Consider why you want to take notes
Before you start taking notes, ask yourself what your goal is.
- Paper versus digital. If your goal is to study the content of a book, paper is better. But if your goal is to be able to reference certain parts of the book easily, an ebook may be better suited.
- Serendipity versus control. When you want to take notes to read them for pleasure afterwards, highlighting and marginalia could be more suited. But if rediscovery is your desire, a structured system, such as an index of the key ideas, may be better.
- Learning versus creating. If you want to learn from a book, your notes will be factual, but if you're going to create your own content, your notes will be more original.
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Similar ideas to Consider why you want to take notes
Capture key ideas without interrupting your reading flow
Taking notes should not become a tedious process, but it should be made as seamless as possible.
- If you are reading a physical book, write down main ideas or questions in the margins. Try to keep it very short. If you are reading an ebook, highlight the essential par...
The Popova Method: How to take notes
- Create a title on top of the page.
- Start building your ideas index: As you're reading, list the topics and ideas that seem to be important and reoccurring. Use short sentences. Use one idea per line.
- Record the pages: Unde...
Take notes while you read
- If you read a printed book, highlight important quotes, ideas, or questions. Write the page number on the first blank page.
- If you're reading a Kindle book, use Kindle's "notes" and "highlights" to collect important takeaways.
- Highlight
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