There are lots of good ways to take notes when you’re trying to learn something. Often, a way I find useful is to take them right in the book I’m reading.

I have conversations with my books. I put comments, highlights, mind maps, and whatever in my books. For example, I was working on some material for online learning and was working with the book Pragmatic Thinking & Learning by Andy Hunt:

While reviewing the material as I was working out what I want to write, I came across some pages that I had worked on and added to. One of the major chapters here is ‘Learn Deliberately’ which I take very much to heart. Here is what the book looks like at this point:

I was looking for general techniques and recommendations for deliberate learning. Andy certainly approaches this very much in common with the way I do.

I also wanted some material on cognitive biases which was in the chapter labeled ‘Debug Your Mind’. Here’s what the page looked like after I’d taken some notes:

My point here is not necessarily that you should be marking up your books like this. Sometimes you can’t because you don’t own the book, but don’t be afraid to. All that was necessary to work with this book was the book and a couple of colored markers.

I approached these chapters like this:

1. I scanned the chapter quickly noting important information, summaries, diagrams, and so forth. I used a marker to leave a highlight at places I wanted to review in more detail.
2. I went back and read through the chapter more completely, highlighting what I considered to be important points.
3. I went to the front page of the chapter with its facing empty page and drew up a mind map of the chapter as I understood it.
4. As part of the mind map, I added some small drawings to call out key points
5. Using the mind map, I revisited sections of the chapter to make sure I got it right.

A lot of work? Yes ….. and No. It didn’t take too long to go through these chapters, I cam away from the study knowing the material pretty well, and I got the input I wanted for the material I’m working on. All in all, a good effort.

Categories: Learning, Practical Applications