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How to Take Smart Notes summary
How to Take Smart Notes
- Writing is the real work. Reading, thinking and taking notes all serve whatever you'll eventually write.
- Use three kinds of notes: quick fleeting notes, short literature notes on what you read, and permanent notes in your own words.
- One idea per permanent note, written so it makes sense on its own months later.
- Link each new note to the ones it relates to. Over time, the links surface ideas you didn't know you had.
- Don't start from a blank page. Look at clusters of notes that already exist, and your next draft is half built.
How can better notes make writing and thinking easier?
Take fewer, better notes in your own words, link them together, and let your writing grow out of them.
Actionable
- Write one permanent note today on the best idea from something you read or watched, in your own words.
- Before you save any note, ask which existing note it connects to and add that link.
- Pick a cluster of five related notes and turn them into a short post or email.
What readers say
- Fans say the book is why anyone knows about the method at all, and it gives the foundational theory more than tool instructions.
- Several readers say it repeats the same points and felt slow by the halfway mark.
- Experienced users say it only makes sense if you start practicing early, ideally a short practice piece after the opening chapters.
- Some readers say the method finally clicked with physical index cards, after the digital version confused them.
Quick answer
Our summary of How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens, in our own words.
What 125x is: 125x is a web app at 125x.app. You connect your YouTube subscriptions, and it gives you a feed of the latest videos from the channels you follow, each with a summary: a verdict, the 5 key takeaways, and the spoiler, plus Actionable and Lessons tabs with more tips. You read that and decide what's actually worth opening.
Open 125xWho it's for
Students, writers, researchers, and anyone whose notes pile up and never turn into anything.
Tips from readers, plus one of ours
- Start practicing before you finish. Experienced users say read the introduction and first part, try writing a short piece from your notes, then come back for the later chapters.
- Paraphrase instead of copying. Writing an idea in your own words is where the understanding happens, and copied quotes feel familiar without being understood.
- Don't migrate all your old notes. Bring old notes in only when you need them.
- Try index cards for a week if the apps confuse you. Some readers say the physical version made the principles obvious.
- Agree or disagree: one long-time user said it was better to skip the books and build the method by trial and error. We partly agree. Practice teaches more than reading, and the book still saves you from the most common early mistakes.
- Our unusual tip: use it on videos. After a YouTube video you actually learned from, write one permanent note with the single idea you'd keep, in your own words, and link it to one note you already have. A 125x summary gives you the 5 takeaways, so picking the one that matters to you takes a minute.
About this summary
This summary follows the same shape as a 125x summary: a verdict, 5 takeaways, and an Actionable section. 125x is a web app that does this for the latest videos from the YouTube channels you follow, with a verdict, 5 takeaways, the spoiler, and Actionable and Lessons tabs. The spoiler is the answer to the title, the same thing 125x gives you for clickbait video titles. More in book summaries.
FAQ: questions people ask
What is How to Take Smart Notes about?
Writing is the real work. Reading, thinking and taking notes all serve whatever you'll eventually write. Use three kinds of notes: quick fleeting notes, short literature notes on what you read, and permanent notes in your own words.
Is How to Take Smart Notes worth reading?
Our verdict is good value given. The book that made the slip-box method famous. It explains why the system works more than how to set it up in an app, and it only clicks once you try it.
Who should read How to Take Smart Notes?
Students, writers, researchers, and anyone whose notes pile up and never turn into anything.
What's the main idea of How to Take Smart Notes?
Take fewer, better notes in your own words, link them together, and let your writing grow out of them.
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- Every 125x guide
125x is a web app at 125x.app that turns your YouTube subscriptions into a feed with a summary on every video, plus Actionable and Lessons tabs with more tips, so you can see what's worth opening before you spend the time.
125x is made by Blake Labs Inc. 125x is not made by YouTube or Google.