smart-notes.md

How to take smart notes

id - a75b39046c1dc8577ee6ce8e100c91c1

Amazon
zettelkasten

Niklas Luhmann - inventor of zettelkasten

Step by step

• Make fleeting notes
• Make literature notes
• Make permanent notes (based on prev two. Think how they are connected to what you know. Generate new ideas.)
• Add peramanent note to slip-box
• Develop your topics, questions, research projects

The Tool Box

• Something to write with and something to write on. (Pen and paper for ideas and quick notes)
• Reference managment system. zotero
• Slip box. zkn
• Editor.

slip boxes can be many ? (one based on what you read. etc)

Four underlying principles

• Writing is the only thing that matters.
• Simplicity is paramaunt. (slip box is a shipping container of the accademic world)
• Three types of notes
  • Fleeting - discarded in day or two
  • Permanent - stored in slip box , never thrown away
  • Project - stored in the project folder. Archived or thrown away after project is finished. (Reminders, todo, project related literature)

Separate and interlocking tasks

• Give each task undivided attention.
• Multi tasking is not effective.
• Become an expert instead of planner. (Planning writing is bad.)
• Get closure. (Short memmory can holds only up to 7 things at ones. Free up short memmory by writing down notes. Zeogarnik effect. When thoughts are written down brain thinks the task is compleated.)

Reduce the number of decisions

• Ego depletion (Might be questioable see)
• Always use the same notebook for quick notes, always extract ideas from a text in the same way. etc

Everythig you need to now

• slipbox bliographical

• slipbox for generated ideas mostly based on what is read

• The size of the slipbox paper should not be big. (may be simmilar to twitter ? characters restriction?). It helps to grasp a page content quicker. Usually it contains your idea based on what you read.

• Each note has a permanent number which identified it. Forexample - 22 then 23. If 23 is already exist then 22 is branched . 21/3d7a7

• index - Notes with sorted collection of links.

• Learn something for the long run it should be written down. To understand something it should be translated in your words.

• inbox - Place where a new ideas are stored to proccess later (fleeting notes). Make letirature notes that you dont wont to forget. Short. In your own words.

• permanent notes make them based on inbox once a day. Think about how they are relevant to your research, thinking or interests. Write only one notes per idea.

• Add new permanent notes to slipbox (to see more read 2.1 part 4)

Everything you need to have

• Something to write with and on.
• Reference managment system.
• The slip-box
• An editor

The four underlying principles

• Simplicity is paramaunt. It is crucial to distinguish between tree types of notes
  • Fleeting notes
  • Permanent notes
  • Project notes
• bibliographic slipbox ? permanet slipbox
• Project related notes
  • contents in a manuscript
  • collection of project related literature
  • outlines
  • snipped of draft
  • reminders
  • todo lists
  • draft itself

Read for understanding

During reading a book write down notes with bibliographic reference on the back.
When book is finished go through all notes and think how they are relevant to existing notes in a slipbox.
Read with the eye towards possible connection in the slipbox.

• confirm that we have separated task and focus on underlying

• make sure we have given a true account of it content

• find the relevance of it and make connection

• familiarity is not understanding

• test you understanding in some form

• explain what you hava read in your own words writing

Take smart notes

The educational psychologist Kirsi Lonka compared the reading approuch of unusually succsessful doctoral candidats and student with those who was less succsessful. One differents stood out as critical: the abillity to think beyond the given frame of a text.

• Good readers spot out the limitation of a paticular approuch and see what is not mentioned in the text.

• Writing is a good way to keep our thoughts in order.

• Very important that permanent notes should be written in your words base on fleeting notes

• Write notes with the eye towwards existing notes

• A common way to embed an idea into context of the slipbox is by writing out the reason of its importantce for your own lines of thoughts.

• Why did this aspect that I wrote down catched my interest ?

• The slip-box forces us to ask numerous elaborating questions

  • What does it mean ?
  • How does it connect to ... ?
  • What is the differens between ... ?
  • What is similar to ... ?

• Don't sort notes by topic

• Add note into slip-box either behind the note you directly refer to or if you dont follow up on a specific note, just behind the last note in the slip-box

• Add links to other notes or link other notes to the new note

• Make sure it can be found from the index; add entry in the index if necessary or refer to it from the note that are connected to the index

• Build a Latticework of Mental Model ( facts should not be isolated nor learned in isolation fashion )

The Six Steps to Successful writing

Every note is just an elemnt in the neteowk of references and back references in the systems, form which it gains its quality. (Luhmann 1992)

• new related note is placed behind an existing one number 21 with number 22 if 22 is already exists then 22a
• keywords added as tags to notes and show up in index
• tag is a topic

Four basic types of cross-references in file-box

• notes that are giveing overview of a topic. Usually directly referred to from the index. Collects other notes related to this topic. Link collection.
• (Only for papaer version) Track of all the different topics discussed on the notes that are physically close together.
• (Only for papaer version) Indicate the note to which the currient note is a follow-up and those links that indicate the note that folows on the current note.
• plain note to note links (Most common form of reference). Links two related notes regardless of where they are within the slip-box or within different contexts.

Instructions for the slip-box

• Pay attention to what you want to remember.
• Properly encode the information you want to keep.
• Practuce recall.

slip-box restrictions (Structure and restrictions are very importat)

• Single plane note format collected in a single slip-box
• Limit space of the note.
  Luhmann choose notes in the format A6 . Rule of thumb is to feet the nore to the screen wihtout scrolling.
• One idea per note

Share our Insight

more people in a brainstorming group usually come up with less good ideas and restrict themselve to a norrower range of topics

Wheh I am stuch for one moments. I switch to write another book - Luhmann