- Thanks to Trade Coffee
for sponsoring this video, and supporting my channel. In a couple of my recent
videos, I've mentioned that I spend time every
single morning reading. And recently, I've gotten
back into the habit of taking detailed notes when what I'm reading is non-fictional. Now, I found that this
is a habit that is tough to stay in and easy to fall out of, because taking detailed
notes on what you read requires effort and self-discipline. Especially given the fact
that I no longer have any exams or professors
forcing me to do so. It's just something that I want to do. But that being said,
taking notes on what I read is an incredibly useful habit to be in. So today, I want to share how I take notes from non-fiction books. I'm gonna give you the
details of my system, talk a little bit about
how I decide what to record versus what not to record, and hopefully give you some ideas about how can take notes
on the books that you read. Whether they're assigned in class, or just books that interest you. And my system breaks down
into a four step process, read, highlight, record and synthesize. And we're gonna start off
with the reading part. Now, since this is a video on note taking you might think we could
just skip past this part and go straight to highlighting. But you know what they say,
garbage in, garbage out. And in this case I'm not talking
about garbage books per se, but rather about garbage comprehension. Because if I'm reading in a way that doesn't promote good comprehension, I'm not going to be
able to take good notes. So this part of the process
is just as important as the note taking process. When I read I'm trying to promote the best possible comprehension. So I read in the morning,
which is what I found to be the best time of the day for me to engage with the
material and stay focused. And if I need to I will
move around my office. If I'm sitting in my chair and it's a little bit too relaxing, I'm getting a little bit too day-dreamy, I will sometimes pace around
the office while holding the book and still reading it. Or sometimes I'll sit on the floor just to get into a different position. All right, step two in the
process is to highlight, which I actually do
simultaneously while I read. I keep a pen with me,
which I use to star areas in the margins that I want
talk draw my eye to later on when I'm actually taking my notes. And yes, I actually do write
in the margins of my book, and I will also underline key terms, so I can further draw my eye to exactly what the idea was. Now if you don't want
to write in the margins, number one, you could just get eBooks, 'cause the Kindle app and the iBooks app, and basically every
electronic app out there will let you create little highlights. Personally, I like to write
in physical books better. And then there are also
these little book flags. So these things can
non-destructively allow you to mark places in a book. And there are many different colors, so you can use one for say, quotes, one for just interesting things. And on that note, I actually have a system of symbols that I use. So I use stars for general highlights that I want to draw my eye to later on, and then I use Ex, for examples. So in a book if there's an example that is backing up a main
point that I want to remember I'll mark that with an Ex. I use the letter F for further reading. So if a book is mentioning
say, another author or a book that they draw inspiration from, or maybe just a paper,
I'll put an F there, so I can remember to
follow up and maybe check that out later on. Q is for quotes. Now when I go and I write
my notes I generally try to put the notes in my own words, as much as I possibly can. But sometimes there's a great quote, and I want to remember it
exactly as it was stated, so I use a Q for that. I'll use question marks
if there's a passage in a book that I disagree
with, or that confuses me. That will allow me to dig in and maybe try to verify a claim, see if I was wrong, or if the author was wrong. And finally, sometimes I
will write actual notes in the margin of the book. These will not be
lengthy, but occasionally, I really want to get
something out of my head that relates to a specific area on a page. So I'll just write a little margin note that kind of primes me to
elaborate on that point a bit more when I'm doing
the actual recording. And that happens in the recording stage, which is the third step of the process. So once I'm done reading
and highlighting a chapter, I will sit down at my desk,
I'll go back through the chapter and I'm gonna use my highlights
and my margin symbols to guide my eye to what
I want to take notes on. And I take notes in an
app called Roam Research putting the in an outline style. Now what I like about Roam, and I made a video about
this tool very recently, is that I can very easily make links to any other page I have
just by putting brackets around a term, or by using
a hashtag to use a tag. They're kind of the exact same in Roam. So if I have say a Q somewhere,
I know that's a quote. I will put that quote in my notes, and I'll give it the quotes tag, so I can easily look up quotes later on. Or if there is something that refers back to a page that I've already
taken notes on, say caffeine, I can easily put brackets
around the word caffeine, and link to my caffeine page. And over time this creates
this interconnected web of knowledge that kind
of represents the way that knowledge is organized in the brain. And I do have to note that
right now Roam Research is in closed beta with a wait list. And there are details about that I can put in the description down below, I'm not gonna fill up
too much time with them. But the gist here is that
other than that linking system you can recreate these outline style notes in basically any other note-taking app. The main idea is I'm writing
down what I highlighted, so I'm interacting with
the material one more time. And step four here, I'm synthesizing it. So this is the last step in
the process where I'm trying to find a way to connect
the information I've just learned and recorded,
to what I already know. Or otherwise finding a way to utilize it, to wrangle with it, to
kind of retrieve it, have to work with it. So one thing that I will do
is I'll write my own thoughts in my notes in italics. If there is a point
that I have a little bit of my own input on, I will
put that right in the notes, right under my recording of the point. And this helps me to connect my own ideas and things I already
know from other sources, to what I've just read. I'm building more pathways to it, and I'm more likely to
remember it long term. And if you want to see an example
of how I take these notes, and how I go about this
process of synthesizing what I've learned, and connecting it to my own thoughts and opinions, I just recently finished reading the book "Hyperfocus," by
my friend Chris Bailey, very good book, and I
took very detailed notes on this book, which I
have posted on my website. And I'll have that link in
the description down below. But one last thing that
I would like to note here is that this entire note-taking process, especially the part where I'm adding in my own thoughts and opinions, and using the little question mark symbol to mark spots where I have a disagreement, is kind of an embodiment of my absolute favorite
quote by Bruce Lee. Which goes like this,
"Adapt what is useful, "reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." That is exactly how I try to
go about the learning process, and how I think you should, as well. Now, if you'll excuse me
I've got some more reading to go do, which also means that's it time to brew a fresh cup of coffee. And luckily, I've got some brand new beans to try thanks to Trade Coffee. With Trade Coffee you get
to discover new roasts from some of the nation's best roasters, instead of just buying the same old beans from the store every time. Or just randomly guessing
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knowledge of coffee I would say that I know enough to be dangerous. I know a little bit about
the different roast types, and I at least grind my own beans at home. But it still seems that whenever I want to try something new and I
grab something random off the shelf, half the time
it ends up being something that I don't really like. That's why Trade's coffee quiz is great. When you sign up it asks
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rotation of coffee roasts they conveniently deliver to your door is always something you're going to like. And you can even rate each bag to improve what you'll get in the future. This B-roll set up was a lot of work. All right, time for a taste test. (slow, flowing piano music) (chuckles) Okay yeah, that's good. So if you want to try
some great new coffee and support my channel,
then give Trade a try using the link in the description down below. And if you're one of the first 100 people to use that link, you're even gonna get 30% off your first bag. Just take the quiz,
and that promotion will be automatically applied. Plus, you're even gonna get free shipping. All right guys, that is it, so hopefully you enjoyed the video, and thank you so much for watching. If you did enjoy this
video hit that like button to show the YouTube algorithm what's up. You know it's getting
subscribed right there. It's kind of hard to talk
when I'm bending over and basically breaking my spine right now. But look how much effort
I'm putting in for you. There's also more videos in this channel, so check them out right here, or here. As always, smashing your
face through the phone screen is more effective than using
your fingers or thumbs. So do that, or don't, 'cause
as always, I'm not your dad.
