How I take notes

Writing doesn’t (or at least should not) start with a blank page.

It starts weeks or months before you even pick the topic. Every day, as you consume content, you should take useful notes that you can refer to later as you write.

Here’s how I take notes👇

Throughout my day, I take rough notes on stuff that pops into my mind or that I see somewhere.

While reading, I always write down what resonates with me. I keep these notes short, precise, and write in my own words.

I’ll review these later and decide how these fit.

I go through these notes and start to think about how these notes are relevant to my own thinking, interests, & how can I use the ideas in my life.

The goal is not to hoard content, but to develop a strong understanding of a topic of my interest or to understand a problem.

I file each permanent note with proper tags & relevant note links to make it easy to find it in the future.

Then, I start looking for patterns & insights within the system. Start developing ideas, formulating opinions, connecting the dots & see what stories are being formed.

Never let good ideas go to waste. You consume hundreds of pieces of content every day, which you won’t use immediately on the current project. Why let it die? Create proper notes and save it for later with proper links & tags so that you can use it in your future projects.

A trustworthy note-taking system allows you to relieve from the task of trying to hold every idea & thought in your head and instead allow you to focus on things that are important - the content, the idea, and the argument.

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