How to Take Smart Notes
Sönke Ahrens on the slip-box method behind Niklas Luhmann's output
Sönke Ahrens explains the zettelkasten, or slip-box, that the sociologist Niklas Luhmann used to publish at an implausible rate. You write each idea out in your own words on its own note, link it to the notes it relates to, and never file it under a topic. Ahrens argues that writing is not the step that follows thinking but the thing that does the thinking, and that a working slip-box removes the blank page entirely, because there is always something in it to argue with. Students and academics are the intended readers, though most of the people who cite it are neither. The prose is dry. Months of daily notes go by before the method repays anything.
Who backs it
Sorted by strength of stance
- Tiago ForteRecommends
Productivity writer · Building a Second Brain
Of everything he has read on the subject he rates this the most useful, and says it broke his usual way of summarizing a book, because there was almost no filler to strip out. He was struck by how closely it matched what he had worked out on his own.
Source: fortelabs.com: How To Take Smart Notes, 10 principles
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under productivity or focus.
- Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Deep Work
The case that uninterrupted concentration is a rare and valuable skill
Backed by 6 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 5 recommend it, 1 have discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's 1990 study of total absorption and what makes it happen
Backed by 2 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 2 recommend it, 0 have discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life
Penguin Press
Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2023 book on vision, work, failure and giving back
Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Building a Second Brain
The case for one external note store, and four steps for running it
Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Clear Thinking
Parrish on the ordinary moments where a decision is really made
Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Effortless
Make the most essential activities the easiest ones to do
Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
Book entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.