I almost gasped when you said “lecture plan”-that’s exactly what I do and I’d never heard of anyone else doing it! I taught courses during grad school so I’d already kind of forged that neural pathway or whatever for myself so it is an easy/automatic way of thinking for me, and I noticed that I could remember a ton of information from lectures I gave one time 3 years ago. So I do exactly this now! I’ll organize the info into a lecture and then go on a walk in the park mouthing it to myself like a crazy person, ha
For books with non-glossy pages, if you need to do the kind of reading for which highlighting helps, COLORED PENCILS are a game changer - shades in the text in a way that’s both immediately legible and does not obstruct reading. I’m typically just a pencil annotator, but during an undergrad thesis on Adorno’s Kierkegaard book, I needed a way to note at a glance pieces throughout from many interlocking but distinct strains of argument. It’s amazing how lightly you can shade with a decent colored pencil and still have it flare right out to your mind, vs Highlighter proper which always makes it feel like you’re trying to read a traffic cone.
I keep 1-2 pages of folded up printer paper inside the book I’m reading. When I read something relevant I mark the page and paragraph on the paper and write my thoughts on it. After finishing the book I write a mini essay about it. The mini essay is also what directs what I find relevant and want to expand on later.
My system is essentially: Read, annotate, write a review in my commonplace book, re-read, make notes on specific passages (copy quote, reformulate in own words, or reflect (not exclusive or)) also written in commonplace book. If I read a book only one time, then I'll probably be satisfied with just reading, annotating, and writing a review of it. I'll write where to find the review on the front page of the book (an ID) so that if I pull the book off the shelf I can locate it's review and see what it's about and what I thought of it. The annotations serve as a map of the book for rereading, whereas notes on passages are usually so I can somehow engage with the material and link my thoughts together in my notebook. If I make a note on a passage I'll also write the note ID next to the passage in the book This to me feels like the right amount of friction for me. I can read with an anlytical/critical eye but not get so bogged down on a single book and note taking that I spend months on it before moving on to something else. Instead I can read and annotate fairly fast, spend some time on a review and then iterative build up my notes on subsequent reads later if the book is worth my time to do so
@@wellgemr8108 I number my notebooks. I call mine my Miscellanies after Jonathan Edwards's Bible note taking system although I don't take Bible notes, just adapted his system to my general reading purposes. Anyway, let's take an example from my own book (sorry im advance for the political nature of their content as that can be divisive, not trying to argue politics here, just demonstrating how I take notes): My eighth entry has the date, the title "(8) Paxton - 5 Stages of Fascist Life Cycle" and then the content of the note, followed by tags, and related notes. In my copy of Paxton's The Anatomy of Fascism, in the margin of page 23 where I sourced the note, I've written "M1.8" meaning "Miscellanies notebook volume 1, entry 8". For related notes in the entry, I wrote similar note IDs like "m1.4" which is "Miscellanies volume 1, entry 4" and is a note about the mobilizing passions of fascism taken from the same book as before, and on the source page of the book, next to it in the margin I've also written "m1.4". My review of the book is entry number 2, so on the first page of the book, I've written the dates I read it and then "review: m1.2" so I can easily go to my notebook and see how I understood the book and my initial thoughts on it. Hope that helps with your notetaking and reading
Hey Jared, great video! I have a simple system that’s actually pretty similar to yours: - [Q] - Quotation - [I] - Information/Interesting - [*] - Important section/paragraph - [?] - Question - [D] - Down in the margin - [V] - Verify - [Ex] - Example - [FR] - Further reading afterwards When I finish reading, I summarize what's important in my notebook based on these marks and ideas.
What personally works best for me is a separate journal that I write quotes, themes, opinions, thoughts, major plot points, pretty much anything inside of. I write these down as I read so it is very easy to reflect on the order of different events and look back at what was going through my head before I knew everything about the book from front to back. Having it separate from the book also makes it easier to skim through a few pages of notes and recall major events or important lessons instead of looking through every page of the book to get the same info.
For exporting, i find it helpful even to have a “review shelf” with books i wish to regularly return to and integrate with stuff I read thereafter - just taking an hour or two to thumb back through old annotations of a few different books does wonders for refreshing one’s memory and seeing/contemplating connections, especially as one does so with several books on a topic read at times pretty far apart.
Starting to take notes transcended my reading from merely escapism to a source of knowledge and reflection. These are great tips man I appreciate your work on youtube.
This video got me smiling a lot of cos I realized how well I'm reading my books. I love writing what I've learned, and then after writing them, I type them again on my laptop so that I can have a digital copy anywhere I go. The actions you've mentioned are the things that I'm doing as I read, it just made me happy that I relate to someone.
Very helpful and insightful content! Many of the note-taking strategies mentioned resonate with the methods I used as a student. The emphasis on annotation while reading is particularly valuable. Thank you for sharing such practical advice!
I applaud this hugely. I've done this for a while, and it does work. The only tweak you might want to consider is using different-coloured index cards. Also if you number your index flags and write in the front of the book where there are some blank (ish) pages and make an entry e.g. Flag 1 = Motivation v Inspiration. This is great though.
feeling blessed that i saw this before embarking on my senior thesis this year! i was never taught how to annotate or take book notes and never felt comfortable with the way i was trying to do it. this system feels super intuitive and i'm excited to try it out!
Great video! I second the need to make use of the notes you take. I have tried all the systems from writing notecards to Obsidian, and through every process I have found them taking up space, until I realized I must use the knowledge I am gathering. That process allows the knowledge you learn to take root.
just love the idea of writing letters to dead authors! i wonder what kind of literature we could have with ai facilitating such conversations. just lovely content, thank you.
Definitely guilty of the crime of annotating half a page in the past. These days I tend to read a book without annotating, usually just reading 20-30 pages a day and then go back to collect what I felt were important on a notebook (physica/digital). Then when it comes to the time for a re-read, I'd have already gone through the phase of thinking everything was important and have had the time to process my thoughts and could sit down now to do better notes, probably also not on the book itself. The active reflection section you mentioned is very helpful. A proper reflection means one has truly understood the author on some level.
This video came just in time! Just yesterday i search for ways to annotate books on my ipad. I already annotate in my physical books but now i can better streamline my process. I’m glad i’m not the only one who strictly marks their books with a pencil. Lately i purchased semi transparent sticky note pads to write over texts, then transfer to my notebook.
Great video Jared! I love your analog and "no overtly complicated system" approach when it comes to learning practices. The quality of your recent video's really show that you are dedicating more time to them. You are one of my favourite people on the platform! Another tip I find helpful in taking notes is to use a mechenical typewriter for taking notes. I have found that mechenical typewriters are a great tool for exporting annotations, becasue it provides the speed and convenience of typing, without the distraction and intangibility of using digital note taking applications. It's also great for archiving, because you can just file your pages into a binder. You can also scan the pages and transfer it into a digital format using a OCR program.
Really enjoyed this video. I just started reading again this year for the first time in forever and its been a lot of processing. But I have always been a note taker. My system for which I do is getting a little more organized thanks to insights like this. Thank You.
These are some very helpful thoughts! If you want to highlight books, but are resistant to drawing lines directly with a marker pen, Kanmido Film Tape Marker (also Kanmido Fusen Marker) allows you to remove or adjust highlighted passages later.
So for non fiction, I summarise what's being said on seperate paper in a file. I avoid writing on the book because the information I might need will change depending on the question that I am answering and as I read and reread the text and increase my understanding. Sticky 'Post it' notes are ok but again only if you know the question you are trying to answer. Cutting and pasting just doesn't involve processing. I think I used cards like you do but it has been many years since I needed to. I retired from academia 10 years ago!
I personally just break down every topic in the book then at the end I come to an conclusion what I personally think about the passage weather it's a disagree or an agreement then I list the 6 logical questions about the passages if I want to get more out of it those 6 logical questions are Who What Where How When Why In summary these help with an logical question that always ends with an logical answer it helps
A highlighter is definitley the best way to annotate in my opinion. You can use a pencil or pen, and sticky notes for clarity, but no use in trying to underline or annotate in pen or pencil because it becomes messy and you end up drawing over the texts. Use a highlighter for the main sentences you want to stand out, follow this up with sticky notes on the top or side to add context, but use margin notes sparingly. Much better to write them in a sticky note where you have more room
I also struggled with highlighting too much and processing too little at first. I still struggle with the export part, I have a good system, but it requires following it though :D Thank you for the tips and the reminder that "those books deserve our attention"
I'll add another idea in the export phase. There is a system similar to Ryan Holiday's called the Zettelkasten. That system typically uses index cards, or slips of paper, to write ideas and such on and then to organize them with unique ID's. Part of the system uses a 'Bib Card', which is an index card where you briefly reference noteworthy things as you're reading rather then after the fact. Anything on that bib card that is interesting can then be made into a more permanent card in your 'zettelkasten'.
@@productivity6693 honestly, he can be a little abrasive at times, but I don't mind his content. I've learned things from him that have been helpful and modified other things to fit my needs.
When I started uni Luhmann’s Zettelkasten was basically academic field lore. The fact that it has become divorced from his thought and turned into a self help hack… I don’t know what to do with it, but it makes me a bit sad.
@@NiA-il7bh When you look up Scott Scheper it's far from a productivity hack. I use it for the same ambition, to devise a Grand Theory (prescriptive rather than descriptive) of Optimal Education, also in a timeframe of 30 years. For me it's a tool for deep thought and communication, I've even given it a name: Sage Scientia (Latin for Wise Knowledge)
The paper clips idea is good for the writing phase. i also use the box my note cards were in, and I folded single cards sideways and made them into section dividers based on general themes.
These are great tips for reading and taking notes. While I’ve used plenty of notetaking software in the past and present, I strongly favor using index cards for writing down notes and quotes from books for many other reasons given in the video. Although I have boxes of index cards, I can find what I’m looking for pretty quickly. There is something more permanent in the memory than if I typed it into the PC.
Be careful about sticky tabs long term - I’d only use them during the course of a single reading/rereading cycle. The adhesive is acidic- and if you leave them in for a few years they can discolor and even disintegrate the page underneath
I'm always a bit confused by the system of annotating I see most people use, it feels very overcomplicated to me. Why not just keep a blank book next to you as you read which you can write in? All I need to do is jot the the title of the book down and then everytime I read something that I want to write about/remember I'll simply write down the corresponding page number in my book and then can write as much as I wish on the text. No need for sticky tabs, computers, paperclips or ruining the nice book you've just brought.
One issue I’ve encountered a lot is that most systems break down if you need to travel a lot and can’t bring a lot of paper. I’d be away for a week or two, and during that time I wouldn’t have many notes or other resources to look at, which slowed reading dramatically. I’d feel like I needed to wait till I got home to “do it properly”. My solution has been a hard embrace of taking notes on my phone (one simple markdown file for each author generally works well). I’ll find an interesting passage or quote, copy it into the note, then write extensively on it (like a limitless margin). Later on, I can study the notes, link them together, or roll them into larger writing projects as needed. The act of writing itself generally is enough to remember what I need, but having an easily searchable archive helps. The name of the game is to never let a system prevent you from actually doing some reading.
I like the notecard idea. I've been adding post-its to the end of a chapter summarizing my annotations. I should really start transferring all that to my book-notes "notebook" after every chapter though, kinda daunting to do after finishing a book. Notecards seem like a good way to do better cross-book organizing.
Particularly when I’m studying something new, I find it very difficult not to regard everything as important - I end up highlighting everything! I end up feeling slow and frustrated quickly.
What helped me was the audiobook Atomic Habits. Like the other reply, the concept is tiny little habits that turn into bigger ones. Like require 5 min of reading a day. Some days it will feel dumb, then other days I'd end up reading 2 hours and not know where the time went.
Just read 50 pages a day when you feel like it, and also read what you like. I like to write small titles at the blank space on the side of the book, it makes me remember where I was reading and it makes the progress clearer. Do not rush a book, you will not get anything out of it. I hope you enjoy your reading!!!🤗📖📚❤
Great system from Jared! 😊 It may help me fine tune my own system. All I'm doing is outlines, just outlines. So: 1. First I read a book's introduction or introductory material. No annotations. Then I read the first chapter. 2. Next I try to (relatively briefly) outline the intro and first chapter as I think the author has organized the chapter. Or sometimes as I think it should be organized if I think it's not as well organized as it could be. 3. I repeat this process of outlines for all the chapters in a book. 4. After I'm done with the book, I do a high level or big picture outline for the entire book. 5. This often includes correcting any previous misunderstandings in my outlines, incorporating new insights that I didn't have prior to reading the book since sometimes one understands things better by the end of a book than when reading along, etc. 6. So, in the end, I've outlined the entire book chapter by chapter (for more detail) and overall (for a broad or big picture). That's it! 7. And that's just me: I think I personally best organize, synthesize, analyze, and recall material in my own mind in outline format. So it works for me, but of course different thing works for different people. 😊
I read and annotated the heck out of every page of my copy of War and Peace by Tolstoi, and man I just got so burned out of reading and annotating. Now I’m more than happy to read an entire chapter of a book and then return and really think if annotating something is really that important
I annotate on post-its. I'll read a chapter straight through without annotating. Then go back section by section and annotate onto post-its. The post-it is a summary of what the paragraph said in my own words. I do this, section by section, in the chapter. Each chapter I export into a notebook in ink. At the end of the book, I'll export the notebook notes into digital form on Joplin, and write a summary of each chapter, then a summary of the whole book. I use Joplin because I can put all the books I'm reading in there and it's searchable so when I'm looking for thoughts on a particular topic, the notes I've made from the books I've read are not hard to find. Other software will work as well, I'm sure.
Really good ideas here! I'd love to hear how you modify this practice for fiction. I annotate while reading fiction, but I don't really do much with the notes. For a lot of fiction I don't care that much, but I would like to make better use of the more extensive/valuable notes I take in books I teach. I end up just reading back through the whole book/notes every time I teach it, which maybe is the best way, but I wonder if there are other/better ways to do it. I use book darts for marking quotes I want to commonplace, so I go back and do that periodically. I have also started writing brief narrations retelling each chapter or section that I read, which I think is doing a good job of helping solidify it in my head and also then I have a notebook that I can glance back through if I want to help myself find a certain part again. I also narrate non-fiction books, but it's harder - outlines seem to work better for them, or zettelkasten-type notes like you've demonstrated here.
When do you start the process of exporting ? Is it only after you've read the entire book, at the end of the chapter, or else ? My problem with annotations and note taking is that if I don't immediately write down my thoughts and ideas, I won't remember them for more than hours (even minutes if I read something dense that induce a lot of questions, verification, etc.) and if I export as my thoughts go, which would be the most evident cure for my problem, then it takes way too much time to go even through a chapter and I often find myself quitting. So for now, I'm stuck between reading the book without any note taking (or at the end of big sections, which makes me miss lots of details) or taking thourough notes and never finish the reading... any suggestion would help. Should I read twice ? Once without, once with note taking ?
I don't write on my books. I think if you lend the book to someone, it robs them from having their own initial thoughts to the text. Instead, what I do is that I take all of my notes on a separate smaller notebook. It gives me "unlimited space" to write down my thoughts, and make drawings if they come to mind. I get very frustrated when thoughts come to mind and I am unable to write them down, and eventually forget them.
Also why would you write in a book? Just terrible, I once lent someone a book that meant a lot to me, it was my favourite book and it cost a lot for a kid without a job. She wrote questions and doodles all over the book, and since that day I lose respect for anyone who writes inside a novel or textbook. Not only is it impractical but it looks ugly and messy. It's really not that hard to just write the title of your book in a dedicated notebook, and take notes with an accompanying chapter or page number.
To each their own. I write in some books. They mine, and I don't have any plans on selling them or even loaning them out. Too often things I loan out never get returned, so I'd much rather gift the friend a copy of their own. Of course I would never write in a book that I didn't own, or of a book that holds significant value.
I will add that I didn't find the value of annotating until I actually tried it out. I dont go crazy with highlighting lines of text in multiple colors or planting a billion book tabs; just sparse underlining and notes along the bottom margins.
wow, we almost have the same method! I have read 200+ books in the last several years ranging from early church patristics, philosophy, to modern books as recent as Laurus.
I like the idea of index cards instead of a notebook, since they can be rearranged into themes, or whatever seems important. Harder to rip pages out and organize them in some way.
Hi Jared, try the Zettelkasten method Niklas Luhmann used. Sönke Ahrens wrote a great book about it and it works brilliant for me. Cheers from Germany.
Pro tip - buy pre owned books, with annotations in them already, watch a TH-cam video for the gist of the meaning of the book, talk about the book like you've read it before and leave the used books around your house. Step 2 - profit
I wish I’d done a lot of this as I read ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. Besides the characters taking on new names, the machinations of the count are so convoluted, the tangled relationships between all the characters (the name changes really do not help with this!)…half the time I’m so confused I have to go back several chapters to figure out who is who, and how has the count’s revenge been developing for that particular character.
Hey Jared, been following your channel for awhile and appreciate what you’re doing for philosophy and the intellectual life outside the academy. I hope I can do something similar to you someday as a graduate student of theology. However, I also have learning disabilities with giftedness that make it hard to express and use the knowledge I have. Do you have any advice on how to structure your reading and notes for writing?
I am wondering if you have an opinion on how to effectively use supplementary material when reading hard books. Specifically, I'm wondering if you think it is worthwhile to read a summarization or analysis prior to reading a difficult text, or would this give us bias? Personally, I sometimes find it necessary to find help before or even while reading something difficult, but I'm sometimes afraid that it enables me to be a lazier reader/note-taker (as my notes might end up looking a lot like the supplementary material I was referencing). Thanks !
I rather use a notebook instead of annotations. No need to export. I also developed a method that helps me study, summarize and review more effective than I was ever taught. And all my books always read like a completely new copy.
I'm a university social sciences student and often have to read many, many books for dissertations/essays. These methods, whilst I'd like to do them, would take too long in the given 1-2 week timeframe per essay. Does anyone have any advice on how to tackle these in particular? Do I just only note that of direct relevance to the paper and skim-read the rest?
Do you have any recommendations on how to annotate/process notes with books from a library? I mean one should simply not write/annotate into a book from public library.
anyone tried having conversations with ai about the text you're reading? I started doing this to help me study. It helped me a lot and I really was able to check my understanding... bounce ideas off the ai and had a conversation to challenge myself.
behold! the zettelkasten! 😈 thank you. this was very good. my probem-and a pathetic one it is! je m'accuse-is that i am interested in developing a color-coded highlighting system, but they keep changing the colors, or stop making a particular brand. the color lobe in my brain is bothered by the fact that some hightlights are in a "forest" green, some a "fern" green, some a "mint" green…drives me insane 😜 see! i said pathetic! i lean more towards a black pen for underlinining. pencil is cool, but over time, it can blur or rub off on the touching page. i do have books about 100 years old that are still legible. same with black ink.
Great video! Thanks for sharing. I have one question, how would you go about annotating in a kindle? I find highlighting a little bit cumbersome compared to a book.
Since I study psychology, I also did some research on cognitive science, and this aligns well with what you’re saying. What I started doing now is underline and comment while reading, then reread and make concise flashcards of the most important points from each subchapter. It’s important to use a question-answer style to get the most out of this kind of summary, and I group them using a program called RemNote (So I can really structure it in Main Chapter -> Sub Chapter -> Questions per Sub chapter). This gives me a structured layout of the key topics and questions that I can actively recall using the flashcard system. Sometimes, I also create an association map of important chapters, distilling everything down to the core ideas and connecting them as reference points. I then try to recall these mind maps and compare them with the originals. Basically its exactly how I learn my lectures.
John Piper spoke about reading books with a mechanical pencil, mainly because he likes the ability to erase. Something I wish I had done when I started in Calvin’s Institutes was put together my own index at either the front or the back of the volume. I may still do this
I almost gasped when you said “lecture plan”-that’s exactly what I do and I’d never heard of anyone else doing it! I taught courses during grad school so I’d already kind of forged that neural pathway or whatever for myself so it is an easy/automatic way of thinking for me, and I noticed that I could remember a ton of information from lectures I gave one time 3 years ago. So I do exactly this now! I’ll organize the info into a lecture and then go on a walk in the park mouthing it to myself like a crazy person, ha
For books with non-glossy pages, if you need to do the kind of reading for which highlighting helps, COLORED PENCILS are a game changer - shades in the text in a way that’s both immediately legible and does not obstruct reading.
I’m typically just a pencil annotator, but during an undergrad thesis on Adorno’s Kierkegaard book, I needed a way to note at a glance pieces throughout from many interlocking but distinct strains of argument. It’s amazing how lightly you can shade with a decent colored pencil and still have it flare right out to your mind, vs Highlighter proper which always makes it feel like you’re trying to read a traffic cone.
I keep 1-2 pages of folded up printer paper inside the book I’m reading. When I read something relevant I mark the page and paragraph on the paper and write my thoughts on it. After finishing the book I write a mini essay about it.
The mini essay is also what directs what I find relevant and want to expand on later.
My system is essentially: Read, annotate, write a review in my commonplace book, re-read, make notes on specific passages (copy quote, reformulate in own words, or reflect (not exclusive or)) also written in commonplace book.
If I read a book only one time, then I'll probably be satisfied with just reading, annotating, and writing a review of it. I'll write where to find the review on the front page of the book (an ID) so that if I pull the book off the shelf I can locate it's review and see what it's about and what I thought of it. The annotations serve as a map of the book for rereading, whereas notes on passages are usually so I can somehow engage with the material and link my thoughts together in my notebook. If I make a note on a passage I'll also write the note ID next to the passage in the book
This to me feels like the right amount of friction for me. I can read with an anlytical/critical eye but not get so bogged down on a single book and note taking that I spend months on it before moving on to something else. Instead I can read and annotate fairly fast, spend some time on a review and then iterative build up my notes on subsequent reads later if the book is worth my time to do so
@@wellgemr8108 I number my notebooks. I call mine my Miscellanies after Jonathan Edwards's Bible note taking system although I don't take Bible notes, just adapted his system to my general reading purposes. Anyway, let's take an example from my own book (sorry im advance for the political nature of their content as that can be divisive, not trying to argue politics here, just demonstrating how I take notes):
My eighth entry has the date, the title "(8) Paxton - 5 Stages of Fascist Life Cycle" and then the content of the note, followed by tags, and related notes. In my copy of Paxton's The Anatomy of Fascism, in the margin of page 23 where I sourced the note, I've written "M1.8" meaning "Miscellanies notebook volume 1, entry 8". For related notes in the entry, I wrote similar note IDs like "m1.4" which is "Miscellanies volume 1, entry 4" and is a note about the mobilizing passions of fascism taken from the same book as before, and on the source page of the book, next to it in the margin I've also written "m1.4". My review of the book is entry number 2, so on the first page of the book, I've written the dates I read it and then "review: m1.2" so I can easily go to my notebook and see how I understood the book and my initial thoughts on it.
Hope that helps with your notetaking and reading
Hey Jared, great video! I have a simple system that’s actually pretty similar to yours:
- [Q] - Quotation
- [I] - Information/Interesting
- [*] - Important section/paragraph
- [?] - Question
- [D] - Down in the margin
- [V] - Verify
- [Ex] - Example
- [FR] - Further reading afterwards
When I finish reading, I summarize what's important in my notebook based on these marks and ideas.
whats the meaning of this - Down in the margin??
@@sdaks001 when I write 'D' next to a paragraph or sentence it means that what I wrote down in the margin is related to it
Excellent suggestion!
What personally works best for me is a separate journal that I write quotes, themes, opinions, thoughts, major plot points, pretty much anything inside of. I write these down as I read so it is very easy to reflect on the order of different events and look back at what was going through my head before I knew everything about the book from front to back. Having it separate from the book also makes it easier to skim through a few pages of notes and recall major events or important lessons instead of looking through every page of the book to get the same info.
Brilliant explanation -nice and straightforward too, which is urgent here on TH-cam. Thanks for the link.
For exporting, i find it helpful even to have a “review shelf” with books i wish to regularly return to and integrate with stuff I read thereafter - just taking an hour or two to thumb back through old annotations of a few different books does wonders for refreshing one’s memory and seeing/contemplating connections, especially as one does so with several books on a topic read at times pretty far apart.
Starting to take notes transcended my reading from merely escapism to a source of knowledge and reflection. These are great tips man I appreciate your work on youtube.
I'm curious, do you mostly read fiction?
@@jeanlucas2592 Yes, almost strictly fiction. My interest has shifted from genre fiction to a majority of classic literature throughout this year.
Love the subtle sounds at the key points in the video
9:35
The sarcasm here is top tier 😂
Truly gave me a really good laugh 🤣
6:54 I wish I remembered where I heard it but there is something more to the science of writing by hand as we swipe ACROSS OUR HEART.
This video got me smiling a lot of cos I realized how well I'm reading my books. I love writing what I've learned, and then after writing them, I type them again on my laptop so that I can have a digital copy anywhere I go. The actions you've mentioned are the things that I'm doing as I read, it just made me happy that I relate to someone.
Very helpful and insightful content! Many of the note-taking strategies mentioned resonate with the methods I used as a student. The emphasis on annotation while reading is particularly valuable. Thank you for sharing such practical advice!
I applaud this hugely. I've done this for a while, and it does work. The only tweak you might want to consider is using different-coloured index cards. Also if you number your index flags and write in the front of the book where there are some blank (ish) pages and make an entry e.g. Flag 1 = Motivation v Inspiration. This is great though.
One thing I love about this is the flexibility. Anyone could take this idea and tweak it for their particular needs.
I have a real problem with chronic over-annotation, I found this video really useful, gonna try this approach when I start reading Faust this week!
feeling blessed that i saw this before embarking on my senior thesis this year! i was never taught how to annotate or take book notes and never felt comfortable with the way i was trying to do it. this system feels super intuitive and i'm excited to try it out!
Great video! I second the need to make use of the notes you take. I have tried all the systems from writing notecards to Obsidian, and through every process I have found them taking up space, until I realized I must use the knowledge I am gathering. That process allows the knowledge you learn to take root.
just love the idea of writing letters to dead authors! i wonder what kind of literature we could have with ai facilitating such conversations. just lovely content, thank you.
Great timing! I've only recently committed to taking note-taking more seriously.
Definitely guilty of the crime of annotating half a page in the past. These days I tend to read a book without annotating, usually just reading 20-30 pages a day and then go back to collect what I felt were important on a notebook (physica/digital). Then when it comes to the time for a re-read, I'd have already gone through the phase of thinking everything was important and have had the time to process my thoughts and could sit down now to do better notes, probably also not on the book itself. The active reflection section you mentioned is very helpful. A proper reflection means one has truly understood the author on some level.
This video came just in time! Just yesterday i search for ways to annotate books on my ipad. I already annotate in my physical books but now i can better streamline my process. I’m glad i’m not the only one who strictly marks their books with a pencil. Lately i purchased semi transparent sticky note pads to write over texts, then transfer to my notebook.
Great video Jared! I love your analog and "no overtly complicated system" approach when it comes to learning practices. The quality of your recent video's really show that you are dedicating more time to them. You are one of my favourite people on the platform!
Another tip I find helpful in taking notes is to use a mechenical typewriter for taking notes. I have found that mechenical typewriters are a great tool for exporting annotations, becasue it provides the speed and convenience of typing, without the distraction and intangibility of using digital note taking applications. It's also great for archiving, because you can just file your pages into a binder. You can also scan the pages and transfer it into a digital format using a OCR program.
Really enjoyed this video. I just started reading again this year for the first time in forever and its been a lot of processing. But I have always been a note taker. My system for which I do is getting a little more organized thanks to insights like this. Thank You.
Watching your channel is like a warm hug.
These are some very helpful thoughts!
If you want to highlight books, but are resistant to drawing lines directly with a marker pen, Kanmido Film Tape Marker (also Kanmido Fusen Marker) allows you to remove or adjust highlighted passages later.
So for non fiction, I summarise what's being said on seperate paper in a file. I avoid writing on the book because the information I might need will change depending on the question that I am answering and as I read and reread the text and increase my understanding. Sticky 'Post it' notes are ok but again only if you know the question you are trying to answer. Cutting and pasting just doesn't involve processing. I think I used cards like you do but it has been many years since I needed to. I retired from academia 10 years ago!
I personally just break down every topic in the book then at the end I come to an conclusion what I personally think about the passage weather it's a disagree or an agreement then I list the 6 logical questions about the passages if I want to get more out of it those 6 logical questions are
Who
What
Where
How
When
Why
In summary these help with an logical question that always ends with an logical answer it helps
A highlighter is definitley the best way to annotate in my opinion. You can use a pencil or pen, and sticky notes for clarity, but no use in trying to underline or annotate in pen or pencil because it becomes messy and you end up drawing over the texts. Use a highlighter for the main sentences you want to stand out, follow this up with sticky notes on the top or side to add context, but use margin notes sparingly. Much better to write them in a sticky note where you have more room
I also struggled with highlighting too much and processing too little at first. I still struggle with the export part, I have a good system, but it requires following it though :D Thank you for the tips and the reminder that "those books deserve our attention"
I love your video. I love you when your video so genuine and real. Not advise ppl to cut corners 😊. Thanks
"To read without also writing is to sleep."
- St. Jerome
Good video, Jared, thank you.
I’ve been looking for something like this video so I could dive deeper into my Bible! Thanks for the explanation!
Thanks for the tips. I'm glad that you keep posting such content because your insights bring something new to the popular way of making notes.
👏👏 Such a blessing to engage with folks in the humanities! 👏👏
Thank you Jared for the advise. Annotation is a great way to make reading better. It appreciated the experience
I'll add another idea in the export phase. There is a system similar to Ryan Holiday's called the Zettelkasten. That system typically uses index cards, or slips of paper, to write ideas and such on and then to organize them with unique ID's. Part of the system uses a 'Bib Card', which is an index card where you briefly reference noteworthy things as you're reading rather then after the fact. Anything on that bib card that is interesting can then be made into a more permanent card in your 'zettelkasten'.
Fellow Scott Scheper fan?
@@productivity6693 honestly, he can be a little abrasive at times, but I don't mind his content. I've learned things from him that have been helpful and modified other things to fit my needs.
When I started uni Luhmann’s Zettelkasten was basically academic field lore. The fact that it has become divorced from his thought and turned into a self help hack… I don’t know what to do with it, but it makes me a bit sad.
@@NiA-il7bh When you look up Scott Scheper it's far from a productivity hack. I use it for the same ambition, to devise a Grand Theory (prescriptive rather than descriptive) of Optimal Education, also in a timeframe of 30 years. For me it's a tool for deep thought and communication, I've even given it a name: Sage Scientia (Latin for Wise Knowledge)
Great video as always!
I loved this so much. Thank you for sharing with us!
The paper clips idea is good for the writing phase. i also use the box my note cards were in, and I folded single cards sideways and made them into section dividers based on general themes.
These are great tips for reading and taking notes. While I’ve used plenty of notetaking software in the past and present, I strongly favor using index cards for writing down notes and quotes from books for many other reasons given in the video. Although I have boxes of index cards, I can find what I’m looking for pretty quickly. There is something more permanent in the memory than if I typed it into the PC.
Be careful about sticky tabs long term - I’d only use them during the course of a single reading/rereading cycle. The adhesive is acidic- and if you leave them in for a few years they can discolor and even disintegrate the page underneath
I take them off after I export. I just forgot to mention it!
I have seen different videos, but your the best at explaining this. keep the work up!
I'm always a bit confused by the system of annotating I see most people use, it feels very overcomplicated to me.
Why not just keep a blank book next to you as you read which you can write in?
All I need to do is jot the the title of the book down and then everytime I read something that I want to write about/remember I'll simply write down the corresponding page number in my book and then can write as much as I wish on the text.
No need for sticky tabs, computers, paperclips or ruining the nice book you've just brought.
One issue I’ve encountered a lot is that most systems break down if you need to travel a lot and can’t bring a lot of paper. I’d be away for a week or two, and during that time I wouldn’t have many notes or other resources to look at, which slowed reading dramatically. I’d feel like I needed to wait till I got home to “do it properly”.
My solution has been a hard embrace of taking notes on my phone (one simple markdown file for each author generally works well). I’ll find an interesting passage or quote, copy it into the note, then write extensively on it (like a limitless margin). Later on, I can study the notes, link them together, or roll them into larger writing projects as needed. The act of writing itself generally is enough to remember what I need, but having an easily searchable archive helps.
The name of the game is to never let a system prevent you from actually doing some reading.
I like the notecard idea. I've been adding post-its to the end of a chapter summarizing my annotations. I should really start transferring all that to my book-notes "notebook" after every chapter though, kinda daunting to do after finishing a book. Notecards seem like a good way to do better cross-book organizing.
Particularly when I’m studying something new, I find it very difficult not to regard everything as important - I end up highlighting everything! I end up feeling slow and frustrated quickly.
Thank you Jared, for your work. It's really helpful.
Only problem is actually starting to read
Just read 2 pages a day and when u build the habit it will go easier from there
What helped me was the audiobook Atomic Habits. Like the other reply, the concept is tiny little habits that turn into bigger ones. Like require 5 min of reading a day. Some days it will feel dumb, then other days I'd end up reading 2 hours and not know where the time went.
Just read 50 pages a day when you feel like it, and also read what you like. I like to write small titles at the blank space on the side of the book, it makes me remember where I was reading and it makes the progress clearer. Do not rush a book, you will not get anything out of it. I hope you enjoy your reading!!!🤗📖📚❤
No shame in starting small. Once the habit is there, improvement in speed will come
Audiobooks are a good wait to start and build a habit
I definitely needed this video. I’m preparing for three different classes for kids and it’s overwhelming.
Very useful and practical information. Nice job 😎
This is so inspiring. Thank you!
Great system from Jared! 😊 It may help me fine tune my own system.
All I'm doing is outlines, just outlines. So:
1. First I read a book's introduction or introductory material. No annotations. Then I read the first chapter.
2. Next I try to (relatively briefly) outline the intro and first chapter as I think the author has organized the chapter. Or sometimes as I think it should be organized if I think it's not as well organized as it could be.
3. I repeat this process of outlines for all the chapters in a book.
4. After I'm done with the book, I do a high level or big picture outline for the entire book.
5. This often includes correcting any previous misunderstandings in my outlines, incorporating new insights that I didn't have prior to reading the book since sometimes one understands things better by the end of a book than when reading along, etc.
6. So, in the end, I've outlined the entire book chapter by chapter (for more detail) and overall (for a broad or big picture). That's it!
7. And that's just me: I think I personally best organize, synthesize, analyze, and recall material in my own mind in outline format. So it works for me, but of course different thing works for different people. 😊
I read and annotated the heck out of every page of my copy of War and Peace by Tolstoi, and man I just got so burned out of reading and annotating. Now I’m more than happy to read an entire chapter of a book and then return and really think if annotating something is really that important
Especially for fiction, don’t let notes get in the way of enjoying the experience!
I annotate on post-its.
I'll read a chapter straight through without annotating. Then go back section by section and annotate onto post-its. The post-it is a summary of what the paragraph said in my own words. I do this, section by section, in the chapter.
Each chapter I export into a notebook in ink.
At the end of the book, I'll export the notebook notes into digital form on Joplin, and write a summary of each chapter, then a summary of the whole book.
I use Joplin because I can put all the books I'm reading in there and it's searchable so when I'm looking for thoughts on a particular topic, the notes I've made from the books I've read are not hard to find. Other software will work as well, I'm sure.
Really good ideas here! I'd love to hear how you modify this practice for fiction. I annotate while reading fiction, but I don't really do much with the notes. For a lot of fiction I don't care that much, but I would like to make better use of the more extensive/valuable notes I take in books I teach. I end up just reading back through the whole book/notes every time I teach it, which maybe is the best way, but I wonder if there are other/better ways to do it. I use book darts for marking quotes I want to commonplace, so I go back and do that periodically. I have also started writing brief narrations retelling each chapter or section that I read, which I think is doing a good job of helping solidify it in my head and also then I have a notebook that I can glance back through if I want to help myself find a certain part again. I also narrate non-fiction books, but it's harder - outlines seem to work better for them, or zettelkasten-type notes like you've demonstrated here.
Thank you so much for this video. Fantastic stuff that I already am able to put into practice. Thank you so much.
I setup reminders in my calendar with words, notes, abstractions with monthly notifications to joggle my recall and create muscle memory.
Very helpful and interesting. Thank you.
When do you start the process of exporting ? Is it only after you've read the entire book, at the end of the chapter, or else ? My problem with annotations and note taking is that if I don't immediately write down my thoughts and ideas, I won't remember them for more than hours (even minutes if I read something dense that induce a lot of questions, verification, etc.) and if I export as my thoughts go, which would be the most evident cure for my problem, then it takes way too much time to go even through a chapter and I often find myself quitting. So for now, I'm stuck between reading the book without any note taking (or at the end of big sections, which makes me miss lots of details) or taking thourough notes and never finish the reading... any suggestion would help. Should I read twice ? Once without, once with note taking ?
I don't write on my books. I think if you lend the book to someone, it robs them from having their own initial thoughts to the text. Instead, what I do is that I take all of my notes on a separate smaller notebook. It gives me "unlimited space" to write down my thoughts, and make drawings if they come to mind. I get very frustrated when thoughts come to mind and I am unable to write them down, and eventually forget them.
Also why would you write in a book? Just terrible, I once lent someone a book that meant a lot to me, it was my favourite book and it cost a lot for a kid without a job. She wrote questions and doodles all over the book, and since that day I lose respect for anyone who writes inside a novel or textbook. Not only is it impractical but it looks ugly and messy. It's really not that hard to just write the title of your book in a dedicated notebook, and take notes with an accompanying chapter or page number.
To each their own. I write in some books. They mine, and I don't have any plans on selling them or even loaning them out. Too often things I loan out never get returned, so I'd much rather gift the friend a copy of their own.
Of course I would never write in a book that I didn't own, or of a book that holds significant value.
I will add that I didn't find the value of annotating until I actually tried it out. I dont go crazy with highlighting lines of text in multiple colors or planting a billion book tabs; just sparse underlining and notes along the bottom margins.
wow, we almost have the same method! I have read 200+ books in the last several years ranging from early church patristics, philosophy, to modern books as recent as Laurus.
Thank you
I like the idea of index cards instead of a notebook, since they can be rearranged into themes, or whatever seems important. Harder to rip pages out and organize them in some way.
I hate writing on books. Very rarely I'll underline with PENCIL only, but very lightly, so that it can be erased without destroying the paper.
Hi Jared, try the Zettelkasten method Niklas Luhmann used. Sönke Ahrens wrote a great book about it and it works brilliant for me. Cheers from Germany.
Technology to hold paper together, the paper clip nice one 😂. I actually thought it will be a software
Pro tip - buy pre owned books, with annotations in them already, watch a TH-cam video for the gist of the meaning of the book, talk about the book like you've read it before and leave the used books around your house.
Step 2 - profit
Hi! Could you please elaborate more on how to design the lessons plan for beginners? Thank you
i mean aside from paperclips, the zettelka(u)sten method is also useful, if you want to bother to organize that.
I wish I’d done a lot of this as I read ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. Besides the characters taking on new names, the machinations of the count are so convoluted, the tangled relationships between all the characters (the name changes really do not help with this!)…half the time I’m so confused I have to go back several chapters to figure out who is who, and how has the count’s revenge been developing for that particular character.
It is my favorite book. I wish I had done so too
any link to the researchers who developed the Paper Clip? want to support them
They've asked to remain anonymous. They don't want glory.
Ryan Holidays system seems the best for retaining information, but i think its quite labour-intensive.
Hey Jared, been following your channel for awhile and appreciate what you’re doing for philosophy and the intellectual life outside the academy.
I hope I can do something similar to you someday as a graduate student of theology.
However, I also have learning disabilities with giftedness that make it hard to express and use the knowledge I have.
Do you have any advice on how to structure your reading and notes for writing?
I am wondering if you have an opinion on how to effectively use supplementary material when reading hard books. Specifically, I'm wondering if you think it is worthwhile to read a summarization or analysis prior to reading a difficult text, or would this give us bias?
Personally, I sometimes find it necessary to find help before or even while reading something difficult, but I'm sometimes afraid that it enables me to be a lazier reader/note-taker (as my notes might end up looking a lot like the supplementary material I was referencing).
Thanks !
The skills all of us born before 1996 learned in grade school have once again emerged!
I date my annotations, which has been helpful as poetry is the only form I read multiple times consistently.
I rather use a notebook instead of annotations. No need to export. I also developed a method that helps me study, summarize and review more effective than I was ever taught. And all my books always read like a completely new copy.
I use transparent sticky note with a fine sharpie 😅
I'm a university social sciences student and often have to read many, many books for dissertations/essays. These methods, whilst I'd like to do them, would take too long in the given 1-2 week timeframe per essay. Does anyone have any advice on how to tackle these in particular? Do I just only note that of direct relevance to the paper and skim-read the rest?
Do you have videos on how to write a book (non-fiction)
How do you feel about annotating hardcover books?
Do you have any recommendations on how to annotate/process notes with books from a library? I mean one should simply not write/annotate into a book from public library.
When I've done this, I've used a notebook and made very, very brief notes. It adds a layer of complication.
anyone tried having conversations with ai about the text you're reading? I started doing this to help me study. It helped me a lot and I really was able to check my understanding... bounce ideas off the ai and had a conversation to challenge myself.
Can you do note taking for ebooks? I only read ebooks, and don't have a way to remember what i read. Thank you.
What kind of pen is that you're using in the beginning?
what mechanical pencil do you use
You have a very nice voice!
❤
I always highlight my books with a permanent black marker- if you don’t learn it when you read it- now you never will.
I like a man who commits.
What pencil is that?
behold! the zettelkasten! 😈 thank you. this was very good. my probem-and a pathetic one it is! je m'accuse-is that i am interested in developing a color-coded highlighting system, but they keep changing the colors, or stop making a particular brand. the color lobe in my brain is bothered by the fact that some hightlights are in a "forest" green, some a "fern" green, some a "mint" green…drives me insane 😜 see! i said pathetic! i lean more towards a black pen for underlinining. pencil is cool, but over time, it can blur or rub off on the touching page. i do have books about 100 years old that are still legible. same with black ink.
Jared, a bit off topic, but is that a picture of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on your wall? I’m reading that book right now!
Indeed, it is.
Great video! Thanks for sharing. I have one question, how would you go about annotating in a kindle? I find highlighting a little bit cumbersome compared to a book.
I haven't solved this problem, so I mostly read fiction that I'm not annotating on my Kindle.
The main complaint I have with the Bible app I use is that when highlighting you can only highlight whole verses, not specific words or phrases.
It seems like you're trying to re-create the Zettelkasten system?
Since I study psychology, I also did some research on cognitive science, and this aligns well with what you’re saying. What I started doing now is underline and comment while reading, then reread and make concise flashcards of the most important points from each subchapter. It’s important to use a question-answer style to get the most out of this kind of summary, and I group them using a program called RemNote (So I can really structure it in Main Chapter -> Sub Chapter -> Questions per Sub chapter). This gives me a structured layout of the key topics and questions that I can actively recall using the flashcard system.
Sometimes, I also create an association map of important chapters, distilling everything down to the core ideas and connecting them as reference points. I then try to recall these mind maps and compare them with the originals. Basically its exactly how I learn my lectures.
John Piper spoke about reading books with a mechanical pencil, mainly because he likes the ability to erase. Something I wish I had done when I started in Calvin’s Institutes was put together my own index at either the front or the back of the volume. I may still do this
Why using note cards with paper clip and not dedicated to one topic small notebook?
In part because I’m often mixing the cards from various books in ways I don’t anticipate at the beginning. Cards give you flexibility.
notes book tips .
What if you don’t own the books? I have books borrowed from a library 🤷🏻♀️😁