I found the best way to take book notes
Summary
TLDRIn this video, philosopher Jared Henderson shares his effective method for remembering what you read from books. He emphasizes the importance of active reading through minimal annotations and avoiding common mistakes like over-annotating or writing too much in the margins. Henderson then suggests exporting annotations to note cards, sorting them, and actively reflecting on the material by teaching or writing letters to authors. This process transforms learning into an ongoing activity, ensuring better retention and understanding of the content.
Takeaways
- π Taking notes while reading is essential for retaining information, applicable to both fiction and non-fiction genres.
- βοΈ Over-annotating can be counterproductive; minimal and focused annotations are more effective for future reference.
- π Different annotation symbols (e.g., underlining, circling, bracketing) can provide more context and clarity compared to simple highlighting.
- π Writing lengthy notes in the margins can be confusing; concise notes or symbols are preferable for clarity and future review.
- π· Using sticky tabs to flag annotations is a helpful method to quickly locate important sections for review.
- π£οΈ Speaking aloud or discussing ideas can be a useful way to process and remember what you've read, especially when on the go.
- πΌ Exporting annotations to note cards is a crucial step for consolidating and reviewing key points from the book.
- π Manually copying quotes and annotations into note cards or an app reinforces memory and understanding, avoiding over-reliance on automation.
- π Sorting note cards into themes helps in synthesizing ideas and understanding the book's structure or argument.
- π€ Active reflection, such as writing lesson plans or letters to authors, is a powerful method for internalizing and applying the knowledge gained from reading.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of taking book notes according to Jared Henderson?
-The main purpose of taking book notes, as per Jared Henderson, is to remember and understand what you read, which is crucial for any kind of literature, including philosophy, non-fiction, and fiction.
What are the common mistakes Jared Henderson made in his note-taking journey?
-Jared Henderson made three main mistakes: making too many annotations, only underlining without adding context, and writing too much in the margins.
Why does Jared Henderson suggest using minimal annotations?
-Jared suggests using minimal annotations to avoid overwhelming the text and to allow for future annotations during rereads, ensuring that the reader can engage with the material multiple times without running out of space for new insights.
What alternative methods does Jared Henderson recommend for annotating a book besides underlining?
-Jared recommends using a pencil to underline important passages, bracketing entire paragraphs, circling words that need definition, adding stars next to key points, and using question marks for confusing parts.
What is the significance of using sticky tabs in Jared's note-taking method?
-Jared suggests using sticky tabs next to annotations to easily locate and revisit important points later, which aids in the review process and helps in organizing thoughts.
How does Jared Henderson utilize Plot AI in his note-taking process?
-Jared uses Plot AI to transcribe his spoken thoughts or discussions, which is particularly helpful when he's on the go and unable to write notes directly.
What does Jared mean by 'exporting' in the context of note-taking?
-In the context of note-taking, 'exporting' refers to the process of transferring annotations from the book into a more reviewable format, such as note cards, where the reader can manually copy and reflect on the important points.
Why is manually copying information from a book into note cards beneficial according to Jared?
-Manually copying information helps in retaining the information better and allows for deeper processing of the material, as opposed to automating the process which can reduce the opportunity for review and understanding.
What is the final step Jared Henderson suggests after sorting note cards, and why is it important?
-The final step Jared suggests is 'active reflection,' which involves using the acquired knowledge in some way, such as writing lesson plans, blog posts, or engaging in imagined dialogues with the authors. This step is crucial as it helps in truly understanding and retaining the information by actively engaging with it.
How does Jared Henderson's note-taking method help in incorporating book knowledge into one's life?
-Jared's method helps incorporate book knowledge into one's life by encouraging a deep engagement with the text through close reading, annotation, exporting, sorting, and active reflection, which collectively aid in understanding, retention, and the ability to form one's ideas based on the acquired knowledge.
Outlines
π The Importance of Note-Taking for Reading
The speaker, Jared Henderson, emphasizes the significance of taking notes while reading to enhance retention and understanding. He shares his personal journey in finding an effective note-taking system, highlighting common pitfalls such as overly complicated methods and the tendency to annotate excessively. Henderson suggests that minimal, purposeful annotations are key, and he discusses his approach to marking important passages and concepts using various symbols. He also touches on the value of re-reading and the importance of not overcrowding the margins with excessive notes to leave room for future annotations.
π Annotation Techniques and Exporting Notes
This section delves into the specifics of annotating books with a focus on using different symbols to mark important points, such as underlining, circling, and bracketing. The speaker also introduces the use of sticky tabs to flag annotations. He then transitions into the process of exporting notes, advocating for the use of note cards to manually copy and review key points from the annotations. The act of manually copying is stressed as a means to reinforce memory and understanding. The speaker also mentions the use of technology like Plot AI for transcription and the importance of not relying too heavily on automation in the note-taking process.
π€ Active Reflection: From Notes to Knowledge Application
The final paragraph focuses on the concept of active reflection, which involves taking the exported notes and engaging with the information in a meaningful way. The speaker suggests creating lesson plans or writing letters to dead authors as methods to actively use and reflect on the acquired knowledge. He argues that this step is crucial for truly learning and retaining information from books. The process of teaching or writing about the material helps to solidify understanding and transform learning into an ongoing process rather than a one-time event.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Book notes
π‘Annotation
π‘Retention
π‘Note cards
π‘Active reflection
π‘Philosophy
π‘Non-fiction
π‘Fiction
π‘Marginalia
π‘Curating information
π‘Sticky tabs
Highlights
Taking book notes is essential for remembering what you read, applicable to both non-fiction and fiction.
Note-taking systems should be simple and sustainable, avoiding over-complication.
The speaker, Jared Henderson, shares his personal note-taking method that works best for him.
Reading the book and annotating it is the first step in the note-taking process.
Annotations should be minimal and focused on crucial information to aid future review.
Avoid over-annotating, which can negate the purpose of highlighting important content.
Differentiate annotations with various symbols like underlining, bracketing, circling, and starring.
Writing too much in the margins can be counterproductive; keep annotations concise.
Using sticky tabs can help flag important annotations for later reference.
Talking out loud can be a useful method for note-taking when on the go.
Plot AI is recommended for transcribing thoughts and ideas for better retention.
Exporting annotations from the book to note cards is a crucial step in the note-taking process.
Manually copying quotes and annotations helps with information retention.
Sorting note cards into themes helps in understanding and synthesizing ideas.
Active reflection on the notes, such as writing lesson plans or letters to authors, enhances learning.
Incorporating active reflection ensures that learning becomes an ongoing process rather than a one-time event.
Transcripts
I read a lot of books and if you want to
remember what you read then one of the
best things that you can do is to take
book notes this is true for philosophy
but also any other kind of non-fiction
and fiction as well if you want to
remember what you read you need to take
notes I've tried a lot of different
note- taking systems over the last 10
years or so and what I found is that
these practices are often too
complicated they're difficult to sustain
or they try to get me to think in a
certain kind of way that I don't always
find natural but I think I found the
best way to take notes or at least the
one that really works for me and I want
to share it with you I'm going to tell
you about some of the mistakes that I've
made along the way on my notetaking
Journey as well as the really simple
method that I now use to take notes I'm
Jared Henderson I'm a philosopher and I
also love to read books and if you end
up liking this video or you've liked
some of my other videos maybe try
checking out my substack I write several
times a week on there right now I'm
doing a readal of Aristotle's nickam
mckian ethics and if you become a paying
subscriber you're helping me bring this
content to YouTube and supporting me on
top of that I think you'd enjoy what I
write okay so the very first step in
this method is to read the book and
annotate there is no shortcut or hack
here you need to take your time you need
to read slowly you need to really pay
attention if the point of note taking is
to really understand the book then if
you cut some Corners here you're
basically undermining the entire process
while you're reading you're going to
want to make annotations by annotating
your book you'll become an even more
engaged reader but also these
annotations are going to set you up for
Success later on this is a place where I
used to make a lot of mistakes and there
were really three big ones so if you
take a look at my old copy of aerosotle
nicoman Ethics which I've read multiple
times I've had it for at least 10 years
you will find pages that are almost
completely covered in annotations just
take a look at this page more than half
of the lines are underlined and I
actually think that this form of
annotating is completely useless
annotations are indicators for your
future self as you read you are
highlighting what you think is important
so that you can go back and revisit it
later but but if you're underlining half
the words or sometimes even every line
on the page then you haven't done any of
that sort of curation for yourself
you've just said every line seems
important and that's equivalent to not
underlining at all you could just read
the page again so mistake one was making
too many annotations I think that
annotations in general should be quite
minimal they should be really readable
and they should be focused on those
crucial bits of information in the book
that's for non-fiction obviously for
Fiction it's a little bit different cuz
you're not just reading for information
in the same way but here you might want
to annotate things about theme for
instance and not every single line is
going to be relevant to the theme of the
book by making minimal annotations
you're also giving yourself room for a
reread good books are worth reading more
than once and you're going to have
different thoughts as you read a book
for a second or a third or a fourth time
I think I'm on like my sixth or seventh
read of the nican ethics at this point
but because of the way that I annotated
this book my first time and maybe my
second time time I've just given myself
no room for future annotations if I want
to make annotations in my book I would
need to buy another copy the second
mistake I made was only underlining so
underlining basically just highlights
text but it doesn't tell you anything
about why you're highlighting that text
or why you think it's important so if I
look at one of those passages where I
underlined everything am I saying that
it's important confusing maybe difficult
to understand do I think it's a call
back to an earlier part of the book I
haven't given myself any of that
information so instead I think it's nice
to come up with different ways to
annotate your book now if you're using a
highlighter which I don't love cuz I
don't like the way it looks you could
just color code so like blue could mean
that something is important and this
pink could mean that something is
difficult and you would just kind of
come up with a key for your different
colors instead I now annotate just using
a pencil I will sometimes underline
passages that I think are important but
if I think it's a whole passage I'll use
a bracket because it's fewer lines and
it just takes up less space I will
Circle words that I think need to be
defined or I think are maybe being used
in a weird way that way I can think
about how the writer is using them I'll
put stars next to important passages or
important lines as well and I'll put
question marks next to things that I
don't understand or find confusing you
could come up with your own symbols
there's a lot of flexibility here the
point is just come up with those
different symbols to give yourself more
information later on my third mistake
was writing too much in the margins
writing one or two words next to a
passage is totally fine but I was
writing entire sentences that were
curving around the page in strange ways
and if you need to write something that
complicated about the passage I think
the best thing you can do is find
another place to write it the next step
for annotating is that I like to put
these sticky tabs next to my annotation
basically I'm just flagging where the
annotations are this is optional you can
also use those metal book tabs if you'd
like but I think it's actually a very
helpful step now since we're talking
about booknotes you might be wondering
what you're supposed to do when you're
out on the go and I found one of the
things I like to do is just talk out
loud especially if I'm like on a walk
it's a little bit inconvenient when
you're out on a walk to just start
writing and that brings us to today's
sponsor plot AI plot AI is a way for you
to transcribe meetings or conversations
or just thoughts you're having about
whatever you're reading they use GPT 40
in order to make the transcription a lot
better a little more accurate I found by
the way that this is a perennial problem
accurate transcriptions in various apps
have been really hard to come by it also
lets you record phone calls but you have
to flip a switch in order for it to be
able to record any of your phone calls
that might seem a little in convenient
but I actually think it's a nice feature
that way you know that you're not like
accidentally recording private phone
calls I've also been working on another
project lately on a book and I found
that one of the things I need to do is
just interview people to get their
experiences or their expertise for the
book project and I can just record these
phone calls and then transcribe it and
plot can even add speaker labels to
cleanly separate who was talking when if
you're interested imp plot you can check
out my link Down Below in the
description when we've gone through our
book we've annotated we've tried to mark
what we think the important parts of the
book are especially for whatever
purposes figuring out why we're reading
the book but now we need to go and do
something with those annotations just
annotating your book is not enough they
don't really count as notes yet and I
actually just think the act of
annotating if you're not going to do
anything with it later is also kind of
useless I just call this exporting what
I'm saying is we want to get those
annotations out of that book into a
format where you can review them more
easily and when I'm exporting I like to
use note cards I use note cards because
I like writing by hand there are apps
that you could use as well like obsidian
my only note about using apps though if
that's how you want to do it is to still
manually write this is especially
helpful if you've been reading like on a
Kindle or something where you can export
your highlights and some of your
thoughts I would suggest manually
copying those quotes into whatever app
you're using the reason I say that is
because the act of manually copying
whether that's by hand or by typing is
actually going to help you retain the
information and I think process it
better if you automate the process to
make it nice and convenient you're
actually robbing yourself of an
opportunity to review your notes and
annotations and to start retaining the
information that's in the book
automation is basically the enemy of
retaining information but of also
understanding complicated ideas these
books deserve your attention and you
shouldn't bring too much automation into
the process so what I do is go through
the book and I'm using those sticky tabs
to kind of indicate where my annotations
are and then I go through the book and I
start writing down my thoughts I will
copy quotes that I think are important
it's another reason why the quote
shouldn't be too long your hand's going
to cramp eventually I'll also add a
couple of little thoughts about the
quotes I'll put a page number so it's
easy for me to find this is also a great
place to write down sources that the
author was citing that you might want to
review what goes on these note cards can
really vary sometimes it's just copying
something from a book sometimes it's
adding your own analysis or thoughts be
flexible experiment and figure out
exactly what you need for whatever your
goals are this is also by the way a
great time to write down vocabulary that
you need to Define these can be
historical references bits of jargon
just words that you think the author is
using in a strange way take the time now
to Define that vocabulary my export
phase is really similar actually to a
system that's been used by Ryan holiday
and also Robert Green and I'm sure many
others have used this system I'm going
to link down below to a couple of videos
if you want a little bit more detail
about how they do it I think everyone
does it subtly differently and it's nice
to look and see what the options are so
you can figure out what's going to work
best for you so by exporting you are
methodically deciding what is important
in the book and that's why I say you
shouldn't have any shortcuts you should
make the decision about what's actually
going to go into your big stack of note
cards when you've gone through the book
and you have your note cards you're
going to need to sort them I me you
could put them all in one big pile but
probably common themes have Arisen and
you're going to want to try to manually
sort those thinking through how these
ideas can be grouped together is again
going to help you understand the book
even more if you're doing a larger
research project so you're not just
reading one book you can start combining
note cards from multiple different books
because you're finding common ideas from
different books that are all on some
topic and that's going to help you
synthesize them in whatever your
research project is that's really useful
for college students but also for people
who are trying to write a book a major
obstacle that you're going to have with
no cards is figuring out exactly how to
organize them I think this is actually
an advantage though because thinking
through how you're going to organize
them is also thinking through how you're
going to organize ideas kind of doing
that housekeeping that's going to let
you remember and better understand what
you're reading and if you're worried
about your no cards getting scattered
all over your desk I have some really
good news for you some leading
researchers have been investigating this
very important issue for a very long
time and they realized that what was
missing was like some kind of technology
that would clip pieces of paper together
and they finally cracked the code and
they've named it the paperclip and even
better the paperclip is very cheap it's
very accessible you can buy it almost
anywhere so some paper clips that way
you're going to be able to actually hold
your note cards together now aside from
the actual reading of the book this is
probably the most tedious part of the
process but I also think that this TDM
is part of what makes this an effective
way to take notes for a long time I used
to stop there I even made a video about
something like this system almost two
years ago and I didn't really go any
further than exporting and sorting note
cards but I think that I was missing a
crucial third step that's really helpful
for people I call this active reflection
the point here is to actually take the
information so these are my note cards
from about two chapters and to actually
do something with it you don't want the
information to just be static the the
knowledge to just be sitting there you
actually want to take it and start using
it because that again is going to help
you understand the ideas because once
you started using that knowledge you've
acquired it's actually going to stick
with you this is the step that has the
most flexibility so one thing I like to
do but it's very tedious is to write
something like a lesson plan so if I
were going to teach you know part of
Aristotle what would it look like if I
were lecturing say undergrads the point
is to like imagine that you're teaching
it to people who are just like a little
bit below you in knowledge and ability
they're not dumb they're not stupid you
don't need to talk down to them but they
know just a little bit less than you you
would need to introduce them to the
subject matter you would need to be able
to clearly State the author's thesis or
thesis if there's more than one you
would need to be able to Define key
terms to explain arguments and you would
need to be able to consider
complications and objections basically
start asking what are the sorts of
questions that someone who knew a little
bit less than you would have I actually
found this really useful lately I
mentioned that I've been reading
Aristotle on my substack so every week
my substack community has been reading
you know one of the books of Aristotle's
Nick mckian ethics there are 10 books in
that work and every week I've been
writing about 1,000 to maybe 1500 words
summarizing and lightly explaining the
text and I found that by actually trying
to answer the question questions that
have been arising from readers who have
maybe not read a lot of philosophy or
read this for the first time I've
learned more about the text they've
actually been able to point out blind
spots in my own understanding of
Aristotle despite the fact that I've
read it many times and so trying to
explain it to people who know just a
little bit less than you is just a
really powerful tool if that sounds
tedious or a little bit boring there are
other options I'll just talk about one
more but again I would really encourage
you to experiment here in
1886 Andrew Lang wrote a book called
letters to dead authors it's a weird
book I'm going to link it down below
because you can read it for free it's
public domain but I love this idea
essentially Lang just wrote letters to
some of his favorite authors and
thinkers and while a lot of the book is
just him praising he's also raising
criticisms and asking them questions
it's a really kind of intimate way to
start engaging with the ideas in a book
so you could even try to write these
letters to dead authors and then you
could try to imagine what they would say
back to you how would how would they
respond to the criticism that you're
raising books are like this amazing
technology that is able to get you into
like the mind of another person but it's
a one-way form of communication by
writing these letters we get to kind of
pretend like we're engaged in an
extended conversation with some of the
greatest thinkers from Millennia past
centuries past and from every corner of
the globe and you get to kind of imagine
yourself as part of this Grand
conversation where you're talking about
I ideas you could find other ways to
actively reflect on the text you could
just write blog posts to try to
summarize it you could write many essays
there's a video by another YouTuber that
I'll link Down Below on that topic the
point is to just find some way to start
using this knowledge that you've just
acquired from this book because once you
start using it that's how you really
learn it that's how you really retain it
you really remember it and it's how
you're able to eventually move on and
start forming your own ideas so you read
these books closely you annotate as you
go you export the information and then
you act reflect on it and that way
you're actually able to incorporate that
knowledge into your life and turn
learning not into something that you did
but something that you keep on doing
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