School is something everyone can agree on as important in one's life. Learning to read, write, and spell is necessary if you want any type of career. However, learning to learn the way you were taught is something left to be desired. Over the past couple of years, I've taken more notes about all the books I've read and social media posts I've perused than I have then in my entire educational career. I've learned what actual valuable note-taking is, and it's not just copying down information to remember it only to forget it after the final exam at the end of the semester.
I've come to find that note-taking is meant to make you forget information more than recalling it. Tiago Forte said it best:
“When even highly intelligent students fail in their studies, it’s most often because they cease to see the meaning in what they were supposed to learn, are unable to make a connection to their personal goal or lack the ability to control their own studies autonomously and on their own terms.”
In this age of information, memorization of facts is quickly becoming useless. I know from experience, I remember a lot of what high school made me memorize in the late 90’s, Teacher’s telling me you need to learn the right way to math because you won’t ever always have a calculator in your pocket. In only a few short years I’d be searching on the internet for anything I needed or wanted to know. We can now look up anything we want in a matter of seconds from the phone that is always in our pockets.
What's going to be more important is the ability to make connections with our earned knowledge and experience. Information is different than knowledge, and you've felt the difference many times before. In a class you didn't want to be in, you took a test and failed because you couldn't remember the facts you needed because they were irrelevant to your likes and desires. It's funny how well we remember our most cherished memories so vividly, yet we never recall an algebraic equation need for one of our tests.
One of the best habits I've cultivated lately is to start a Daybook. As Leonardo da Vinci did, we should all start a notebook where, when you feel the need, you write whatever ideas and notes are in your head at the time. By doing this, you'll be able to collect your thoughts and come up with inspiration to achieve things you never thought were possible. Getting you thinking outside of your brain and onto paper is one of the most satisfying ways to think, and you can recall that information 10 times better by writing it down.
As technology advances, we'll be able to use AI and other tools to help store and organize our personal notes and insights. I’m testing a lot of products that do this exact thing for me. I’ll report my findings in some later email, but for now, the best way I’ve learned to organize my notes is to not do it at all, at least, not immediately. I write what notes I need at the time and take some time later to organize things like I should. This leaves me with the ability to move on once I jotted a note down, and usually revisiting it weeks later helps me both to remember the note better and actually do something with it.
Make the note taking as simple as possible with the ability to complete the note as soon as possible. You Monkey Squirrel brain will thank you, and it may lead you to building that Business you always wanted to. Either way, I’m rooting for you!
Til’ Next Week!