Do you take notes?

[LeungJan]

I rarely used to take notes when reading books, however I met a friend who takes notes for every book he reads; It finally struck me that I should do too as I may remember the key points from the books to apply.

Do you guys take notes? Whats your process?

 

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[Big Daddyhoo]

I find the meat of a book is usually in lists or summaries on a few pages throughout the book. I use post-it flags to mark those. Other than that, I don't take notes.

 

[Lights]

Not really.

I mostly read-read until I commit it to memory. I usually try to repeat it, with my eyes closed... it seems to work.

If I take notes, I most likely will never look at it again, but writing the definitions and key concepts seem to help as an overall review, but that's after I read it. I don't do that while reading.

Depending on your situation, your answer will probably be better for a student forum?

 

[FiveOone]

Constantly. Online I use an app called Evernote, its really easy to use. I have it on my desktop and also my phone, just sync it and off you go. Its also free. Offline i have an a4 binder that i write heaps of stuff in, ideas, thoughts, whatever i think is worth writing down at the time.
As much as i love apps i prefer to physically write things down as i find i remember them better.

 

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[mags]

I do not know if there is any scientific basis for this. But, I seem to remember more the things I physically write. So, when I need to study I really take notes.

 

[Alana]

My high school ingrained it into our heads that a book isn't truly read unless the reader 'interacts' with the book. We were taught to write down questions that came up throughout the reading, to summarize (in a few sentences) the chapter once we got to the end, to write down our thoughts/observations in the margins when they came up, etc etc etc. I can't help but do this now when I read books. It makes it hard to loan any books to anyone (since it's written so heavily in), but I feel that writing in a book is like joining in on a conversation, where just reading it and not taking any notes is simply listening in on a conversation from a distance.

 

[GuestUser8117]

Yeah I take notes. It is very important, as studies tell that we forget about 80 %(not sure) of what we read in a book. I take note even for the fastlane forum.

 

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[Kak]

I rarely used to take notes when reading books, however I met a friend who takes notes for every book he reads; It finally struck me that I should do too as I may remember the key points from the books to apply.

Do you guys take notes? Whats your process?

Yes I take TONS of notes. I mostly hand take them on yellow legal pads and scan them into evernote. When I am talking to a client I ALWAYS take notes or record the phone call.

I never took notes in school LOL

 

[ramblindawg]

With action-oriented books (like Millionaire Fastlane ), I actually use two pens to make notes: Yellow highlighter for positive actions and black underlining for things to avoid and for making marginal notes.

It's my way of interacting with the book; even if I never go back to read the highlights and notes, the process of notations makes the reading a very active and impactful experience.

 

[Dutto]

I like to use mind maps for note taking, its a great way of getting lots of information down on one page instead of having pages and pages of notes. You can also keep going back over it and adding other branches in at a later date. Just search 'mind mapping' for examples of this.

 

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[LeungJan]

Depending on your situation, your answer will probably be better for a student forum?

This is a student forum is it not? We're all students of the fastlane!

Constantly. Online I use an app called Evernote, its really easy to use. I have it on my desktop and also my phone, just sync it and off you go. Its also free. Offline i have an a4 binder that i write heaps of stuff in, ideas, thoughts, whatever i think is worth writing down at the time.
As much as i love apps i prefer to physically write things down as i find i remember them better.

I've been using evernote online, great tool! I agree I tend to remember things when I write down. looks like I've got my answer

My high school ingrained it into our heads that a book isn't truly read unless the reader 'interacts' with the book.

Really interesting insight thanks!

With action-oriented books (like Millionaire Fastlane ), I actually use two pens to make notes: Yellow highlighter for positive actions and black underlining for things to avoid and for making marginal notes.

Cool might try this

It's my way of interacting with the book; even if I never go back to read the highlights and notes, the process of notations makes the reading a very active and impactful experience.

Reenforces previous comments so I'm gonna try it

 

[ramblindawg]

It's my way of interacting with the book;

As an example, here's page 52 of the Millionaire Fastlane ...

 

[logic]

I don't take physical notes but if I read a book on my iPhone or iPad, I'll highlight key points with the iBooks highlight feature and I can easily access them later.

 

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[JasonR]

Wow. Way to take notes!

I use Evernote as well...not to notate books (I have an iPad for reading), but to productivity, organization, and jotting down ideas.

 

[nitrousflame]

After I read a new book, I will write myself a VERY short note about the key takeaways in my book spreadsheet. It's mostly to help me jump start my memory of the book and to also quickly narrow down which takeaway came from which book in the future if I need to revisit something. Highlighting for me seems to always end with a book full of bright yellow that is no quicker to decipher than just reading the entire chapter or book again.

I've also started keeping an online word document as a "journal" of sorts that I will jot down a little more detail in. This process is new to me and, as such, keeps changing. We'll see after time how helpful it proves to be.

 

[adiakritos]

Some fantastic apps you can use to take notes for everything you read is Evernote and Microsoft's Note application. I saw a review on microsofts app and it's so badass I can't believe I haven't heard more about it.

I'll end up buying it at some point or another.

Besides that my current note taking system sucks a$$. It's basically where I take a notebook and just write out all the points I need to remember for later or that I found extra important. The notes rarely take up the entire notebook so I end up tearing the pages out of the notebook, stapling them together, and then placing them in a folder in my file cabinet.

I also have digital notes on my computer where I simply write my notes out in a word document and store them in the same folder as the ebook I'm reading with the same name plus a '- notes' so they are organized nicely and easy to find. So for example if I have the ebook version of "Getting things done" I'll have a "Getting things done - notes' document in the same folder so they ride right next to each other.

I've found that I use the digital versions of my notes much more often because they are easier to find and edit and share if need be.

Evernote is a great way to take notes because you'll have access to those notes on all your devices. Cloud computing is getting HUGE right now so I'm sure there are already lots of programs that offer this type of service. Microsoft has something like "Office 360" where all your microsoft office documents are viewable on all your devices and they charge a monthly or yearly fee for the service.

When I read from a physical book I don't like to mark the pages with ink so I normally just rip post-its and label them to mark important pages. Sometimes I'll write a very concise summary of what I need from that page on the post-it that marks it.

I hope this helps.

 

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[adiakritos]

My high school ingrained it into our heads that a book isn't truly read unless the reader 'interacts' with the book. We were taught to write down questions that came up throughout the reading, to summarize (in a few sentences) the chapter once we got to the end, to write down our thoughts/observations in the margins when they came up, etc etc etc. I can't help but do this now when I read books. It makes it hard to loan any books to anyone (since it's written so heavily in), but I feel that writing in a book is like joining in on a conversation, where just reading it and not taking any notes is simply listening in on a conversation from a distance.

This makes sense. When you're coming up with your own questions about the book is when you're really assimilating the information. And when you're summarizing the chapter you're consciously organizing and piecing together it's contents and essentially "Owning" the information.

 

[Saqua]

No I never use to write notes when I read books however I have realized if you write notes you will remember the information you read. You will also have access to your notes and can easily recall information if you have forgot it.

If I was too simply read a book, whats the point if I can't memorize what the book told me?
And finally you have to apply what you have learnt to the book to real life.