How I Remember Everything I Read

I consume a lot of stuff. Here's a few thousand pounds and a lot of years worth of note-taking experience condensed into my now favourite methods. I've tried to also keep in the free (but longer) ways to achieve the same results if you don't want to spend any money on apps :)

To make your life easier:
0:00 Introduction
1:37 Principles of Capture intro
2:00 Principles of Capture
6:26 Notetaking for Digital Books
8:15 Notetaking for Audio Books
10:19 Notetaking for Physical Books
12:38 Notetaking for Online Articles
14:34 Notetaking for Twitter
15:21 A summary of the System
16:12 How to Avoid Notetaking Altogether
17:54 Outro

Apps I mention: Notion, Readwise, Shortform, Kindle, Audible, Apple Books, Twitter, Apple Notes, Instapaper

If you want to stay in touch:

Or leave a comment, I (try to) answer 100% of comments :)

[elizabethfilips]

👀 The next 100 visitors to shortform.com/elizabeth will receive unlimited access for 5 days and a discounted annual subscription!

That's pre-made summaries for the books that we don't manage to easily take notes on/cannot afford to re-read/have lost to add to our collections 📚

[Meekismwisdom]

Elizabeth is at 100k. You deserve it. Super consistent. You've been a light in my youtube scrolling. Congrats.

[jeffd]

Elizabeth,
My wife used an audio pen that would record and match her notes to the audio when she was in college. She took her notes on special paper that had a pattern on it that allowed the pen to synchronize the audio to her notes when she played it back. She would just run the pen over that section and it would play the audio. She would transcribe the critical part professor's lecture on her computer. This allowed her to rewind and replay when she had trouble understanding.

I did a quick search and I see they now make "Pen Scanners" that will allow to to scan over text and it will convert it to editable text for import into other applications. You take the pen and use it like a highlighter. Those sections are translated into text for import. I don't have any experience with them, that is what I read in their descriptions.

You can also take pictures of the page with your Smartphone and then there are applications that will convert the image to text. I hope that will help you.

[jenniferredmond]

love how you describe that the context of your mind, i.e. what you've been reading, thinking about or feeling lately, contributes to whether you find something interesting or not...I love this process and seeing where my mind takes me

[WeTHINweekly]

Yes, share how you capture podcasts and YouTube content! Your bright mind and joyous spirit is contagious.

[JK-temm]

Everything you are teaching about memory and learning is a huge help for me ... I am looking to attend grad school next year towards a phd ... i feel nervous because it's been a few years since i last did any kind of academics. Thanks for posting your helpful vids =)

[joanndr]

I'm excited waiting for that video of you talking about how you capture from podcast, YouTube, audiovisuals and why not, social media, thanks a lot for sharing!

[neogoats]

What I always do is take notes the day after I did read it. With 2 reasons:
1 it filters what you think is most important and makes you think about why you missed the other parts.
2 it is a kind of "test" to check out what you actually did get and what not.

(I read philosophy a lot and I found this useful)

[speakingfreely]

Your channel is a gold mine. Respect.

P.S. There were three golden book recommendations in this video and this was not even a book review video.

[zenmischief]

Just discovered Elizabeth today and such relevant content, for me. So many puzzles you have thought through are similar to mine and my conclusions, and I always feel inclined to share my insights somewhere but I haven't figured out how, yet. I feel like an older, more neurotic more confused version of a similar personality: Made up of a lot of different "people" with different and sometimes seemingly contradictory, but just as vivid, valid and salient, motivations. And I'm equal parts inspired and intimidated. 😆❣

[getpumped]

It's great to hear someone else say that they treat physical books like 'gold' and find note taking a struggle. I've just gotten into note taking, it was such a pain for the first book I read that I gave up. Putting down the book, opening the laptop, going back and forth to copy quotes was harder than I thought.

But, I did add the Notion Clipper extension and just figured out how to export notes from Google Play Books! GREAT things I pulled from this video.

[KumaBones]

This has really helped me for college. I watched this a few months ago, and it's helped me ever since then. Just thought I'd leave this comment here after stumbling into your channel again (earlier)

[brentoncrowley]

On audiobooks, I listen mostly in the car so note taking has been an issue. Two workarounds I’ve used: 1. Use dictation to make a bookmarked note in Audible. 2. Set up a routine in Shortcuts on iOS to utilise Siri to add a dictated note to Notes. “Hey Siri, add book note …”

I find the act or articulating a thought out loud both challenging and rewarding. It’s one step better than bottling it up in my head and forgetting.

[mayflowermatriarch]

I really enjoy your videos. I find that the combination of your accent [Irish at a guess] and your normal speaking speed [if I could think as fast as you speak I'd be a genius] forces me to stop multitasking and pay total attention to your posts. That's a definite positive since you have so much good information to impart. Bravo for your accomplishments !

[amineunshakable]

I love to see behind the scenes on how you are taking notes on physical book, kindle & online articles…. This is good video not to be missed, I haven’t even finished the video I found myself writing this comments

[KonradGebura]

Great work, I’m just getting into reading because I always had a bad association with it but watching your passion about it brought me to love reading now and taking notes. I also love how you give alternatives for us who are not ready to spend money on apps. Thank you so much for the great content!

[Arariel]

I am absolutely in love with this incredibly beautiful mind. I could listen to you talk for hours. So soothing and brilliant!

[shraddhamishra]

You're about to hit 100k Milestone!
I am soo happy. I want you to know that your presence on YouTube and your thoughts are SOO heart warming and relatable to me. SO GLAD YOU EXIST ONLINE ♥️

Wishing all the happiness in the world ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️🌈🌈🌈

[فلسطيني-خض]

I from middle east a begin learning English. This my dream thank you for shearing all this information for us👍

[ZoeysMusings]

I'm so glad you did this video because I'm getting back into reading and was looking into creating an easy process so I can document what I learn from the books I read. Knowing why something resonated with you at that specific time is so important because I too have gone back to stuff and been like, "what does this even mean?!" Lol Excellent resource, Elizabeth!