How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking Paperback – 7 Feb. 2024

The title is a little misleading. The "One Simple Technique" suggestion may set up false expectations that this is a lightweight non-fiction book loaded with cheap tricks and some magic sauce that will transform your working life. If that's what you are hoping for then you're half right. It can transform how you work and learn and develop your understanding but, as in all things, you're going to have to graft a little.For me it has helped me take the necessary steps to build a genuinely productive workflow and it has also led me to make significant changes to how I teach as well.I think this book will be particularly accessibly to anyone who reads qualitative research and the text is relatively dense compared to your average self help book. It is a serious chunk of work, and Ahrens' pedigree as an academic is apparent. It's not as impenetrable as many papers in the social sciences (!) but it's still a long way from the fluff that generally adorns the Amazon self help list. (And I read and like plenty of that too.) Some reviewers may take exception to references but I'm in favour of them - actually, I can't think of anything worse that pages of opinion with the lightest of efforts to refer to a single study before the author makes some sweeping statement. I like to be able to check for myself and it also offers the opportunity for you to branch into areas for your own exploration.If you are toying with the idea of building your own Zettelkasten this is the book - and check out zettelkasten.de as well as the author's website for resources.Potentially life-changing, certainly life-enhancing, but you'll have to work for it too. You can't blast through it in an hour. And, for something that could have so much impact you didn't really expect that did you? Looking at reviews, it seems some people do. I bought it on Kindle but I'm buying the paperback too so I can re-visit and devote time to it as I add the elements I want to my own Zettelkasten.

This book confirmed a hunch of mine, that my brain was pretty bad at some stuff because it wasn’t really designed for it; such as cramming, recall of facts, rote memorisation etc. Dr Ahrens lays out a method for building an external architecture to free the brain to do what it does best: making abstract connections.The first half at least is on the theory and practice of building the external architecture using the Zettelkasten method. The later part of the book provides many helpful tips on how to think and write well, and would be helpful for anyone who wants to do either, which is probably most people!

As someone who didn’t really go to school much as a kid, I’m making up for it in my late 20’s and early 30’s.I wish I’d read this before university, it would have increased the value of that learning experience 10x fold.It’s not just a book on how to take notes, but on how learning takes place.Goodbye note books, hello slip-boxes.

It feels more organic to work from the bottom-up. Instead of settling on a topic or a question first, then trawling through material to find facts that support our argument, this way of working allows us to discover the argument as revealed by the insights and connections we make along the way. Wonderful! Primarily a fiction writer, I've always worked a bit this way in academic writing, too. But now I'll make it a more conscious process. Can't wait to share it with my students.

I believe the Scandinavians have provided us with a newer, more nuanced gratitude towards living. I'm talking about dark sombre shades, minimally eccentric decor to collectively quench a longing of a cleaner-calmer house. It made me feel ashamed of my brutish lifestyle. Pleased to say, I smell tranquility now.For me, the book was a polite pat on the shoulder. The sort of pat to wake up. Helping me develop a newer appreciation towards work – covered within the first 50 pages. The scientific inquiry that preluded throughout the pages; well-favoured. In a sense giving a sort of roguish tang to learning. I felt like I could go up to someone with a superior complex. But, after the 50 pages, I was weight down with a guilt. A consistent nag by the author. Making me loathe my studying and working habits. Oh and how do you pronounce ‘zettelkasten’ ?To conclude, this is sort of book you buy at a novelty store. But, it is actually a decent book .

This is a really interesting book. I am interested in most thing and read a lot. I have become more and more frustrated as all the notes, comments were mainly lost without being able to go back and improve. Instead of building on my ideas, i was repeating the same senseless processes, increasing further my frustration and feeling of wasting my time. As i finish this book, i am full of hope that i have a solution...time will tell.

Good guidance book on how to have a note taking system for academic purposes, but not so much for business and meeting note taking. Good advice on general work planning.

This book will change how you discover, collect, and process notes and ideas. The concept of the slipbox and the graph of related notes is so powerful, and it enables creating new contents in a more systematic way than starting at a blank page each time.