How much do you remember from what you read?

Probably less than you think. We constantly consume information, but if we don’t actively process it, it fades away within days. Taking notes is not just about recording ideas—it’s a key tool for deep learning and an enabler for generating your own ideas.

According to Sönke Ahrens, author of How to Take Smarter Notes, there are different types of notes, mainly based on the Zettelkasten method:

📌 Bibliographic Notes – Notes we take to remember key concepts from a source along with the author’s name.

📌 Fleeting Notes – Quick annotations that remind us of an action to take later or an idea that needs further development.

📌 Permanent Notes – A refined composition of a new idea, formed with the help of the previous two types of notes. These are the ones that truly shape our personal knowledge system. They are the notes we should revisit when looking for inspiration or practical application in our daily work.

Yes, this process takes extra time when reading a book or an article—first to capture important notes, then to refine them through reflection, questioning, and connecting them to real-life experiences or projects. But the benefits of having a living note-taking system that supports you in applying and sharing knowledge are invaluable being the most important the hability to interconnect ideas like naturally our brain does and this is where the Zettelkasten method stands out: each new idea is linked to existing knowledge, creating a deeper learning experience.

Practically we can do it through modern app as the famous Obsidian but we can also do it by tagging and linking notes on basic note taking systems like Apple Notes or One Note.

Remember: You need an effective note-taking system to truly benefit from what you read or listen to. If you never revisit your notes, they become useless.

🔍 Do you invest time in retaining what you read? Let’s discuss!