How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens – Book Summary & Highlights
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Posted by
VenturesDay

About This Book
How do you take notes that help you learn, think, and write? Read “How to Take Smart Notes” by Sönke Ahrens. This book shows you how to use a slip-box as a thinking tool and a creativity machine. You will also learn how to write from your notes with ease and confidence.
Table of Contents
How To Take Smart Notes
One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking
Author : Sönke Ahrens
Publisher : Sönke Ahrens; 2nd ed. edition (March 9, 2022)
Language : English
Hardcover : 188 pages
3 Sentenses
- This book introduces Niklas Luhmann's Zettelkasten (slip-box) method and shows you how to take smart notes that help you remember, understand, and generate ideas from what you read.
- You will learn how to use the Zettelkasten (slip-box), a simple and flexible system of note-taking that boosts your creativity and productivity.
- You will also discover how to write effortlessly by developing topics and ideas from your notes.
5 Quotes
- "Every intellectual endeavour starts with a note."
- "Writing is, without dispute, the best facilitator for thinking, reading, learning, understanding and generating ideas we have."
- "The slip-box is not a collection of notes. Working with it is less about retrieving specific notes and more about being pointed to relevant facts and generating insight by letting ideas mingle."
- "It is not the slip-box or our brains alone, but the dynamic between them that makes working with it so productive."
- "We co-evolve with our slip-boxes: we build the same connections in our heads while we deliberately develop them in our slip-box – and make it easier to remember the facts as they now have a latticework we can attach them to. If we practice learning not as a pure accumulation of knowledge, but as an attempt to build up a latticework of theories and mental models to which information can stick, we enter a virtuous circle where learning facilitates learning."
Who Is It For
Read this book if:
- You want to learn how to take notes that enhance your learning and thinking
- You want to use a slip-box as an idea generator and productivity engine
- You want to write academic papers, blog posts, books, or any other creative output with ease and confidence
- You want to develop a habit of writing that is fun, rewarding, and sustainable
- You want to discover your interests and passions by taking smart notes
Actionable Takeaways
🗃 What is a Slip-Box
- A system of note-taking that turns note-taking into a creative game
- A memory aid that helps you remember and understand what you read by forcing you to write it down in your own words
- A network of notes that helps you generate new ideas by letting different notes interact and spark connections
- A thinking tool that helps you develop ideas, arguments, and topics from your notes
- A creativity machine that gives you multiple entry points and directions for your writing
📝 The Slip-Box Method
- Take short literature notes when reading. Be selective and paraphrase the gists in your own words.
- Make permanent notes that relate to your research or interest. Write one note for each idea, use full sentences and include references.
- Add the permanent notes to the slip-box behind related notes or in new sequences. Be sure you will be able to find them later.
- Review permanent notes regularly. Look for connections, differences, contradictions, or gaps.
- Develope ideas or topics from the clusters of notes in the slip-box.
- Update your slip-box with new insights or feedback from your work.
🖋 Write from Your Notes
- Don't brainstorm; do slip-box-storming: by taking smart notes, you can just look into the slip-box and find where clusters of notes have developed and ideas have been built up.
- Choose a topic that interests you and has enough material to work with.
- Write an outline: write a note that sorts the links of relevant notes for your topic.
- Arrange them in a logical order that supports your argument or project.
- Turn the outline into a rough draft: expand on each note in your outline by writing a paragraph or a section.
- Edit and polish your draft: revise your draft until it is clear, coherent, and convincing.
- Try working on different manuscripts at the same time.
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