About Note-taking From Books

[Rachityczny]

Hey there!

I want to read daily - at least half an hour of self-help daily (its not a lot, but consistency is my main goal). The main reasons is to learn to finish books, find interesting ideas and techniques to improve myself and develop a big picture overview of the field of self-development.

For a couple of days I`ve tried out taking notes when reading. It turned out my pace slowed down dramatically- i go through 5 pages instead of 20. I feel like I have made almost no progress after starting to take notes, which is dangerous for motivation and long-term results of the habit.

Do you take notes when reading? What is your pace (compared to standard reading) when doing so? Do you use any kind of technique or a thought process that makes it faster? Do you think that it is worth to take notes in my situation?

Thanks for all your insights!

David

[studentofthegame]

Personally i have only just started taking notes from books. That has largely been from books i am re-reading for the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time. And generally after time has passed between reads and i have new experiences and a new persepctive, in which case one line in a book has a whole new meaning. I’m finding that’s the time when i make a note somewhere. I’m also experimenting with writing or underlining in the actual books themselves. 

I don’t really believe in speed reading or worrying about how long a book takes. There are several books where i’ve stopped at a certain point and decided that’s enough for now. Maybe I need to digest what i’ve read, act on it. Perhaps the next section is a section too far at that point.

I used to buzz off of reading motivational books one after the other without taking action and doing the work. Now i am focusing on doing the work before i move onto the next book. Overall i’d say don’t pressure yourself too much over how long it takes to finish reading a book. I think it’s more important to have one or two takehome messages and start working on them rather than taking large quantities of notes. But then again, everyone is different and you’ll find what works for you.

[Patrick_9931]

On 18/4/2019 at 8:06 PM, Rachityczny said:

Hey there!

I want to read daily - at least half an hour of self-help daily (its not a lot, but consistency is my main goal). The main reasons is to learn to finish books, find interesting ideas and techniques to improve myself and develop a big picture overview of the field of self-development.

For a couple of days I`ve tried out taking notes when reading. It turned out my pace slowed down dramatically- i go through 5 pages instead of 20. I feel like I have made almost no progress after starting to take notes, which is dangerous for motivation and long-term results of the habit.

Do you take notes when reading? What is your pace (compared to standard reading) when doing so? Do you use any kind of technique or a thought process that makes it faster? Do you think that it is worth to take notes in my situation?

Thanks for all your insights!

David

Hey David, how is it going now? Are you taking notes or not? I'm asking you this because I'm having the exact same doubt

[Hello from Russia]

Start digesting stuff independently and make your own insights off of material - you'll find you'll need way less notes. I generally seek for core ideas and lessons, I generally don't care about stories when author is telling you how he went to the bar with his friend for a bear. Sadly, such stories are usually 70-80% of the content in nowadays book. But if you're cognizant of these, you can just me mindful when you're reading and don't pay much attention to these. You should be like "Ok, here the guy is just rumping up the word count so his book can be 200 pages instead of just 20-30". It doesn't mean, though, that these 20-30 pages wouldn't contain some brilliant ideas . In a sense you're reading to get these exact juicy things, not really to hear an author's bar story