Card box note-taking with high productivity

In the past few weeks, I have been listening to Mr. Wally’s sharing after learning from the ATD 2022. It was so intensive that my mind was a little knotted. In addition, there were a lot of important points. If I wanted to write my experience, I had to spend a lot of time integrating the master-level content (^// /^).

[Remarks: ATD is a world-class international annual meeting, mainly to share the latest trends and developments of global human capital, and to share innovative practices]

In the blink of an eye, last night (6/3) had already finished 4/5 of the sharing course🤐, the theme of the fourth week happened to be "peeping the relationship between the brain and learning" that I am very interested in, learning about the brain and learning The relationship is nothing more than divided into three items:

(1) conceptualizing (conceptulizing a task, short-term memory);

(2) Execute (Performing a task, working memory);

(3) Mastering in learning (mastering a task; long-term memory).

However, how to make what you learn to be effectively stored in the long-term memory area, the key action is to continuously retrieve it in the working memory area and accumulate it into your own schema. As long as the memory is retrieved enough times, the brain will The content will be transferred to long-term memory, just as the shema is properly placed in the storage room.

I am deeply touched by this experience. For example, if I am very good at or have more experience in the subject, as long as I recall the content, it can be directly displayed as an icon. It is easy for others to absorb and understand.

And this brain learning mechanism happened to coincide with the "Card Box Notes" that I wanted to share this week. If I think about it, I might as well write and compare these two topics together.

You will know that "Card Box Notes" was heard from Vaki's podcast "What to Read Next", in which Vaki also introduced this book in two episodes, which aroused my interest. The card box notes are different from general notes. Or what is wrong with atomic notes? Do you need any special tools? The principle of using card box notes?

Below I will probably follow my curiosity and analyze it in depth for you:

What are Card Box Notes?

The author of the book, Sonke Ahrens, was inspired by a German sociologist, Niklas Luhmann. Speaking of Professor Luhmann, he is really amazing. He has published a total of 70 books and more than 400 papers in his life. His research topics also span multiple disciplines, from sociology, biology, computer science, etc., and there are so many All from the card box notes he invented.

The card box note-taking method is operated in the same way as its theme naming. It is mainly to write down meaningful content or keywords through cards, only one knowledge point at a time, and you need to think about the connection between this knowledge point and what you have learned in the past , and then Put in boxes of different categories. This approach has several advantages:

1. Improve the motivation of writing

Let's try to think about it, ask you to write 3 abstracts of about 100-200 words, Jinghua or an article of 3000-4000 words at a time, which one will be more motivated to write?? It must be the former, because you spend a single time The time and energy spent is relatively small.

2. Increase the efficiency of brain thinking

Because the principle of writing cards is to write down a knowledge point obtained from the book, and think about whether it is related to the content learned in the past, and then connect in series, which will improve the efficiency of our reading, and also gain instant access from it. Feedback, that is, when you finish reading a book, you can easily condense at least one of the reflections you get from the book.

3. Improve the flexibility of content chaining

If each card treats him as a small building block with independent content, sometimes it is only necessary to replace a few of them, or add a few, and then change the order in the middle, which may be a new theme and content.

Just like when I was learning writing when I was a child, the teacher said that writing essays should be started, inherited, transferred, and combined; but later, when I read a university, or even came into contact with thesis writing, I discovered that the logic of foreigners and our writing is the opposite. Instead, the first sentence is to break the question.

At this time, if you use a card box notebook, you can easily arrange different logical arrangements.

The secret to using card box notes is

The simpler the better, to ensure that you can focus on your thinking throughout your overall workflow.

Principles for preparing and recording notes using card boxes?

The author mentioned in the article that when he started writing, he focused on the necessary things and cut out unnecessary complexities. Therefore, you can prepare a writing tool - writing toolbox before writing.

What is a writing toolbox

1. Tools that can write: General paper and pen are enough. According to my own habit, I will use a cloud notebook (EndNote), so that the thoughts that flash in my mind can be saved and recorded (remind to write the classification as much as possible, or use keywords easy to find later).
2. Software that can manage bibliography: This book recommends a Roam research bibliography management system , and everyone who is interested can study it.
3. Card Case: Can use both physical cards and online software
4. Editor: such as word, or on what platform

Four basic principles of note-taking

1. Write down the important things

Before you start writing, you must first clarify your mentality about writing, because doing one more thing will inevitably squeeze the time and space for other things. However, even if you are desperately reading and collecting information, you can only improve through writing. With the height and breadth of reading and thinking, you will have the opportunity to connect the things you read into different series and transform them into new things.

Of course, many people who are still ignorant about writing will ask, what is important 😁?

The answer is: write down your own insights about the data collected and what knowledge it brings to you.

2. Remember the principle of simplicity

Before reading this book, my own note-taking habits were mostly categorized and sorted by topic and publication year. Although at first glance it seems organized; however, when I start thinking about content writing, I always find it difficult to organize.

But the card box note-taking method is to remember the key ideas at the moment of reading, which can be said to be inspiration notes; or to record necessary content information, called permanent notes; in addition, to record content related to a specific project plan , called project notes.

By simply classifying these three types and saving them separately, we can continuously achieve a clustering effect among these three types. Pairing generates different new ideas.

3. Don't worry no one is starting from scratch

When we think about certain topics or have problems that we want to solve, the data we need actually exist in our past experience, or what we have read and learned in the past is just stored in a certain part of our brain. Just organize the data logically.

 Therefore, the author asserts: "Writing is not a linear development, but a cyclic process".

4. Let the purposeful process let you be carried away

I don’t know if you have any experience. When we can continue to challenge and succeed every time we encounter difficulties in the work process, the sense of achievement or satisfaction in the middle is unparalleled beauty, and such positive kinetic energy will also make us not. Afraid of every challenge and leap.

This is actually the same as the principle mentioned in a book I read before: the flywheel effect . As long as the core key to start the axle is found, the flywheel will be driven naturally.

The feedback loop from experiencing yourself getting better is not only motivating, but also the key to learning the process of anything. As Dr. Carol Duvik, author of the winning mentality, said, people who will continue to seek or welcome positive and negative feedback is the so-called growth mindset, which is the level of thinking that creates sustainable long-term success.

However, having a growth mindset is not enough, it also requires

"Building a learning system that generates cycles in a practical way."

That is to say, in each section of study, pause moderately, it is suitable to look back at what you have learned in the past, and write your own understanding of the content in your own words. Through continuous deliberate practice, you will naturally be able to distinguish which ones are. The content is relatively important, and the content is relatively unimportant.

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What is the difference between card box notes and traditional notes and bullet notes?

I have roughly classified these three items as follows:

In short, card box notes are more suitable for writing materials. By writing a little bit each time, we can continuously accumulate content nutrients; and the content of such notes can also stimulate us to think about what is most worthy of being left and sharing. the key of.

Are you curious about this note-taking method? Let's learn from reading and try it together~

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