The graphic shows the high-level structure of our notes. The right shows an abstraction of what we've written so that you can see the high-level structure of our HQ&A Notes.įocus your attention on the right. Below you'll see a sample of the handwritten notes we took while reading Gates' book on avoiding climate disaster. Let's start with the result and work backwards.
#Quick notes on a book how to
We'll provide an abridged recap of the HQ&A note-taking technique below, but if you'd like a full refresher, please see the debut article on the topic: HQ&A: Take Better Notes When Reading Non-Fiction.įor illustration purposes, we'll be featuring the notes we took while reading Bill Gates' 2021 book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. If you need something faster, as you're just learning a topic, or because slowing down to take thoughtful notes isn't preferable or practical, then our Jump Notes technique will be a better fit. That is, you're reading something that is honestly worth distilling and understanding on a deeper level for the sake of your studies, work, or intellectual curiosity. Being the knife in our knife and fork note-taking toolkit, the HQ&A technique is for when narrow depth is a priority. It nudges you to focus and think deeper when reading, as there's nowhere else to spread your attention.īefore that, it's worth checking that the note-taking technique aligns with your goals. Second, computers offer us thousands of functions, including thousands of temptations and disruptions. įirst, sitting at a computer desk while reading is uncomfortable. While there's evidence to support we remember handwritten notes best, that's not why we recommend it. Taking notes on physical non-fiction books is best done by hand. Test drive our recipe for taking effective handwritten HQ&A Notes using pen and paper or the Post-It note variation. You'll also find you can understand, retain and apply what you're reading more effectively over the long term. Become aware of how digital note-taking promotes shallow thinking when reading physical non-fiction books, so you can approach your reading more thoughtfully and joyously.This is part two in our note-taking series.