A review by milandeep
How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers by Sönke Ahrens

4.0

How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens presents a very different take on taking notes. He utilizes the concept of Zettelkasten (German for index cards) developed by Niklas Luhmann, a German sociologist. Luhmann was a prolific writer and he gave all the credit of his new ideas to his 'idea-box'. Luhmann's note-card system is different from that of others because of the way he organized the information, intending it not just for the next book he wanted to publish, but for a life time of working and publishing. He used index cards, in a standard format, giving each a unique number and connecting one card to another by using context instead of predefined categories. The unique numbers can be expanded in any order as required. The system is very flexible but a little difficult to adopt when you start with it. It can be a great system if someone can make it a habit.

Sönke Ahrens discusses many ideas in the book which can be useful even if you are not using this note-taking system. As he says: “Learning, thinking, and writing should not be about accumulating knowledge, but about becoming a different person with a different way of thinking. This is done by questioning one’s own thinking routines in light of new experiences and facts.”