# How to take smart notes: one simple technique to boost writing, learning and thinking: for students, academics and nonfiction book writers #### 2017 - Sönke Ahrens **Link**: **DOI**: **Links**: **Tags**: **zotLink**: [zot](zotero://select/items/@ahrensHowTakeSmart2017) ###Abstract ``` ``` ### Notes-Highlights [[How to Take Smart Notes]] - Smart notes are a form of constructionism. - he started to think about how one idea could relate and contribute to different contexts . Just amassing notes in one place would not lead to anything other than a mass of notes . But he collected his notes in his slip - box in such a way that the collection became much more than the sum of its parts . His slip - box became his dialogue partner , main idea generator and productivity engine . It helped him to structure and develop his thoughts . And it was fun to work with – because it worked . - External scaffolding system decreases resistance environmentally and compensates for the limitations of our brains. - 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 ( cf . Neal et al . 2012 ; Painter et al . 2002 ; Hearn et al . 1998 ) . - Mystical hermeneutics of transforming information from existing state to new state via thinking and writing. - Every intellectual endeavour starts from an already existing preconception , which then can be transformed during further inquires and can serve as a starting point for following endeavours . Basically , that is what Hans - Georg Gadamer called the hermeneutic circle ( Gadamer 2004 ) . - Conscientiousness and associational horizon are needed (As well as intelligence) - “ On one hand , those with wandering , defocused , childlike minds seem to be the most creative ; on the other , it seems to be analysis and application that’s important . The answer to this conundrum is that creative people need both … The key to creativity is being able to switch between a wide - open , playful mind and a narrow analytical frame . ” ( Dean , 2013 , 152 ) - Writing notes by hand is easier to get the gist of the principle, idea, or structure of an argument... and put it in your own words. - Because students can’t write fast enough to keep up with everything that is said in a lecture , they are forced to focus on the gist of what is being said , not the details . But to be able to note down the gist of a lecture , you have to understand it in the first place . So if you are writing by hand , you are forced to think about what you hear ( or read ) – otherwise you wouldn’t be able to grasp the underlying principle , the idea , the structure of an argument . - There is a clear division of labour between the brain and the slip - box : The slip - box takes care of details and references and is a long - term memory resource that keeps information objectively unaltered . That allows the brain to focus on the gist , the deeper understanding and the bigger picture , and frees it up to be creative . Both the brain and the slip - box can focus on what they are best at . - Web of knowledge created is essence of educere 'drawing out' of educational process. - Learning would be not so much about saving information , like on a hard disk , but about building connections and bridges between pieces of information to circumvent the inhibition mechanism in the right moment . It is about making sure that the right “ cues ” trigger the right memory , about how we can think strategically to remember the most useful information when we need it . - Keywords are where some magic happens for associating context with notes. - The way people choose their keywords shows clearly if they think like an archivist or a writer . Do they wonder where to store a note or how to retrieve it ? The archivist asks : Which keyword is the most fitting ? A writer asks : In which circumstances will I want to stumble upon this note , even if I forget about it ? It is a crucial difference . - Taking notes is like the transforming of matter and energy into different forms. - The slip - box is in some way what the chemical industry calls “ verbund . ” This is a setup in which the inevitable by - product of one production line becomes the resource for another , which again produces by - products that can be used in other processes and so on , until a network of production lines becomes so efficiently intertwined that there is no chance of an isolated factory competing with it anymore . - Structured multitasking leads to effortless creativity when it comes to writing. - “ When I am stuck for one moment , I leave it and do something else . ” When he was asked what else he did when he was stuck , his answer was : “ Well , writing other books . I always work on different manuscripts at the same time . With this method , to work on different things simultaneously , I never encounter any mental blockages . ” ( Luhmann , Baecker , and Stanitzek 1987 , 125 – 55 ) - Write for yourself to understand some ideas first. - Slavoj Žižek said in an interview [ 41 ] that he wouldn’t be able to write a single sentence if he didn’t start by convincing himself he was only writing down some ideas for himself , and that maybe he could turn it into something publishable later . By the time he stopped writing , he was always surprised to find that the only thing left to do was revise the draft he already had . - Long-term cross-topic organization of notes is not designed for educational review by authority. - First of all , the long - term , cross - topic organization of notes , which is guided only by one’s own understanding and interest , is very much at odds with the modular , compartmentalised and top - down approach in which the curricula of universities and colleges are organised . Teaching is still set up for review , and students are not really encouraged to independently build a network of connections between heterogeneous information – despite the radical change in our understanding on how our memory and learning works . -