How do you take notes while reading? Do you have a “marginalia” process? What has helped you learn better and retain new knowledge?
I aspire to better equip myself as a researcher and writer. As part of this, for me at least, I think that developing a note-taking (or marginalia) system would be useful. I read a ton of nonfiction and have especially been into history, economics, and geopolitics lately…but my “system” tends to just “highlight” insightful stuff in my Kindle and then…everything kinda falls off the map for me. I should probably start going back, reviewing the highlights, and making notes in a separate notebook/app/document for later research and writing purposes.
I thought it might be interesting to learn more about everyone’s reading/studying routine and specifically note-taking processes. I’m especially curious about those who blog/publish writings, and how they work to gather their thoughts and information as they are reading.
If you don’t mind sharing a bit about your note taking process or systems, here are some questions for discussion:
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What is your process, generally? (Do you read print/digital/audio? Does your note taking change depending on different formats? Do you highlight with specific colors for certain reasons? What do you find yourself notating most frequently?)
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Do you use pen/paper or is there a specific app you like to use for note-taking/research purposes?
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If you use an app, what is your process for book notes? Do you take notes on paper and then transfer it to the digital app later when you’re reviewing? Do you take notes directly into the app?
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Any other advice for someone looking to improve their learning/knowledge through more focused and intentional reading and note taking?
Completely Serious Answer- I don't, and my retention is the better for it. If I focus on note-taking, I lose the forest for the trees.
Rather, I simply re-read. My first pass through a document is a low-pressure read, focusing on what catches my eye. Once I'm done, if I feel like there is more to be found, I read the material again. New ideas and connections naturally spring up upon repeat exposure. I read again. Am I still getting more from the process? Again!
Most importantly, by the time I'm done with the process, the concepts I've learned are very stable in my memory, because they have multiple anchors across multiple moods, times, and reads to keep them fixed in usable brainspace.
Spaced repetition works, and it works shockingly well. IME, everything else is painting the bikeshed.
This is pretty similar for me.
First pass is reading through without taking notes just to get a feel for the material. If I think I will want to refer back then I save the article/chapter so I can find it quicker. If I definitely want to dig deep I will print out copies and underline/take notes in the margins on a second read through. Once I have a hard copy with my own notes I tend to refer back to that version when I am going back to it and may end up adding more notes. If I later on realize I am not using it as much it gets filed away for later, if enough time passes or I really decide that a particular article isn't relevant anymore I will toss them. All articles though get saved digitally and filed into folders for organization. The process worked decently well through grad school and after when I was in research science (more protocols entered the stack at this point).
Overall though I completely agree with above that re-reading over time is the best way for things to sink in. The notes and keeping copies were more for my own train of thought, to give me the exact point to reference to, and because I like physically flipping through paper articles when reading deeper.
I very much agree with this, and I wanted to add something that helps me considerably with retention and comprehension: on or after my first read through (depending on the length of the content), I try to explain it to someone else. I try to do this with someone who is sufficiently interested in the content to point out where I’m not able to explain something well, but not already an expert.
This gives me very clear feedback on where I need to focus on my second read through, and I find that content that I learned this way sticks with me in considerable detail for years without much need for refreshing.
Explaining / teaching really does help retention. The other person isn’t even necessary in my experience.
The part where you’re ready to share it back externally to someone (even your future self) is exactly where note making should occur. The information with your own unique lens and interpretation, even evolving over time.
If you are mainly a Kindle reader, the Kindle plugin for Obsidian notes may be appealing to you. The kindle plugin will pull all the highlights you make in kindle books and import them into Obsidian with data about where the highlight is in the book.
It can help you go back to review your highlights and make further notes. I find that I never review kindle highlights because the interface for going back to them on the kindle isn't very good. This seems like it would make it easier to go back to them later.
Ooh, thank you! I wonder if it'll get the highlights from library books I've returned.
For books and PDFs that are not purchased from Amazon, you can still upload the highlights and notes you took on your Kindle. Non-Amazon purchased material will store highlights in a "My Clippings.txt" file on the Kindle that can be downloaded to your computer. You would have to plug in to a computer to get those highlights in Obsidian, but the books purchased in the Kindle store will sync with Obsidian automatically.
That's helpful, thank you.
I would love to use something like this. Obsidian stresses me out, for some reason. I have tried to get into it, and have failed, like four times. I just can’t figure out the best way to make it work for me. Or perhaps I can figure out for myself why I need to use something like Obsidian and how it would benefit me.
Obsidian is in essence a text editor for markdown files. Markdown is the same text format that Reddit and Tildes use for comments, so it should be fairly familiar to you. I think the coolest built in feature is being able to create links to other documents or locations in documents, so you can cite other notes when you are making a new note.
The plugins are what make it more useful than just a word document. They allow you to add features, like the kindle plugin, that can enable specific tasks you want to use obsidian for. If you don't have a plugin you specifically want to use, obsidian isn't anything special.
I like it because I own the data and there are ready-made solutions for most basic things I want/need.
The only thing I regularly do is have a template for my "daily note" that I use for work / personal things. Just a few bullet points on what happened and what did I do.
Mostly because my temporal memory is utter crap and something I "just did" might be yesterday or a month ago. This way I can go check :)
It has grown to other tasks since: Second Brain for stuff I have to search for often -> write a note in Obsidian so I can find a concise answer faster next time. I've also integrated Omnivore into Obsidian to store my read later content
Thanks for sharing this! I've been manually copy-pasting my highlights from the My Clippings file to Obsidian but this will save me quite some time.
Google Play Books lets you highlight passages and add notes, and then it also creates a file with your notes in Google Drive which is a nice way to see just your notes without having to open the book again.
I do wish there was a similar product that wasn't so tied to Google, though.
This is a great feature. Would love it if Apple Books and Kindle did this too.
One downside to Kindle is that if I import an .epub or .pdf file from somewhere else (i.e., not purchased from the kindle store), the app/kindle doesn’t seem to recognize my highlights at all…so they’re lost and it’s really difficult to go back and review those markups.
I realized that I forgot to mention something else I like for note taking, which is a rocketbook reusable notebook. You write in it like a regular notebook (you need to use certain pens, but they're not expensive), then you scan the page with the free app, and then you wipe the pages clean with a damp cloth. The files end up in your email or your preferred cloud storage, so it's a nice way to combine digital notes with paper notes.
Oh what a smart idea! (I actually have one of those sitting in my office desk drawer...I should pull it out and use it more often...)
I use Readwise app for note taking and highlighting. It sends daily digests of spaces repetition to review previous highlights and any notes you made for each highlight. These are saved on my Obsidian note taking app in Markdown text documents on my computer or phone.
Is Readwise really that great? What makes the subscription price worth it for you?
A single source for all my reading, AI summaries and interaction with the content included without limit, can save and highlight transcripts for YouTube videos. Sync support with Obsidian so my highlights are kept updated in a text only format on my computer without reliance on Readwise continued existence.
Highlights are reviews daily through spaced repetition.
Reader is really nice and on all platforms.
Worth it for me. Very useful.
I take notes all the time for all sorts of non-fiction reading and research. There are two specific things that I do that come to mind and may help you:
Is more of a mental thing, I pretend like I need to explain the topic to someone else. Someone who knows nothing about it. My most used word IRL and online is probably 'basically' and it's because I'm constantly trying to explain things in simple terms. (So much so that I'm actively trying to reduce the number of times I say it. I'll post a comment where I use that word like three times and then I'll edit it so that only one is left). So even in notes to myself I'll dumb it down like "basically this thing is like this and that thing is like that" or "basically stick to this" or "basically it comes down to x y and z". It seems dumb but whenever I look back at previous notes I know that 'basically .......' means that I previously understood the topic enough to summarize it, so if I just read that 'basically ....' line I'll get the gist of it. Super helpful for information that I need to remember but don't need every day.
I do a weird mix of text and drawing for my notes. Like I don't really draw pictures or anything, but I write my words on the paper like I envision them in my head. So that means a lot of charts and lines and arrows and diagrams and stuff like that. If two things are similar I'll write them close to each other. If they're opposites I'll draw a line between them to physically divide them up like how I have them mentally divided in my mind. Ends up looking like a messed up flowchart or something, but it works for me.
I split my screen vertically ( easy on Linux ) on my PC.
On the right, I have a PDF of a text book or an eBook.
On the left I have Google Docs open so I can jot down outlined notes.
The notes are searchable. I get spell checking and grammar checking. I also get a copy of my notes "in the cloud".
I do monthly backups of my computer. In that process I include downloading the Google Docs directory where I keep my notes. I then move the *.zip file of my notes to an external hard drive along with the rest of my backed up data.
I've been focusing more on taking notes in the last year or so and I use Obsidian for the actual interface. Syncthing for syncing notes between devices. I don't care for the hardcore productivity second-brain world some people get into as far as chasing the perfect system. I firmly believe that the best system is whatever serves one's actual day-to-day needs with the least friction. That being said, I do much prefer working in plaintext as a means of avoiding software vendor lock-in. My markdown notes are gonna be openable by any computer I use for the rest of my life and I can say that with 99% certainty.
I haven't started taking many notes on books yet, but generally what I like to do for a given piece of media is to create a canonical note for the media itself, as well as one for the creator or any real-life people that come up in the process of writing about the thing. So I'll make a note called "The Lighthouse (2019)" in my Movies folder. That has top-level info like a short summary of what the thing is, a brief review once I've watched/read/played the thing, as well as any links to other reviews, analyses, articles, etc on the thing. I also will create a canonical note whenever I mention a person while writing about the piece of media. Its creator, notable actors if about a movie. So whenever I'm writing I just link to that Person note. I do that so I can easily see other times I've mentioned the same person across multiple notes. Any time I found an actor's performance notable enough that I mentioned them specifically in a review of a movie. Or see other movies by a director I've written about.
If I were writing notes on a book, other than my final overall review thoughts, I would probably just have a list of random thoughts that came to me as I was reading that I thought might be useful later, alongside a chapter/page number if it was about a particular section. Generally no highlights because of that. Only original thoughts that came from me. I also don't really summarize for the sake of summarizing. I find that for me it's just wasted effort. Something I'm never going to bother looking at later. I like to focus on things that are either actionable or are in some way interesting.
Simple pen and paper.
I might type it out afterwards. But nothing beats sitting there with a nice notepad and my fountain pens (3 different colour inks) and just writing my notes.
Nice! I've been meaning to get into fountain pen use...which pens do you recommend for a beginner?
I have some cheap brands and also some obsurce brands (Oberthur being one) and now also use my lamy safari a lot.
So I would say go with the lamy safari, it's not the best looking pen but it won't break the bank nor let you down.
Get some good paper as well by the way :)
I use Obsidian to save all my notes. I started using it about 2 years ago when I came across the book How To Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens. I don't use the Zettlekasten method exactly as mentioned in the book, but this was the book that finally made me stop using a bunch of different note-taking tools and consolidate it into one place where it's actually useful to me and something I can go back to instead of buried in a folder or app somewhere that I won't look at again. The biggest takeaway for me from this was that with a system in place, when you do sit down to write, you don't have to go looking for ideas or start research, because you will have a foundation to start with already if you've been saving everything that interests you.
The other big thing I've started doing because of this which has really helped is format-based categorization instead of topic-based categorization, which is much quicker. So I don't have to think about whether to put a book I read about psychology and history goes into which folder or about the most appropriate tags that summarize the book, I just add it to the Books folder. I have folders for almost all types of media I consume from movies to TV, because I like connecting ideas together from fiction and non-fiction as I write a bit of both.
As for other tools, I have Zotero on my laptop which I use as a web clipper of sorts since it saves local copies of web pages and PDFs along with citations, Omnivore on my phone as a read-it-later app, and for Kindle, the My Clippings file for the highlights which I was manually exporting every once in a while. All of this syncs into Obsidian, where I can then link to notes or even headings within the notes when I do write.
I don't. It seems to me that the process of note-taking interferes with how my brain works - it makes me slower and more distracted with no benefits. In theory, the 30 seconds habit seems like a good idea, but in reality, the additional process that my brain has to run to condense that 30sec note takes valuable brain CPU cycles away from the "natural" subconscious processing that knows best what to retain and what to throw away.
The only problem I would really like to solve is re-finding sources. For example, I vividly remember an article by a Russian military analyst published in a Russian military magazine before the war in Ukraine explaining from a Russian point of view why it would be a really bad idea for Russia to invade Ukraine. A few days ago, I wanted to cite that article but I could not find it. That happens to me all the time - I vividly remember an article that I read 8 years ago that has exactly the argument I need, but I cannot find it. That is one of the things I hope to get from AI - that I will store all of those thousands of articles I read and an AI will be able to find an argument I describe even though I do not remember the name of the person who said it, the name of the magazine or anything specific.
This is exactly why I started a "Second Brain" folder in my Obsidian.
I've got a Keyboard Maestro hotkey that automatically opens Obsidian, brings it to the front and opens a fresh Second Brain template for me. I can just quickly type a few tags and insert the link / relevant snippet and go on with my day.
I also sync my Omivore stuff to Obsidian to make it searchable from one place. And from this post I found the Kindle sync plugin so that now I can search all of that from one place too :)
Plugging in an LLM and using RAG to teach it my Obsidian contents is on my todo-list, but I'm fine with Omnisearch for now.
There are web archiving systems like ArchiveBox and similar tools that will let you save and index everything. You could probably use something like that in conjunction with a locally hosted LLM that could read through the archive and find stuff for you.