How to Take Smart Notes (Chapter 1-2 Reading Notes)

This book aims to fill the gap between a blank screen and writing down an argument by showing how to efficiently turn your thoughts and discoveries into convincing written pieces and build up a treasure of smart and interconnected notes along the way.

When it comes to writing, everything, from research to proofreading, is closely connected. All the little steps must be linked in a way that will enable you to go seamlessly from one task to another, but still be kept separate enough to enable us to do what needs to be done in any given situation. And this is the other insight of David Allen: Only if you can trust your system, only if you really know that everything will be taken care of, will your brain let go and let you focus on the task at hand.

Studies on highly successful people have proven again and again that success is not the result of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but rather the result of smart working environments that avoid resistance in the first place.

One slip note contains the source or reference on one side and a short and brief idea or thought (written by own words) on the other side. And notes are connected by links or narrows, therefore thoughts could be expanded from one simple idea to another simple idea into a solid and never-ending-expanding network.

The first step is to make fleeting notes, which is writing down anything in your head. We can leave these fleeting notes behind until we got time to process them into permanent notes being put into the slip box. Actually this procedure requires you to record your mind immediately no matter what the thought is or whether the idea is complete or not. Just record everything in your head by writing them down in the form of fleeting notes on any platform, like apps or a physical notebook.

The other step is parallel to the first step, which means this one and the first step can happen at the same time, and the order of them doesn't matter at all. The step is making literature notes. When you read some materials, like articles, website messages or journal articles, write down something you think they are important or you want to remember in your own words. The emphasis is on making them short and thinking through your brain to output the meanings in your own words. If you just copy the words, the key part of understanding would be ignored, causing you not to reach the goal of making connections between ideas in your brain and your second brain, which is your note-taking system. Besides, don't forget to point out the resources of material you are reading.

Then make your permanent notes through all literature notes and fleeting notes made this day. Make sure the core idea to do this step is to develop and generate ideas or arguments based on already existing ideas in my brain, not collecting ideas. When you make the permanent notes, ask yourself whether you can combine these ideas to generate something new. So the permanent notes are some ideas developed from the literate notes and fleeting notes, not simply summaries of them. And remember that the number of permanent notes doesn't matter; only the quality of them matters. So one permanent note is enough for one day.

Add new permanent notes with links to previous permanent notes when they are relevant. Be sure similar ideas can be connected and found at once. Take some time to ensure that there are no missing points in this system. Besides, review permanent notes from time to time to add new opinions on existing ones and to find out questions, topics and the gaps. Then you can decide what your research projects could be.

A key principle is to allow the ideas on permanent notes lead you to think, to wander, to connect, to expand your mind, not to brainstorm on one topic, retrieving messages from your memory-limited brain.

Once you have decided the topic to write about, sort out all relevant permanent notes and refine them. Besides, write a draft out of these notes, but in a more coherent language and structure them systematically. Then read and revise your manuscript. Here is your first manuscript, which is not starting from a blank screen, but a bunch of notes taken after thoroughly thinking.

This workflow provides a flexible idea processing since you are not limited to one topic but to anything that pops into your eyes and mind, which allows you to see the possibilities between connections across different topics, even different subject fields. This could lead to something new happening, which is innovation or creativity. And writing is about creating something original and new. Building your own thoughts out of many thoughts given by many sources is the ideal working status.