Notebook systems for self help book integration & application.

[Pox]

I'm fairly new to personal development, and I've recently started to journal. I started a bullet journal/time block notebook, a catch all notebook, a reading log, and a personal dictionary. I also started reading "The 7 habits of highly effective people", and it made me want to make a notebook dedicated to note taking, internalization, and application. Have y'all done something similar to this? If so, I seek advice on how to make one.

I asked chat gpt to make a game-plan for this and here's what it generated:

### Notebook Structure

 

1. **Introduction and Overview**

   - **Purpose:** Summarize the main goal of the notebook.

   - **Contents:** A brief overview of what the 7 habits are and what you hope to achieve by following them.

 

2. **Habit Breakdown**

   - **Structure for Each Habit:**

     - **Habit Name and Description:** Detailed explanation of the habit.

     - **Key Principles:** The foundational principles behind the habit.

     - **Personal Reflections:** Your thoughts and current status related to this habit.

     - **Action Plan:** Steps you plan to take to incorporate this habit into your life.

     - **Daily/Weekly Check-ins:** Space to track your progress and reflect on your experiences.

 

3. **Weekly Reviews**

   - **Structure:**

     - **Achievements:** What went well this week?

     - **Challenges:** What were the obstacles?

     - **Adjustments:** What can you do differently next week?

 

4. **Monthly Summaries**

   - **Structure:**

     - **Overall Progress:** How have you improved?

     - **Habit Strengthening:** Which habits are becoming second nature?

     - **Areas for Growth:** Which habits need more focus?

 

5. **Reflection and Goal Setting**

   - **Structure:**

     - **Quarterly Reflections:** Deeper reflections every three months.

     - **Long-term Goals:** How are these habits aligning with your long-term aspirations?

 

### Detailed Breakdown

 

#### 1. Introduction and Overview

- **Purpose:**

  Write a brief introduction about why you are using this notebook and what you aim to achieve.

  

  **Example:**

  "This notebook is my personal guide to mastering the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. My goal is to integrate these principles into my daily life to improve my personal and professional effectiveness."

 

- **Contents:**

  - Quick summary of the 7 habits:

    1. Be Proactive

    2. Begin with the End in Mind

    3. Put First Things First

    4. Think Win-Win

    5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

    6. Synergize

    7. Sharpen the Saw

 

#### 2. Habit Breakdown

 

**Example for Habit 1: Be Proactive**

 

- **Habit Name and Description:**

  "Be Proactive" focuses on taking responsibility for your own actions and behaviors.

 

- **Key Principles:**

  - You are responsible for your own life.

  - Your decisions, not your conditions, determine your path.

 

- **Personal Reflections:**

  Reflect on how proactive you currently are. Do you take initiative or often react to events?

 

- **Action Plan:**

  - Identify areas in your life where you can be more proactive.

  - Set specific goals to take initiative in those areas.

 

- **Daily/Weekly Check-ins:**

  - Each day, jot down instances where you chose to be proactive.

  - Weekly, review these instances and note improvements or setbacks.

 

#### 3. Weekly Reviews

 

**Example:**

- **Achievements:**

  "This week, I successfully took charge of my morning routine and felt more productive."

 

- **Challenges:**

  "I struggled to stay proactive during unexpected work crises."

 

- **Adjustments:**

  "Next week, I'll set reminders to pause and plan before reacting to unforeseen issues."

 

#### 4. Monthly Summaries

 

**Example:**

- **Overall Progress:**

  "I've become more proactive in my personal life but need to work on it professionally."

 

- **Habit Strengthening:**

  "Morning routines are now proactive without needing reminders."

 

- **Areas for Growth:**

  "Focus on staying proactive during high-stress situations at work."

 

#### 5. Reflection and Goal Setting

 

**Quarterly Reflections:**

- **Example:**

  "Reflecting on the past three months, I've seen significant improvement in my ability to take initiative, but there's still room to grow in maintaining a proactive mindset under pressure."

 

**Long-term Goals:**

- "By the end of the year, I aim to be consistently proactive in both personal and professional settings, handling stress with a calm and proactive approach."

 

### Setting Up Your Notebook

 

1. **Choose Your Medium:**

   - Digital: Use apps like Notion, Evernote, or OneNote.

   - Physical: Get a dedicated journal or notebook.

 

2. **Customize Sections:**

   - Use tabs or sections to divide the notebook according to the structure outlined.

 

3. **Consistency:**

   - Set aside time each day/week for filling out your notebook.

   - Use prompts and templates to make it easier to reflect and plan.

[Ayham]

Hey, look into PARA, a digital system, you have 4 folders:

1. Projects: projects you are working towards with a deadline (ideally you should be creating small projects, like one week duration, so that each week you are finishing projects, like try generating 10 projects during your next week)
2. Areas: stuff that are on going in your life and you have a responsibility for (health, finance, meditation, fitness, journal, etc.)
3. Resources: notes on books, articles, videos, on anything, whether it is personal development, philosophy, hsitory, marketing, etc. you can make a section for each
4. Archives: the inactive categories from previous folders, projects you finished, areas that aren't in your life anymore, resources you lost interest in, etc.

Digital is better in my opinion because you can never lose it

For me, I have a digital system for information gathering, summaries, noting insights, etc.
And I track my life with a physical daily journal

[Ramanujan]

obsidian is the best digital note taking system

[Pox]

11 hours ago, Ayham said:

Hey, look into PARA, a digital system, you have 4 folders:

1. Projects: projects you are working towards with a deadline (ideally you should be creating small projects, like one week duration, so that each week you are finishing projects, like try generating 10 projects during your next week)
2. Areas: stuff that are on going in your life and you have a responsibility for (health, finance, meditation, fitness, journal, etc.)
3. Resources: notes on books, articles, videos, on anything, whether it is personal development, philosophy, hsitory, marketing, etc. you can make a section for each
4. Archives: the inactive categories from previous folders, projects you finished, areas that aren't in your life anymore, resources you lost interest in, etc.

Digital is better in my opinion because you can never lose it

For me, I have a digital system for information gathering, summaries, noting insights, etc.
And I track my life with a physical daily journal

so pretty much a digital commonplace book? I'm talking about a system specifically for getting the most out of self-help books tho, and right now i'm trying to do that with 7 habits book.

[Pox]

8 hours ago, Ramanujan said:

obsidian is the best digital note taking system

better than onenote?

[Ayham]

1 hour ago, Pox said:

so pretty much a digital commonplace book? I'm talking about a system specifically for getting the most out of self-help books tho, and right now i'm trying to do that with 7 habits book.

Yes, you can make a summary of the book, focus on writing stuff in your own words, 

You can make an outline, or write whatever you feel is important 

I've done this for a lot of books, I usually finish a chapter, while underlining on the book, placing a star near main points, and either writing my thoughts on sticky note, or a seperare paper.

Understanding the structure of the book is key, the author always presents with main points, backed up by supporting points, focus on pinpointing the main points.

When i finish the chapter, I go back, make the main points as bullet points, then add the details from memory as sub bullet points.

And in the end,  you can make an action plan.

But in my experience, and this may differ in your case, this amount of note taking doesn't really help with self help books, since most self help books are very repetitive, nowadays i focus on just writing down my personal insights from the book and actually making an action plan.

 Check out this YouTube channel, you might like it: 

https://youtu.be/Ls2ynrMv10A?si=OdttPO9WfRvr_6PP

 

 

And yes, obsidian is better than onenote.

Edited May 31 by Ayham

[Ramanujan]

7 hours ago, Pox said:

better than onenote?

yes . way better than onenote . its not even a comparison

[Basman]

On 01/06/2024 at 7:58 AM, Ramanujan said:

yes . way better than onenote . its not even a comparison

How is it better exactly. I might migrate depending.

Is it easy to back-up your data into local files? How do the features compare?

[Ramanujan]

6 hours ago, Basman said:

How is it better exactly. I might migrate depending.

Is it easy to back-up your data into local files? How do the features compare?

notes are stored in .txt. So a even a notpad can open obsidian notes

Anything can open obsidian notes

If tomorrow obsidian goes bankrup or something like that , we still can open the notes with other softwares

 

 

It is easy to backup to other devices as everything is like a folder

U have a folder and everything is in it , so easy to backup

 

UI is very good

The experience of using it is smooth

 

 

 

Overall is is a far better experience than one note or any other note taking system

[Ramanujan]

After using it for long , I have no complaints of anything except cloud sync which cost money

[Exystem]

@Ramanujan

you can even use SyncThing as a free app to avoid spending money
There is an analogue for PC too

[zurew]

8 hours ago, Ramanujan said:

notes are stored in .txt. So a even a notpad can open obsidian notes

Anything can open obsidian notes

If tomorrow obsidian goes bankrup or something like that , we still can open the notes with other softwares

 

 

It is easy to backup to other devices as everything is like a folder

U have a folder and everything is in it , so easy to backup

 

UI is very good

The experience of using it is smooth

 

 

 

Overall is is a far better experience than one note or any other note taking system

+ there are a bunch of plugins that others have created that you can easily download and use

[Ramanujan]

6 minutes ago, zurew said:

+ there are a bunch of plugins that others have created that you can easily download and use

Yeah

This

[Ramanujan]

26 minutes ago, Exystem said:

@Ramanujan

you can even use SyncThing as a free app to avoid spending money
There is an analogue for PC too

What

There are ways to sync ?

I see

[Basman]

@Ramanujan  Do you use the free version?

Also, can you seemingly insert images into obsidian notes?

Edited June 4 by Basman

[Ramanujan]

6 hours ago, Basman said:

@Ramanujan  Do you use the free version?

 

yes

 

6 hours ago, Basman said:

 

Also, can you seemingly insert images into obsidian notes?

yes

[toasty7718]

Obsidian has a one-note type thing built into it (excalidraw and/or canvas), not to mention.

Its community is amazing and there are thousands of free plugins to choose from to supercharge your thinking. Highly recommend obsidian myself.

But yeah, me and @Ayham use the PARA method and see similar results. I changed mine up a bit and label the four main folders as three main ones: 

1. Inbox (all new notes go here for further sorting) 

2. Resources (all my 100+ notes go here, unsorted, with tags)

3. Personal (all my thousands of journal entries go here, my projects, areas, and I sort by month for current year like June 2024 and for previous years I have 2023. I also put goals and other miscellaneous personal items here)

4. Home (it's not a folder, it's a note. It has links to my library which uses something called DATAVIEW which is like, it is a table that automatically makes links to whatever tags you set it to. Like I have a table which sorts through my 100+ notes and finds only #dating-advice ones and puts all the links to those notes there)

Hope that helps! 

Edited June 13 by toasty7718