How To Take Smart Notes

My in-depth review of How to Take Smart Notes by author Sönke Ahrens. This book has transformed my learning, thinking, and work and I think I can help anyone who reads it become the best version on themselves.

00:00 - Introduction: How to Take Smart Notes
00:56 - Why Should You Care?
01:22 - The Book's Structure
01:51 - Three Main Takeaways
02:11 - Writing is Thinking
03:57 - The Value of an External System
08:50 - The Superiority of an Emergent Approach
10:38 - My Experience with this System
12:15 - What I Liked
12:33 - What I Didn't Like
13:28 - Why You Should Read It

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[MikeGastin]

Hey gang! Looking forward to mixing it up in the comments—what do you think about this book and this approach???

[monochromios]

I've recently read Ahrens' book. I'm a philosophical researcher and that casual book that crossed my life really changed my approach and my production. Wonderful text. Thank you for highlighting it.

[pectoralismajor]

I eventually ended up using Obsidian as my tool for creating a Zettelkasten when I heard about the Feynman technique. It also implies that you have to write down something you want to understand in your own words. But it takes it a step further: Write a complex idea down in a way that a 10yr old would understand it. If you can do that, you REALLY understand the concept.
I use that when I turn my literature notes into permanent notes.

[PatapiaPapakalodouka]

I like your calm tone in an era where everyone is in rush to "consume" information!

[bhargav]

I don't remember last time I watched a 10+ minutes long video without background music, you are amazing!

[markgreen]

I'm glad you showed how you actually use the system. Using concrete examples was extremely helpful!

[isaac]

Thank you so much for this. In academic research, we don't teach writing until it's absolutely needed at the highest level, during manuscript writing and conference abstracts. It's sad that we don't teach writing at the undergraduate level, especially in STEM research. Thank you! This book + your video has increased the productivity of my research

[JaeSeveliusPhD]

Falling down the Zettelkasten rabbit hole and found this video very helpful. I too wanted more practical guidance in the book but enjoyed it overall. I'm already using EndNote for references and Scrivener for writing, so will be trying out these software packages for literature notes and permanent notes. Wish me luck!

[Balefulmoon]

Great job. This is the clearest explanation I have heard of the method.

[italianoinminuti]

Mike, thanks for this book and your approach. My take home message while reading was "personally elaborate what you read and store it in an external system". Everything else is more complexity in the system. Thanks for the great summary

[CassTyson]

I'm reading this book now, on the recommendation of a friend. Not even 10 pages in, I had the same thought -- this is life changing stuff! Anyone who wants to write (or get good grades in school, or be a better knowledge worker, etc) needs to relearn how to take notes. Or, as in my case, how to take notes in the first place. Oh, how I wish I had known this in college! Next is the process of trying to make this a habit. I've installed and am learning Zotero, which is absolutely phenomenal, and now I'm trying to decide between Roam or Evernote or something else... There are so many things I've wanted to write but never did because I couldn't find or connect all my random notes and bookmarked articles. I literally had a 2-foot stack of news articles I had collected and annotated for writing project ideas, but I could never find relevant info when I needed it. I had no idea how to really use all my "research" to make my writing ideas into reality. I needed the file cabinet space so I chucked them, and now they're lost. I can only imagine how less frustrated I would have been, and how much I might have published, if I had been using smart notes all my life. Luhmann said he lamented not having more time. I can relate. Wish I could have the last 40 years back...

[russiel]

I finished the whole book and understand it well, then came here searching for more info. I have to say that you summarize main points very well and help understanding it better. Thanks for this review.

[kimberlyferrier]

I have never gotten the hang of how to take notes. I am a survivor of school. i am interested in many things but don't know much in particular about anything. this book would have changed my life forever. I have an idea for a book but was baffled about how to really take useful notes to lead to clear, coherent content that is useful and makes sense. thank you for this info for this great method.

[MrFurmiture]

Great video. I feel like a lot of college students are not good note-takers because they tend to write verbatim. I've recently started to listen to what a professor said, and look at whatever non-verbal material is available, and write down my thoughts instead of what the slide/professor says. I believe this is a really good way to actually understand the content in question rather than memorize it. Even with calculations, writing things like "so", "then", "leads us to", "results in", "we know that", etc, when solving a problem is extremely valuable and makes the math less abstract.

[LexOnTheWeb]

Thanks for making this video! It’s nice to hear someone summarize it in a way that makes sense to me. I also felt like it was lacking more practical examples of how to use the system, but I still adhere to the general guidelines in my own PKM system.

[guthrien]

This was an excellent take on the book and Zettlekasten and I've seen/read more than a few as I've tried to implement the system over the last few months. You nailed something that filled me with a bit of regret, that I've spent all these years reading and how much more I would have benefitted from having a system like this in the past. Going forward is obviously of more importance. Excellent work. Plus you were reading Christopher Lasch, which makes you cool ++

[masscreationbroadcasts]

I've kind of been already doing this. I've been making observations and creating concepts to explain them, across multiple topics without a clear idea of wbat I'll include by the end of the project and seeing how they'll continue.
Now I'm in the process of formalizing my notes and I'll try to either in February 2024 or January 2025 to begin releasing batches of these ideas properly formalized.

[SoldByJalenIngram]

Thank you! The perfect video I was looking for

[phothar]

This is best video on the book. Awesome job man.

[karanid]

Among the top podcasts of the thousands that I may have watched.