How I take notes from books

Thanks to Trade Coffee for sponsoring this video and supporting my channel. In a couple of my recent videos, I've mentioned that I spend time every single morning reading. And recently, I've gotten back into the habit of taking detailed notes when what I'm reading is non-fictional. Now, I found that this is a habit that is tough to stay in and easy to fall out of because taking detailed notes on what you read requires effort and self-discipline, especially given the fact that I no longer have any exams or professors forcing me to do so. It's just something that I want to do. But that being said, taking notes on what I read is an incredibly useful habit to be in. So today, I wanna share how I take notes from non-fiction books. I'm gonna give you the details of my system, talk a little bit about how I decide what to record versus what not to record, and hopefully give you some ideas about how you can take notes on the books that you read, whether they're assigned in class or just books that interest you. And my system breaks down into a four-step process, read, highlight, record, and synthesize. We're gonna start off with the reading part. Now, since this is a video on note-taking, you might think we could just skip past this part and go straight to highlighting, but you know what they say, garbage in, garbage out. And in this case, I'm not talking about garbage books per se but rather about garbage comprehension because if I'm reading in a way that doesn't promote good comprehension, I'm not going to be able to take good notes. So this part of the process is just as important as the note-taking process. When I read, I'm trying to promote the best possible comprehension. So I read in the morning, which is what I found to be the best time of the day for me to engage with the material and stay focused. And if I need to, I will move around my office. If I'm sitting in my chair and it's a little bit too relaxing, I'm getting a little bit too daydreamy, I will sometimes pace around the office while holding the book and still reading it. Or sometimes I'll sit on the floor just to get into a different position. All right, step two in the process is to highlight, which I actually do simultaneously while I read. I keep a pen with me, which I use to star areas in the margins that I want to draw my eye to later on when I'm actually taking my notes. And yes, I actually do write in the margins of my book and I will also underline key terms so I can further draw my eye to exactly what the idea was. Now, if you don't want to write in the margins, number one, you could just get eBooks because the Kindle app and the iBooks app, and basically every electronic app out there will let you create little highlights. Personally, I like to write in physical books better. And then there are also these little book flags. So these things can non-destructively allow you to mark places in a book and there are many different colors. So you can use one for say quotes, one for just interesting things. And on that note, I actually have a system of symbols that I use. So I use stars for general highlights that I want to draw my eye to later on. And then I use EX for examples. So in a book, if there's an example that is backing up a main point that I want to remember, I'll mark that with an EX. I use the letter F for further reading. So if a book is mentioning say another author or a book that they draw inspiration from, or maybe just a paper, I'll put an F there so I can remember to follow up and maybe check that out later on. Q is for quotes. Now, when I go and I write my notes, I generally try to put the notes in my own words as much as I possibly can. But sometimes there's a great quote and I want to remember it exactly as it was stated. So I'll use a Q for that. I'll use question marks if there's a passage in a book that I disagree with or that confuses me, that will allow me to dig in and maybe try to verify a claim, see if I was wrong or if the author was wrong. And finally, sometimes I will write actual notes in the margin of the book. These will not be lengthy, but occasionally I really want to get something out of my head that relates to a specific area on a page. So I'll just write a little margin note that kind of primes me to elaborate on that point a bit more when I'm doing the actual recording. And that happens in the recording stage, which is the third step of the process. So once I'm done reading and highlighting a chapter, I will sit down at my desk, I'll go back through the chapter and I will use my highlights and my margin symbols to guide my eye to what I want to take notes on. And I take notes in an app called Roam Research, putting them in an outline style. Now, what I like about Roam, and I made a video about this tool very recently, is that I can very easily make links to any other page I have just by putting brackets around a term or by using a hashtag to use a tag. They're kind of the exact same in Roam. So if I have, say, a Q somewhere, I know that's a quote, I will put that quote in my notes and I'll give it the quotes tag so I can easily look up quotes later on. Or if there is something that refers back to a page that I've already taken notes on, say caffeine, I can easily put brackets around the word caffeine and link to my caffeine page. And over time, this creates this interconnected web of knowledge that kind of represents the way that knowledge is organized in the brain. I do have to note that right now, Roam Research is in closed beta with a wait list, and there are details about that that I can put in the description down below. Not gonna fill up too much time with them, but the gist here is that other than that linking system, you can recreate these outline style notes in basically any other note-taking app. The main idea is I'm writing down what I highlighted, so I'm interacting with the material one more time. And step four here, I'm synthesizing it. So this is the last step in the process where I'm trying to find a way to connect the information I've just learned and recorded to what I already know, or otherwise finding a way to utilize it, to wrangle with it, to kind of retrieve it, have to work with it. So one thing that I will do is I'll write my own thoughts in my notes in italics. If there's a point that I have a little bit of my own input on, I will put that right in the notes, right under my recording of the point. And this helps me to connect my own ideas, things I already know from other sources, to what I've just read. I'm building more pathways to it, and I'm more likely to remember it long-term. And if you wanna see an example of how I take these notes and how I go about this process of synthesizing what I've learned and connecting it to my own thoughts and opinions, I just recently finished reading the book Hyperfocus by my friend Chris Bailey, very good book, and I took very detailed notes on this book, which I have posted on my website, and I'll have that linked in the description down below. But one last thing that I would like to note here is that this entire note-taking process, especially the part where I'm adding in my own thoughts and opinions, and using the little question mark symbol to mark spots where I have a disagreement, is kind of an embodiment of my absolute favorite quote by Bruce Lee, which goes like this. Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own. That is exactly how I try to go about the learning process and how I think you should as well. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some more reading to go do, which also means that it's time to brew a fresh cup of coffee. And luckily, I've got some brand new beans to try, thanks to Trade Coffee. With Trade Coffee, you get to discover new roasts from some of the nation's best roasters instead of just buying the same old beans from the store every time or just randomly guessing whenever you wanna try something new. And for me, making coffee is one of my favorite parts of the day, but when it comes to my knowledge of coffee, I would say that I know enough to be dangerous. I know a little bit about the different roast types and I at least grind my own beans at home, but it still seems that whenever I wanna try something new and I grab something random off the shelf, half the time it ends up being something that I don't really like. That's why Trade's Coffee Quiz is great. When you sign up, it asks you a few simple questions about your tastes and then it builds a taste profile for you so that the rotation of coffee roasts they conveniently deliver to your door is always something you're going to like. And you can even rate each bag to improve what you'll get in the future. This B-roll setup was a lot of work. All right, time for a taste test. Okay, yeah, that's good. So if you wanna try some great new coffee and support my channel, then give Trade a try using the link in the description down below. And if you're one of the first 100 people to use that link, you're even gonna get 30% off your first bag. Just take the quiz and that promotion will be automatically applied. Plus you're even gonna get free shipping. All right, guys, that is it. So hopefully you enjoyed the video and thank you so much for watching. If you did enjoy this video, hit that like button to show the YouTube algorithm what's up. You can also get subscribed right there. It's kinda hard to talk when I'm bending over and basically breaking my spine right now, but look how much effort I'm putting in for you. There's also more videos on this channel, so check them out right here or here. As always, smashing your face into the phone screen is more effective than using your fingers or thumbs, so do that or don't, because as always, I'm not your dad.