcript by saying goodbye.
No information is provided on who the speaker is or where the transcript comes from.

[joesweeney]

Great video and a technique I've used / modified since I was a teen. Also Luhman and Da Vinci are both in my pantheon of heroes. So good to hear Luhman being mentioned. The notion of connection is well recognised in education, and formally considered in Bloom's taxonomy.

[EvenTheDogAgrees]

What's the point of the examples if they simply consist of "take this particular book, and apply these techniques to the text", without showing _HOW_ you apply them??? The whole idea of examples is to walk the viewer through a concrete case, applying the techniques you just explained on a theoretical level, so that they can get a grasp on the abstract set of rules you just introduced. If someone doesn't understand the theoretical description you just gave of the QEC method, they also won't understand if you simply repeat the same abstract description and tack "applied to this book" on the end.

[izamanaick]

We have a similar method used in secondary school English class in the UK, PEE, for making competent essays and arguments.
Point
Evidence
Explanation
(and occasionally) Evaluation