Open question to MJ (other successes welcome!)

[brumaire]

To all the successful entrepreneurs, I have a question.

How do you take notes?
What method do you use?
do you review your note after you take them?
Paper and pencil or do you use electronics?

here I am reading page 179 of TMF , thinking this is fantastic, and I want to take notes on it, but to be honest, just writing thoughts on Evernote seems underachieving compared to the material.

 

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[glenm]

I usually carry a composition notebook with me all the time to take notes in. I like the composition notebook because it stands up to the daily abuse and I don't start losing pages when it gets worn.

With that said I have recently started taking hand written notes on my Ipad Mini using the good notes app. I resisted for a while but with a good stylus and taking some time to set it up I am starting to really like it. I have several notebooks setup in the app and I can open one and start taking notes in it like a comp notebook.

 

[G-man422]

The method I use is to highlight the important parts of each chapter. Then, review each chapter and jot notes down in the margins. It's always in one spot (in the book) and easy to review at a later time if I want to.

 

[brumaire]

I am studying this deeply, I am studying a lot of the neuroscience behind this and also certain case studies of note takers (Stanley Kubrick and Napoleon Bonaparte mostly.

I will write a tool for everyone to use if they are interested in consolidating information quickly.

From my research so far, I have found people who review notes 30 minutes after writing them have very strong retention. and that after 31 days, only 22% of the retention is left.

Now I am sure this varies with interest/motivation, but it is very interesting.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I use Wonderlist to categorize and store information. (Evernote works great too.)
I use iPhone voice memos to record stuff / thoughts that I need to remember (usually happens in the car)
I have a tiny notebook by my bedside to record thoughts that happen in the middle of the night.

 

[brumaire]

Muskingum College - CAL (CAL)

Really Fantastic stuff here.

In a study first published in the late nineteenth century, Hermann Ebbinghaus (1913) reported the rates of forgetting meaningless syllables. The statistics nicely illustrate the need for strategies to improve short-term and long-term retention of information.

Time From First Learning	Percentage of Material Remembered	Percentage of Material Forgotten
After 20 minutes	53%	47%
After 2 days	31%	69%
After 15 days	25%	75%

 

[nitrousflame]

The best method is the one that you will use consistently.

Things that I know don't work for me:
- I know that I will not carry a physical notebook with me wherever I go -- so I don't.
- If I write notes inside a book, I know that I will consider it too much work to go through X pages of Y books in the event that I would like to casually recall those notes.
- In fact, any physically written notes typically end up scattered across any number of locations and ultimately get lost

I have found that there are two methods that seem to work quite well for me:
1.) Online documents.

I like online documents. I mostly use Zoho, but Google or any other similar setup would work in the same manner. Whenever something pops into my head and I'm around a computer, I hop onto Zoho and open up the relevant document and write it down. This way, all of my notes are in one central place and are accessible anywhere with a computer and an internet connection. Additionally, since everything is electronic, it is searchable as well which is a huge plus for me since I don't always have everything perfectly organized.

2.) Mobile note taking apps.

If I'm not near a computer, chances are that I at least have my phone. In this case, I use an app called AK Notepad. There are probably much better apps out there that accomplish the same thing, but this is the one that I use consistently. This is also backed up online, so If something happened to my phone, the notes aren't lost.

The only flaw in my system occurs when I need to take notes while I'm away from a computer and also talking on the phone. In this case, the notes will end up on a sheet of paper. If this happens, I'll typically just take a photo of the notes with my phone since I'm too lazy to type them up after the fact.

That was a longer post than I anticipated, ha. Hopefully it gives you some ideas though.

 

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[RBefort]

I read books once through and then go back through, skimming this time and jot down important ideas from each chapter. Huge waste of unproductive time (being busy doesn't mean you're productive). Told myself I would quit this process after I finished up my last book I am working on.

 

[Tlcalis]

Well In the preface of Napoleon Hills book "Napoleon Hill's Golden Rules"
It tells, "how to get the most from reading this book"

» The R2A2 Formula, By Napoleon Hill Highway 2 Wealth