Many people struggle from collecting notes to creating original articles. In this meetup, we discussed our challenges, strategies, and tools to turn content input into creative output.
Read text chatSome key points
- Good note-taking is a multistep, iterative process
- Good note-taking is selective (notes quality over quantity)
- It’s essential to use your own words and to take notes that are relevant to your interests (connecting new knowledge to existing knowledge, see memory champions who create narratives to better remember)
- Note-taking can be analog or digital
- Note-taking can be private or public
- Zettelkasten is a popular note-taking method
- Taking a directive approach (what to do with a note) rather than a classification approach (what this note is about) is more productive
- Notes should be evergreen and constantly edited with new knowledge
- Positive statements make for great titles e.g. “Come up with your own phrasing” is better than “Writing advice” or “Don’t copy and paste”
- Some people think better by writing (note-taking app, text editor) while others prefer thinking out loud (voice recorder)
- Be intentional before reading: what do I want to learn? What would be the best piece of content to read right now?
Why take notes?
- To support ideas with research, facts, and expert opinions
- To turn input (reading) into output (writing)
- To consistently create content for a blog or newsletter
- To build a second brain: to not forget ideas and retrieve them easily
- To better remember the context of our ideas
- For personal development: notes can be cues that can be used for inspiration, as conversation starters, or to play games with others, rather than for pure knowledge management.
- To find surprising connections and come up with original insights (combinational creativity)
- To have a conversation with yourself (like rubber ducking in engineering)
- For higher quality thinking
- To reduce your cognitive load (brain dumps, storage space)
- To channel your curiosity
Main challenges
- Reducing friction when taking notes (but maybe friction is good? Slowing down can help deeper comprehension)
- Finding a balance between structure (architects) and serendipity (gardeners)
- Tagging information in a productive way (tags are not perfect but still better than folders)
- Revisiting notes (mind garden rather than mind backyard)
- Taking notes when on the go (voice notes are helpful, the transcription can be outsourced)
- Navigating between various tools (text editor, note taking, publishing platforms) and various content formats (audio, video, PDF)
- Easily retrieving specific notes
- Getting feedback (can be addressed by working in public, for example first publishing a Tweet, then a thread, then a public note, then short blog post, then an essay)
Recommended readings
- How to take smart notes: take notes on cards while on the go, then turn them into permanent notes when back at your computer
- Moonwalking with Einstein
Recommended tools
- Roam Research
- Notion
- Otter.ai for voice recording and automatically creating keywords
- Instaper