How To Take Smart Notes: 10 Principles to Revolutionize Your Note-Taking and Writing

• POSTED IN BOOK SUMMARY, BOOKS, BUILDING A SECOND BRAIN, CREATIVITY, EDUCATION, NOTE-TAKING, ORGANIZING, PRODUCTIVITY, WORKFLOW, WRITING
• ON FEBRUARY 4, 2020
• BY TIAGO FORTE

• LAST MODIFIED
• APRIL 17, 2022

Estimated reading time: 28 minutes

I long ago stopped reading books on note-taking.

They were always too vague and boring, full of platitudes that had little to do with the world outside academia.

I especially avoided “how-to” style books on the subject.

They would often list dozens of tips and tricks that had little to do with each other. There was never an overarching system for turning notes into concrete results.

But recently I picked up How To Take Smart Notes (affiliate link) by Sönke Ahrens. Ahrens is a Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of Duisburg-Essen and also coaches students, academics, and professionals with a focus on time management, decision-making, and personal growth.

It is by far the most impactful and profound book I’ve ever read on the subject. I was astounded to encounter in its pages (with uncanny similarity) many of the same principles I had discovered over 10 years of personal experience.

This book is so full of insights that it broke my usual approach to summarizing books.

My approach is based on the assumption that most books are a few morsels of real insight wrapped in layers and layers of fluff. As I read, I systematically unravel those layers of fluff and extract only those insights, like a chemist distilling only the purest compound.

But this book is not written in the usual way. It is written using an external thinking system, which I call a Second Brain.

The evidence is clear: Instead of squeezing as many pages as possible out of one idea, How To Take Smart Notes squeezes as many ideas as possible onto every page. Every paragraph has a point, and I struggled to leave anything out of this summary.

By identifying the principles that stand the test of time despite huge changes in the underlying technology, we can better understand the essential nature of the creative process. We can focus our efforts on mastering the art of creative note-taking, producing more insightful writing, and fulfilling our full potential.

In this article, I’ll summarize the 10 most important principles for taking “smart” notes according to Ahrens. You can also find a detailed, step-by-step description of the method at the end.