Why you forget what you read... and how to fix it
Summary
TLDRThe video script emphasizes the transformative impact of taking 'quick notes' on one's creative work. The speaker introduces a 90-day notes challenge, advocating for the creation of smart, unique, and contextual notes that form part of an individual's knowledge base. These 'quick notes' serve as a second brain, enhancing productivity by providing a wealth of pre-written content and ideas. The process of note-taking is likened to a treasure hunt, with each note acting as a building block for content creation. The speaker shares their personal experience of using these notes for podcast episodes, highlighting how the practice distributes creativity over time, reducing the stress associated with creating content from scratch. The script concludes with an invitation to learn more about this note-taking process through the speaker's guided course, 'Productivity Power Up,' which covers principles applicable to a wide range of professions.
Takeaways
- ๐ The speaker started a 90-day notes challenge to enhance creativity and productivity.
- ๐ The notes are referred to as 'quick notes' or 'smart notes', which are unique, contextual, and part of one's own knowledge base.
- ๐ Traditional notes are often fleeting and lack the context needed for effective recall, unlike the 'quick notes'.
- ๐ก Note-taking serves as a 'second brain', aiding in the organization of ideas and concepts for future content creation.
- ๐งฉ Creating 'quick notes' daily acts as building blocks or 'legos' of content, facilitating an ongoing content creation process.
- ๐๏ธ The speaker organizes notes with connections, references, and keywords to form interconnected thoughts and ideas.
- ๐ Reading becomes more engaging and slower due to the note-taking process, but it results in a valuable collection of connected notes.
- ๐ Keywords on the back of each note card are crucial for creating clusters that help in finding related notes easily.
- ๐ฏ The process of note-taking helps distribute creative work, reducing the stress of 'creator's block' and the pressure of constrained creativity.
- ๐ This method of note-taking allows for a more distributed and less pressured approach to content creation, acting as a curator of one's own creativity.
- ๐ The habit of consistent note-taking nurtures a stress-free environment for creativity and productivity.
Q & A
What is the purpose of creating over 100 handwritten notes on index cards according to the video?
-The purpose is to make creative work easier and more fun by creating 'quick notes' or 'smart notes' that serve as a personal knowledge base and building blocks for content creation.
What is the challenge the speaker started at the beginning of October 2020?
-The speaker started a '90-day notes challenge' to create quality notes that would enhance their creative work and productivity.
What does the speaker refer to as a 'quick note'?
-A 'quick note' is defined as a note that is quality, unique, individual, contextual, and part of one's own knowledge base.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of returning to notes with context?
-Returning to notes with context is important because it helps in remembering why the information was significant in the first place, which is crucial for creative work.
How does the speaker describe the process of creating content with note cards?
-The speaker describes it as a treasure hunt for the mind, where one connects the dots of different ideas using note cards, making the creative process more distributed and less stressful.
What organizational data does the speaker put on the note cards?
-The speaker puts the note itself on the front of the card, connections and references on the back, along with the creation date, a reference number, and associated keywords.
Why are keywords important in the note-taking process described by the speaker?
-Keywords are important because they help in creating keyword clusters or note card clusters, which assist in finding related cards and organizing thoughts effectively.
How does the speaker suggest organizing the note cards as they accumulate?
-The speaker suggests that organizing the note cards is easy and fun, and it involves sorting through them like a treasure hunt, which aids in the creative process.
What is the benefit of taking quick notes according to the speaker's experience?
-The benefit is that it makes content creation easier by providing a second brain of ideas, concepts, and pre-written notes that can be used to create any type of content.
How does the speaker use the note cards for podcast episodes?
-The speaker uses the note cards by going through them with a general idea in mind, pulling out related cards that connect together for that idea, and treating the exploration like a treasure hunt to create a unique content stack for the podcast.
What is the 'Productivity Power Up' course mentioned by the speaker?
-The 'Productivity Power Up' is a guided four-week course that covers every element and principle of productivity to help individuals in their creative work or any other field of work.
Outlines
๐ The Power of Quick Notes for Creative Work
The speaker introduces the concept of 'quick notes' or 'smart notes' as a method to enhance creativity and productivity. They explain that these notes are unique, contextual, and contribute to one's personal knowledge base. The speaker emphasizes that quick notes are different from fleeting notes, which are rarely revisited and lack context. The purpose of these notes is to serve as a 'second brain,' providing a foundation for ideas and content creation. The speaker also discusses the benefits of this note-taking practice, such as making the content creation process more efficient and enjoyable, and turning the act of reading into an engaging treasure hunt for creative ideas.
๐จ Content Creation Made Easy with Note Clusters
In this paragraph, the speaker discusses how taking quick notes simplifies the content creation process. They provide an example of using these notes for podcast episodes, where they start with a broad idea and then pull related note cards to connect different concepts. This method allows for a more distributed creative process, reducing the stress associated with writer's block and the pressure to create content in a specific moment. The speaker highlights that by taking notes regularly, they rarely start with a blank page and can act as a curator of their own creativity, assembling different notes like Lego blocks to create a cohesive piece of content.
๐ Cultivating a Stress-Free Creative Environment
The final paragraph focuses on the benefits of the note-taking practice for nurturing a stress-free and productive creative environment. The speaker explains that by distributing creative work across different days, weeks, and months, one can avoid the pressure of concentrating creativity into a specific moment. They also mention that each note is a standalone building block that can convey one idea, which is crucial for the note-taking method. The speaker invites viewers to learn more about this process through their guided course, 'Productivity Power Up,' which covers principles applicable to various types of work. They encourage viewers to engage with their content and ask questions about the note-taking practice.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กHandwritten Notes
๐ก90 Day Notes Challenge
๐กQuick Notes
๐กContent Creation
๐กProductivity
๐กOrganization
๐กTreasure Hunt
๐กCurating
๐กStress-Free Creativity
๐กBuilding Blocks
๐กKnowledge Base
Highlights
The speaker started a 90-day notes challenge in October 2020, emphasizing the benefits of creating over 100 handwritten notes on index cards for creative work.
The notes are referred to as 'quick notes', which are described as smart, unique, individual, contextual, and part of one's own knowledge base.
Quick notes differ from fleeting or fast notes, which are often jotted down without context and rarely revisited.
The speaker explains that note-taking is a superpower for creative work, helping to supercharge productivity by providing a knowledge base or 'second brain'.
The speaker shares that creating quick notes daily acts as building blocks or 'legos of content', facilitating the content creation process.
The front of each note card contains the note itself, while the back includes connections, references, and a bibliography of different sources.
Organizational data on the cards includes the creation date, a reference number, and associated keywords to create clusters for easy retrieval.
The speaker addresses concerns about organizing a large number of note cards, stating that it's easy and fun to sort through them.
The process of note-taking makes reading more engaging and allows for the building of an interconnected thought and idea network.
The speaker's favorite part of taking quick notes is how it simplifies content creation, providing an example with podcast episodes.
Content creation with note cards is likened to a treasure hunt for the mind, making the creative process more distributed rather than time-constrained.
The speaker suggests that note-taking allows for the distribution of creative work across different days, weeks, and months, reducing stress.
Each note is an individual building block, capable of standing alone and conveying one idea, which is crucial for the note-taking method.
The speaker mentions 'Productivity Power Up', a guided course that covers the principles of productivity, including detailed note-taking practices.
The video includes a call to action for viewers to watch other videos on note-taking for more context and steps on practicing this method.
The speaker invites questions about organizing and using notes in the comments section, specifically for those participating in the 90-day notes challenge.
Transcripts
[Music]
what is the point of creating over 100
handwritten notes on index cards well it
turns out that it makes everything about
my creative work
a lot easier and more fun
[Music]
at the beginning of october 2020 with 90
days
left in the year i started a 90 day
notes challenge why not 100 notes
because i didn't get the video out fast
enough now these aren't just any kind of
notes they
are specific smart notes or what i like
to call
quick notes now what is a quick note i'm
so glad that you asked because if i just
sort through and i find
my note about notes which is very meta
then i can tell you without having to
like pluck it from the top of my head
even though yeah i totally could
that a quick note is quality unique
individual contextual and a
part of your own knowledge base now what
does that really mean
often what we think of as notes are
actually more like fleeting or
fast notes it's just something that we
jot down and rarely if ever
return to and even if we do return to it
then it's missing a lot of the context
that makes us remember why it was so
important in the first place
now if you're wondering why i am so
taken by this particular note
taken process then i encourage you after
you watch this video
to check out what is basically part one
of this series and why
note-taking is basically a superpower
for your creative work
but the quick and dirty version is that
this type of note-taking helps
supercharge your productivity
by giving you a basically a knowledge
base a second
brain for those thiago forte fans out
there
a second brain of ideas concepts
and pre-written notes that you can use
to
populate and create any type of content
that you want going forward
and in fact that is what i found to be
most useful about
taking these type of quality quick smart
notes nearly every single day for the
past almost 100 days now creating these
notes that act like
little building blocks or legos of
content
allows the actual content creation
process
to be happening basically all the time i
don't want to rehash everything that i
talked about in the previous video so
make sure you watch that one
after this as well it's going to be
linked in an end card and the
description below
but one of the common questions that i
got from people was what the heck are
you going to do with all these note
cards as you create them
won't they be hard to find or organized
and my answer to that is so far
not really it's pretty easy to organize
them
and it's fun almost to sort through them
to flip through them it's almost like a
treasure hunt for being a creative
person
it makes reading a lot more engaging it
does make reading a little bit
slower but i really know when i finish a
book now i have a
stack of cards connected to that book
which i'm then connecting to
other concepts and other notes and at
times other books
that help me build this interconnected
thought
and idea so on the front of the card is
the note itself on the back of the card
is any other connections references kind
of a bibliography
of different sources that may come to
mind or connect
even from the original note the other
bit of organizational
data that i'm putting on the card right
now is just really simple i'll often
just put down the date
that the card was created a number to
reference it
and then also any keywords that are
associated
with the type of note that it was so if
it's about work if it's about creativity
if it's about mindset if it's about
faith
if it's about any kind of keyword i'm
writing those all down on the back
now these keywords are really important
because this is how
i'm creating it the keyword clusters or
note card clusters categories that help
me
find cards that are related together a
lot of people have been commenting on
like my instagram posts about this and
occasionally
on the last youtube video that i made
about this asking like what am i gonna
again what am i gonna do with all these
cards how am i gonna organize them i
don't i can't figure it out now
and so i'm just not going to do it so
you're eliminating
this wonderful creative piece of work
that you can do
because something that may or may not be
a problem
100 cards from now because i can tell
you that i have a hundred cards in front
of me right now
and it's not really a problem maybe
it'll be a problem at like three or four
or 500 cards
but i will take care of the problem when
it's actually a problem
i don't eliminate myself or remove
myself from something that is healthy
because
eventually something might be a problem
and let me tell you
it's probably not going to be a problem
my favorite part of taking quick notes
is how much easier it makes content
creation for me
let me give you an example what i
commonly do
for my podcast episodes now is sometimes
i'll go
into a new episode with a very general
very broad idea of what i want to be
talking about
for the show but instead of just talking
off the top of my head which i have done
a lot in the past
i will now go through my notes with that
general idea
in the back of my mind and start to pull
out
related cards that connect
together for that idea it's almost like
a literal way of connecting the dots of
different ideas i'm just using note
cards
instead of concepts that just might be
fluttering about in my head
in this way content creation with note
cards
does become like a treasure hunt for
your mind
and it also makes it it makes the
creative process
a lot more distributed instead of
focused on
a particular moment instead of stressing
yourself out with writer's block or
podcaster's block or you know like video
creation block
instead of worrying about like what am i
going to talk about right now and just
trying to pull
ideas off the top of your head instead
go into your notes start to see where
ideas and connections and notes are
being made
and then you take cards from those
different clusters
and then you create a singular for the
moment
content cluster for the piece that you
are creating at the moment
that's how many of us approach creative
work or the practice of creative work
it is constrained almost to a time and
constraints can
have some healthy effects on us but it
also creates a lot of pressure when we
are approaching
our creative work in this way note
taking in
this method allows you to distribute
your creative work
amongst the different days weeks and
months so that when it's time to like
have
a published piece you're no longer
trying to constrain your creativity to
that moment
you are almost acting as more like a
curator of your
own previous creativity you're just
bringing together different notes like
lego
blocks and assembling something and then
awesome i've got i've got this i've got
this outline already done
i have many different types of content
and ideas
fused together and all i have to do is
add the connective tissue
that is relevant to the moment to the
piece to the video to the podcast to the
blog post to the email to the course
lesson
that i'm going to be teaching and
sharing that day
since i started taking notes like this i
have
rarely if ever felt like i was starting
with a blank page
for any type of creative piece that i
was putting together
and even if i found myself like in front
of the computer
trying to put together a concept for a
piece of content or a lesson
and i felt like i was hitting a bit of
writer's block or just you know creator
you know creators block
then i realized it was because i hadn't
flipped through my notes yet
and if i didn't have enough notes then
oftentimes i would realize like well i
haven't taken a note i haven't taken
these notes in three or four days
i'm out of practice i'm trying to focus
my creative energy on one particular
moment instead of spreading it out
through an entire day week and month
once you're able to stay
in that habit and in that practice of
note-taking though
the biggest benefit by far is that it
will distribute
your creativity around different days
weeks and months instead of
concentrating it and forcing it
into a specific moment which most of us
do and when you are
in that flow what i find really
wonderful
is that it nurtures this environment in
your life
and in your work of stress-free
creativity and productivity
because it's something that you're just
kind of doing all the time and when it
comes to actually
publish work instead of feeling like you
have to do
all the work right then to create your
video or your podcast or your blog post
or even like a book that you might be
putting together
now instead you're more just organizing
the notes that you've already taken
because they are quality they are unique
they are individual
they're contextual and they're part of
the knowledge base that you're building
in your own brain
so each note can stand alone by itself
and i want to make that really clear as
well
again please watch the other video about
this but each note
is an individual building block you can
use it to convey
one idea and you should keep it to just
one idea per card
if you're using if you're using physical
notes but that is something that is so
important and so cool so when i go to
create a podcast for example
all i'm doing is treating treating my
note exploration like a treasure hunt
and i'm creating a unique content stack
for that
particular piece of content that i'm
creating when i'm done everything else
just goes into its previous
content clusters and then i can just use
them again for the next piece of content
when it's ready to go out
if you're interested in learning more
and practicing more of this note-taking
process it's something that we cover in
detail in
the productivity power up which is my
guided four-week course where we take
you through
every element every principle of
productivity which will help you
no matter what you want to apply it to
most people in there are applying it to
some creative work that they're
doing but we also have realtors we have
therapists we have
engineers we have developers and
designers
anyone can join the productivity power
up and get
a lot of really effective resources and
principles to apply to whatever work you
want to be doing
make sure you check out the other two
videos that i have on note-taking they
will provide
more context and steps for how you can
practice this type of note-taking
yourself i really appreciate you
watching this video if you have any
questions about how you can organize and
use the notes that you've been taking
maybe you're a part of the 90-day notes
challenge
please leave them in the comments below
and thank you so much for watching this
video
make sure you check out the newest
episode of connect the dots podcast it's
going to be linked below as well
thank you so much and i look forward to
seeing you in the next video
[Music]
now
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