Sönke Ahrens

Sönke Ahrens has developed a method for you to organize your ideas and notes in the most efficient way possible. Using psychological insight and battle-tested techniques, Sönke's insight will help you accomplish more and learn faster. If you're a writer, a student or anyone who reads and writes, you'll definitely want to grab a pen and pad for this one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sönke Ahrens has developed a method for you to organize your ideas and notes in the most efficient way possible. Using psychological insight and battle-tested techniques, Sönke's insight will help you accomplish more and learn faster. If you're a writer, a student or anyone who reads and writes, you'll definitely want to grab a pen and pad for this one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sönke Ahrens, creator of Take Smart Notes and author of the bestselling book on effective note-taking, shares his insights on making reading more meaningful. He challenges listeners to move beyond mere memorization and highlights the importance of creating connections between ideas. Ahrens discusses the Zettelkasten method and emphasizes how concise notes can spark ongoing conversations with ourselves. He believes that effective note-taking is crucial for deeper learning and personal growth, particularly for leaders.

Sönke Ahrens, author of How to Take Smart Notes, discusses the role of notes in thinking and learning. They explore the Zettelkasten method of note-taking, organizing and visualizing analog notes, the concept of smart notes and the importance of connections, and the impact of note-taking on building coherent arguments.

Dr. Sönke Ahrens, author, How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning, and Thinking – for Students, Academics, and Nonfiction Book Writers, provides valuable information that we can all use to help us take better notes and be more productive.   Dr. Ahrens is a noted writer and researcher in education and social science. He regularly publishes, and his book titled, Experiment and Exploration: Forms of World-Disclosure: From Epistemology to Bildung is an award winner and continues to be a talked-about piece. In addition to being a prolific author, Dr. Ahrens still finds time to teach at university in the area of philosophy of education.   Dr. Ahrens talks about his background and how it was his own Ph.D. education experience that inspired him to later write his book on taking notes. He states, as students, we are constantly taking notes, but Dr. Ahrens was interested in how we could more efficiently retain the data and information that we are given—how do we take notes? Dr. Ahrens discusses his interest in the work of Niklas Luhmann​, the​ German sociologist​ , and ​philosopher of social science​ who was a major voice in the field of systems theory​. ​He explains the theoretical studies of Luhmann and his discoveries about the man and how Luhmann was incredibly efficient and productive in the taking off and producing notes that allowed him to spark new ideas. Luhmann essentially mastered productivity, and his technique is at the center of Dr. Ahrens’ keen interest and study.    Zettelkasten is the German word for ‘slip box,’ and the slip box technique was Niklas Luhmann’s major contribution to modern-day note taking and information gathering. The German sociologist used index cards for all of his notes and thus developed a systematic method of cross-referencing and connecting all of his many notes. Luhmann assigned each card a specific number, which positioned the card in a certain place within his filing system. This technique allowed Luhmann to have it referenced on other cards.   Dr. Ahrens elaborates on some of the techniques and processes that make for more efficiency in learning and note-taking. Dr. Ahrens explains how certain organizational techniques can be standardized and thus become a daily routine, which increases productivity. He discusses how the everyday person can utilize steps, such as collecting, then processing, and writing information that makes connections to other data that you’ve collected, etc. Dr. Ahrens states that the key is to get into a topic at the content level where we last left it, and pick up our research or study again as quickly as possible.  

If you’re a fan of using Getting Things Done to stay on top of all the, well, things you need to get done – you’ll love How to Take Smart Notes for staying on top of all the things you want to learn. I’ll give you an introduction – in my own words – in this How to Take Smart Notes book summary. The note-taking system introduced in Sönke Ahrens’s How to Take Smart Notes is a bit like Getting Things Done for learning. GTD is great for things that have a clear objective. But creative insights can’t be planned, by definition. That’s the point of an insight, it comes out of nowhere. One of my favorite quotes from the book: It is a huge misunderstanding that the only alternative to planning is aimless messing around. The challenge is to structure one’s workflow in a way that insight and new ideas can become the driving forces that push us forward. —Sönke Ahrens In other words, you can’t plan an insight, but you can structure the way you read and learn in a way that not only improves your retention, but that also leads you to new insights. What is a Zettelkasten? The system introduced in How to Take Smart Notes is called a Zettelkasten, which is German for “slip box.” A slip box was originally a box full of slips of paper, each slip with a little note on it. The slips were arranged and annotated in a certain way to facilitate thinking and to link ideas. The most famous user of the Zettelkasten was a German sociologist named Niklas Luhmann. Luhmann credited his slip box for his prolific career, in which he published 58 books and hundreds of articles. His actual Zettelkasten is being studied in a long-term project at the University of Bielefeld, in Germany. The linking, keyword, and organization characteristics of a slip box were a precursor to our modern-day internet. But now that we’re no longer limited to slips of paper, writers and researchers are adapting the Zettelkasten technique to digital tools. How do you take smart notes? There are four basic steps to follow to make smart notes for your own Zettelkasten – or “slip box”, if you prefer: Make fleeting notes: Always have a way to capture ideas that pop into your mind, or – if reading – read actively, highlighting and taking notes. I personally carry around a tiny notebook, and use the Drafts app on iOS to capture quick thoughts. I don’t take notes while I read, but I do highlight on my Kindle. Make literature notes: Rewrite the important parts of what you’ve read. But, do it in your own words. It sounds pointless, but it’s surprisingly fun, and later on we’ll get to how it helps you learn better. Make permanent notes: Break any literature notes or fleeting notes down to individual notes. Do this only for the most important ideas – the ones that are relevant to your interests and your ongoing projects. Do this a little bit each day, so you don’t get a huge backlog. Add permanent notes to the slip box: Luhmann used a special branched numbering system to organize his notes. I prefer plain-English note titles. You also want to add relevant tags to each note, and link your note to related notes. How to use your smart notes for learning and writing The main reason to have a system like this is to direct your curiosity in a productive way, and turn your learning into writing. There are three things you’ll do with your slip box: Develop topics: As you make new notes, themes will start to develop around your areas of interest. You can interact with your notes to follow the links, and you’ll see holes in your knowledge to guide your learning. Getting research/writing ideas: You’ll never have to wonder again what you’d like to read about or write about. It will be clear from where there are lots of notes clustered around a topic in your slip box. For example, you may have many notes with a certain tag, or if you use a piece of software such as Obsidian you can visualize which notes link to one another to see patterns in your thinking. Turn your notes into writing: You can collect your notes together, and quickly form rough drafts for articles or books. Don’t simply copy your notes, though. Rewrite them, stitching them together along the way to create a completed piece. How to Write Smart Notes is primarily directed at academic writers, and, as Ahrens points out, most books on academic writing see writing papers as a linear task, with a beginning and an end. I talk about the Four Stages of Creativity in my book, Mind Management, Not Time Management. Taking smart notes allows you to do “Preparation” on creative problems through small habits. By the time you write your first draft – after “Incubation” – “Illumination” is easy. Most of the work is already done. Dos and don’ts Sounds exciting, right? But when you try to create your own slip box, the possibilities can be overwhelming. Here are some dos and don’ts that can help guide your thinking. Do choose keywords sparingly When choosing keywords for your notes, your first instinct might be to make sure you tag your note with every relevant keyword you can think of. But if you use too many keywords, it becomes hard to manage your slip box. Ahrens warns not to choose the keyword that is the most appropriate to the content. Instead, think about in what context you might want to retrieve that note, and choose your keywords in a way that would help you find that note. I’ll give you an example in the next, related, tip. Don’t use generic keywords Another instinct you might have is to choose generic keywords. Like if the note is related to Psychology, you might think you should tag it with “Psychology.” But remember that the purpose of the slip box is to facilitate insights. A tag such as “Psychology” is too broad. Choose your keywords sparingly – as I said in the previous tip – but also choose your keywords according to your specific areas of interest or lines of thought. Imagine you’re really interested in studying storytelling. You have a note about Eve eating an apple in the Garden of Eden. Your instincts might tell you to tag the note with “apple,” or “fruits.” Instead, you might have a tag called “symbols of discord,” or even “apples of discord.” You can create a whole collection of notes showing apples as symbols of discord in stories, such as in the Judgement of Paris or Snow White. Do link every note to other notes Each time you create a new “permanent note” that goes into the slip box, you should link it to at least one other note. Each note should serve as a starting point to follow a line of thought, and links help you navigate through your notes to see what ideas spring up. Links may point directly to another note. That note might be on a different topic. For instance, your note about Snow White’s stepmother feeding her a poisoned apple, tagged with “symbols of discord,” might link to another note about Snow White’s stepmother looking in her mirror on a daily basis – and that note might be tagged “vanity,” a topic under which you have other stories with vanity as a theme. Besides linking to other notes, notes can also be linked to a topic overview. This could present a summary of your notes on a topic – in other words, one of your keywords or tags. The summary could link to other notes on that topic, with a short description of what you’ll find in each one. For example, your “vanity” overview note might link not only to the story of Snow White’s stepmother looking in her mirror on a daily basis – it might also link to the story of Narcissus being captivated by his own reflection in the river. These summaries are great starting points for developing into finished articles. Don’t copy/paste When you’re creating a slip box with digital tools, another instinct you’ll have is to copy and paste notes directly from your source material. The thinking is its the most “efficient” way. The purpose of your slip box is not to be the most “efficient” directory of information. Just as important as providing a reference to things you learned in the past is the actual learning of those things. You learn better when you translate what you’ve read into your own words. Resist the temptation to copy and paste directly from your source. I personally may copy and paste to keep a direct quote from source material, but I will always supplement with an “in my own words” explanation of what’s being said. Why it works? This brings us to the science behind why the slip box is effective for learning. Ahrens explains that studies show success doesn’t come from willpower. Instead, it comes from creating a working environment that makes willpower unnecessary. There are five ways working with a slip box shapes your habits so you learn better: Elaboration: This is why it’s important not to copy/paste, but to write things in your own words. When you write something in your own words, you have to connect the new knowledge to your existing knowledge. You have to think about its broader implications. Ahrens says elaboration is the most effective technique for learning. Spacing: In managing a slip box, you retrieve information repeatedly, after time away from it. This happens when you review your highlights and fleeting notes to elaborate on them and turn them into permanent notes. This also happens when you retrieve old notes to connect them to new notes. Your memory of information fades away over time, but when you’re repeatedly exposed to information – a phenomenon called “spaced repetition” – you retain it better. Variation: Using a slip box, you review information in a variety of contexts: You read it, you take fleeting notes, you translate those into permanent notes, then you review the information further when retrieving it and linking it to other notes. This variety helps you more robustly link new knowledge to existing knowledge. Contextual Interference: Contextual interference is a randomization of contexts, and it has been shown to improve learning. For example, instead of practicing throwing all day, you might randomly alternate amongst throwing, catching, and running. The very nature of managing a slip box randomizes the contexts in which you interact with information. Deliberate effort: Deliberate practice – where you’re deliberately practicing individual skills, with rapid feedback – is more effective than simply doing whatever you feel like. Managing a slip box is structured and deliberate practice. There’s your How to Take Smart Notes book summary I hope you found this summary helpful. As an author, I was excited to first learn of the Zettelkasten or slip box technique, but I wound up spending many hours watching confusing explanations of it on YouTube, or reading equally confusing articles. How to Take Smart Notes was the only resource that gave me a good first-principles overview of how a slip box works. From that, I’ve been able to adapt the technique to my own workflow as a blogger, podcaster, and author. I do hope to share my own note-taking system soon, so make sure you’re subscribed, so you don’t miss it. Until then, I highly recommend you pick up How to Take Smart Notes. Mind Management, Not Time Management now available! After nearly a decade of work, Mind Management, Not Time Management is now available! This book will show you how to manage your mental energy to be productive when creativity matters. Buy it now! My Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays. About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is author of Mind Management, Not Time Management, The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast, his Love Mondays newsletter, and self-publishing coaching David helps you make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher YouTube RSS Email Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/take-smart-notes-summary

Dr. Sönke Ahrens, a social scientist and author of 'How to Take Smart Notes,' introduces the Zettelkasten method, a transformative approach to personal knowledge management. He discusses how this method can help AI-proof your thinking and enhance creativity. Ahrens highlights the importance of designing your thinking environment and connecting diverse ideas through structured note-taking. He emphasizes viewing notes as dynamic partners in thought, empowering individuals to combat writer's block and information overload in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Sönke Ahrens has developed a method for you to organize your ideas and notes in the most efficient way possible. Using psychological insight and battle-tested techniques, Sönke's insight will help you accomplish more and learn faster. If you're a writer, a student or anyone who reads and writes, you'll definitely want to grab a pen and pad for this one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sönke Ahrens, an expert in writing and learning techniques, shares transformative strategies for note-taking that boost cognitive processes. He introduces the Zettelkasten method, emphasizing interconnected ideas that enhance academic success. Listeners learn how to move beyond traditional methods, promoting a more effective learning experience. Ahrens illustrates the journey of a German worker whose innovative practices led to intellectual growth, highlighting the impact of diverse note types on understanding and creativity.

The Thing PKM People, and Sönke Ahrens, and Roam Research, and Obsidian Get Wrong About Niklas Luhmann's Antinet Zettelkasten Get a free 30-day trial to the best physical monthly publication about knowledge, writing, and marketing: https://www.scottscheperletter.com/free-trial