Take better notes, by hand

Source: Hacker News

Researching a topic is hard, because not only are you trying to puzzle together the causes and effects of a given problem or historical series of events, you’re also looking out carefully for leads and new threads to pull. Falling down rabbit holes is common—and encouraged—but eventually you need to pull yourself back out and collect your thoughts. What’s more, if you’re reading books you don’t own, you’ll need some way to record the interesting bits to recall later.

Of course, there are a lot of different ways to take notes and organize your thoughts. I’ve settled on this four‑part system, organized from least important to most important:

• Pinboard – links to PDFs & webpages + full‑text search.
• Books.app – the iOS/macOS app for importing PDFs & organizing them into Collections.
• Book Tracker – an app that’s great for saving long quotes via OCR.
• Good, old‑fashioned paper notebooks.

Quote captured via OCR via Book Tracker – Photo: mine

While the first three options might seem obvious or even a bit boring (and that’s partly by design), the last one is the one I use most extensively and is by far the most useful. Writing by hand not only helps me remember and recall information, but also engages me more deeply with the topic. Paper notebooks are less distracting than digital tools, can be used anywhere there’s ambient light, and provide a tangible progress bar that physically takes up space on a shelf.

Paper notebooks as a knowledge base have significant drawbacks, which is why I combine them with good, old‑fashioned note‑taking techniques to mitigate those downsides.

How to Take Notes

Page‑numbered index at the front – Photo: mine

All through school I was a terrible note‑taker. I basically just wrote down whatever the teacher/professor did on the board and then never went back to read them. When I decided to start taking physical notes again to collect my thoughts while reading, I needed a better method.

Basic Practices

1. Date every page and entry.
   Apply dates to everything you write, not just notes. It may seem silly, but it works.

2. Add page numbers and an index.

   • If the notebook lacks page numbers, add them (usually only the odd numbers on the right side to cut the work in half).
   • Reserve a few pages at the front or back for an index. Record new books, topic changes, interesting quotes, etc., along with their page numbers.

3. Highlight useful parts.
   Mark passages that stand out so you can locate them quickly later.

Managing Limited Space

Paper notebooks aren’t infinite. When you return to a topic after researching something else, your notes may be scattered throughout the book, and mid‑session thoughts can get lost.

Notes on the right, follow‑up thoughts on the left – Photo: mine

To address this, I follow a simple layout:

• Write on the right‑most (odd‑numbered) page in pen. Record quotes, observations, and stream‑of‑thought notes.
• Use the left (even‑numbered) page for marginal notes, sketches, or “out‑of‑band” entries in pencil. This also helps the index: an even number automatically signals an auxiliary note.

Organizing Multiple Notebooks

I maintain several notebooks, each dedicated to a specific purpose (e.g., notes on books, random thoughts, writing ideas, research projects). Although this creates many physical volumes, the combination of dated entries, page numbers, and a front index makes locating quotes, ideas, and references effortless.

The result has been an expanded mental workspace, and anecdotally the outcomes have been promising.