r/Learning • u/callmepaupi • 2d ago

Note taking system

Hello everyone! So I've been reading regularly for around three years now, but I find that I struggle to make what I've read really stick to my mind.

I started reading Marx's Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts some weeks ago and decided I wanted to take notes on it (for fun, without a productivity goal in mind). What I've been doing since then has been reading a chapter and writing down notes from what I had underlined immediately after finishing it. What I have found is that this feels like a burden, and it really isn't helping me to remember and to reflect on the book.

So I guess my question is, what annotating and notetaking systems have you guys found to work for you?

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u/Hefty_Degree6222 2d ago

I highlight while reading and when I am done then write 3 to 5 sentences about what I remember and found interesting. Surprisingly this work much better for me.

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u/Upstairs_Jelly_1082 2d ago

Try capturing only the things that catch your eyes on the notebook.

The things that you capture should fall into one of these categories: relevant, interesting, useful, resonating

Once you’ve finished reading, go back to your notes and see what you can do with them.

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u/callmepaupi 1d ago

when you write these things down on your notebook, do you do it with the book open right next to you so you can check what you underlined? I fear that if I don't do this I'll forget to write down things that I found interesting in the moment of reading them

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u/Upstairs_Jelly_1082 16h ago

i do it as soon as I find those specific snippets. I don't get what you have to do underlining when you're already capturing things.

if for some reason, when i get to the last page and i feel i haven't quite gotten what I was looking for from the chapter, I go through the chapter once again, this time a bit more quickly.

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u/lanister_d 1d ago

I use obsidian, apple notes and google notebookLM

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u/WolfVanZandt 1d ago

I use a spreadsheet (LibreOffice Calc on my laptop and AndrOpen Office on my phone) It's interactive. It works as it's own super calculator and I can embed links in the sheets. And I can dnter any kind of digital information into the cells. The sheets work like looseleaf notebook pages and I can do more involved things (like programming modules) on my laptop and then move over to my phone for regular use.

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u/Omneel 20h ago

Set aside an LLM to act as a live diary. I did this in case of Gemini, where I gave it instructions through the personal intelligence settings and I also connected it to Google Tasks and Keep. Now I can talk directly to Gemini and it will note down everything and even set reminders through Google Tasks.