https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATDCsY-VJPA

Taking Better Notes (based on the video by Thomas Frank)

(reference video )

Reading Stage

Aim to better your comprehension: Read at your best time to engage with the material and stay focused. Move positions to avoid getting too relaxed.

Highlighting Stage

Highlight while reading - use pencil to star on the margins at parts you want to return to when taking notes. Underline key terms to accentuate the exact idea.
You can use electronic books or sticker bookmarks if you don’t want to draw on the book. Bookmarks come in different colors, so you can use them for different things: “quotes, interesting ideas, etc.”.

Have a recognizable highlights system:

• Star - general highlights to return to
• Ex - examples backing up the main ideas
• F - further reading (another author/book referenced)
• Q - quotes ( generally try to rephrase notes in your own words, but sometimes there’s a great quote to jot down)
• ? - for passages you disagree with, or ones that are confusing - to dig in later and see if the author or you were wrong
• Actual notes in the margins - when you really want to get something out of your head that relates to a specific area on the page - primes to elaborate on the topic more when actually taking notes.

Recording Stage

After reading and highlighting, go through the chapter and look at your noting symbols to guide the eye on what to take notes on.

Use any app, putting information in an outline style. Instances and pages can very easily be linked through the use of tags. Can use for reference of pages previously noted or the types of content.

While writing down what you’ve highlighted, you interact with the material one more time.

Synthesizing stage

Try to find a way to connect the information about what you’ve just learned/recorded to what you already know. Find a way to utilize it, wrangle with it, retrieve it, work with it.