How To Take Smart Notes (3 methods no one's talking about)

Vicky, thank you for another insightful video - I wish your channel existed 15 years ago when I was doing my MBA. Thansk to your hard work, anyone who watches your channel is able to significantly improve their thinking, decision making and performance. Brilliant work!

Well explained. Most people only ever explain a system from an overview perspective, but fail to provide simple examples to walk the listener's mind through the actual process. Thanks for do the little bit extra!

Also when taking notes what I find helps is to reword the content. So if Atomic Habits says "You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems," I would put that in my notes as "The real limitation to reaching your goals is the systems you employ and not the ambition of the goals themselves"

but i read to relax and be a potato 🥔

Everything about this video is exemplary: The audio The photography The transitions The structure The content The description, with links and timestamps.

I have recently noticed in my notes in college I wasn’t actually absorbing the material. During lectures I would try to write down every little thing. Now I just wrote down the most important pieces, go home and piece everything together adding in more details and connecting the whole picture. One limitation was the medium I was using. I cannot use paper to connect these vast ideas because I only have so much space, but with Microsoft one-note I have a large amount of sosvd and freedom to put things wherever. I add in visuals, explain concepts then give myself and example then a visual of the example. For complex ideas in physics where particles and many forces and charges are at play this comes in handy.

- Q/E/C method (Question, Evidence, Conclusion) > Identify question > "Dash" evidence excerpts > "Dot" conclusions/ideas - Compass of Zettelkasten Thinking > North = Origin > West = "Synonym" > East = "Antonym" > South = Purpose/Future

Smart notes about smart notes Always opt to write actively, not passively, try to summarize the author's idea in your own way. QEC Method Q - question ( use ? to mark the questions ) E - evidence ( use - to mark the evidences ) C - conclusion ( use . to mark the conclusion ) Atomic smart notes Only working with isolated facts is very tricky and can lead you to forgetfulness in your learning journey. However, if you consider the facts and subjects interconnected with one another in an holistic way, it gets easier to connect the dots. Try to resume and interconnect everything together, rearrange them with the compass of Zettelkasten. You get the primary idea and you put it in the middle, north is where the idea comes from, the origins, on west you'll put all that's similiar to the primary idea, east is what competes and opposes and south can be to where the idea leads you.

I have never heard of the compass thinking but the way you broke it down and used examples from the book was mind opening!! Very, very great video :)

This is just a pure gold, combining it with the "Feynman Technique" you can almost learn anything you want.

I'm a visual thinker and can therefore really struggle with learning quickly because of my ADHD short-term memory preventing me from being able to organise new information in my head before I forget it, so these tips are a godsend. Also, the way this video is visually formatted actually really helps to get my head around ideas like this - I bet Vicky is also a visual thinker

I cannot fully express how grateful i am for you sharing this for free in the way that you do. Ive spent my whole life suffering from mental illness that held my mind hostage. Im 27 and finally getting the help i need to heal and my brain is on FIRE (in a good way). Ive felt so overwhelmed by all of my thoughts and ideas that can finally come through. Ive watched 5 of your videos so far and now i have hope that my thoughts and ideas can be put to use and wont just plague me. I cant wait to start putting things together and creating with my ideas. Thank you thank you thank you

This is probably the best video on note taking I've come across. Succinct and to the point, with some great ideas for linking notes and making them memorable.

I always get so excited to see new uploads from you; I'm really interested in the way that you think and I love that you share your learning with us all and try to explain it in a way that takes the heaviness out of the concepts. I have ADHD so these tips are especially helpful for me in managing the issues that come with that, especially as I ramp up to the next phase of my career. I'm about to order some index cards and try this out. What's interesting is that I'm also taking a data visualization class and I could see how all of this connects together.. we're trying to understand what is going on in our own brains and helping it along when the proper connections aren't made.

This is great advice. I've been using the QEC method since I read Cal Newport's book. I was still confused by the method after reading it but you just made it much clearer. Bravo, you have earned a sub🙌

I'm only on the 2nd point and I already know this video is the best Ive seen on note taking. Concise and strong methods. The most important I've seen. So insightful. Thanks for this!

Great video! The idea of breaking down QEC into atomic notes is genius. I write atomic notes. But adding the idea of QEC definitely helps to identify valuable ideas from the readings. I will try to apply it. Thanks a lot for the sharing!

This video is a gift which I have looked for all day. Didn't waste my time on those 15 other videos because I found my way here. Thank you so much.

I really appreciate this video! Thank you. It randomly popped up on my recommended page. I have a ZettelKasten but never broke it down by Q/E/C. I did write the notes in my own words. Also, the ZettelKasten Compass was a great idea. I did put opposing ideas next to my notes but this was great, especially with the examples.

This is concise and brilliant! Super high quality and well researched, thanks so much : )