Take Better Notes, by Hand
5 hours ago
- #knowledge-management
- #research-methods
- #note-taking
- Research involves piecing together causes and effects while following leads, often getting sidetracked but needing to consolidate findings.
- A four-part note-taking system is used, ranked from least to most important: Pinboard for links/search, Books.app for PDF organization, Book Tracker for OCR quotes, and paper notebooks as the most extensively used tool.
- Paper notebooks enhance memory, engagement, focus, and portability, offering a tangible progress indicator, though they have limitations that can be mitigated with traditional techniques.
- Effective note-taking includes dating every page entry, adding page numbers (often odd numbers), and creating an index at the notebook's start or end to track topics, books, and quotes for easy reference.
- To manage space constraints, notes are written only on right-hand pages in pen, with left pages or margins used in pencil for additional thoughts or references, aiding organization and distinguishing between primary and supplementary content.
- This informal system supports various notebooks for different purposes, reducing time spent searching for information and expanding cognitive capacity with promising results.