dharashah410
commented
5 years ago Is there a way to organize (and thus remember) important things you read? What can you to do to better digest ideas?
Method
- Identify key ideas, quotes, anecdotes, stories, thoughts, observations, data, information, etc. and write them down in small notecards.
- Some of them can be understood without context. Some cannot. Hence, annotate each card with themes/topics/projects it fits into and source (where did you find it).
- Let it percolate for few weeks. Then revisit the cards to check if they still make sense and are organized well
- Over time, cards (research) from various books/sources come together and can accumulate a mass of wisdom
- These literary scrapbooks collectively are called a commonplace book. While Ryan records these notecards on physical cards, there are people who do it on Twitter or Pinterest or Facebook.
Who else is/has done it?
- Marcus Aurelius’s notes became Meditations
- Ronald Reagan’s notes became some of his best jokes, speeches.
- Robert Greene’s notes became books
- Kunal Shah writes his notes on Facebook for himself
- Bill Gate’s notes are on The Gates Notes
Pros/Cons
- This system is great for documenting notes and then letting your brain (over time) find connections across them.
- However, no two people would make sense from the same commonplace book in the same way.
References
- https://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-holiday/2013/08/how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book/
- https://lifehacker.com/im-ryan-holiday-and-this-is-how-i-work-1485776137
- https://ryanholiday.net/the-notecard-system-the-key-for-remembering-organizing-and-using-everything-you-read/
- https://ryanholiday.net/how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book/
- https://maureenclaudette.com/blog/2018/1/5/ryan-holidays-index-card-system
- https://krishnendusarkar.com/2017/06/22/ryan-holidays-notecard-system/
- https://medium.com/the-mission/best-selling-author-ryan-holiday-on-notecards-mornings-and-the-work-a3d4dd61aaf0
- https://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-holiday/2013/12/the-notecard-system-the-key-for-remembering-organizing-and-using-everything-you-read/
Plan
Execute
Publish