How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking

by Sönke Ahrens, Nigel Fyfe (Narrator)

This is the second, revised and expanded edition. The first edition was published under the slightly longer title "How to Take Smart Notes. One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking—for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers".

The key to good and efficient writing lies in the intelligent organization of ideas and notes. This audiobook helps students, academics, and other knowledge workers to get more done, write intelligent texts, and learn for the long run. It teaches you how to take smart notes and ensure they bring you and your projects forward.

The Take Smart Notes principle is based on established psychological insight and draws from a tried and tested note-taking the Zettelkasten. This is the first comprehensive guide and description of this system in English, and not only does it explain how it works, but also why. It suits students and academics in the social sciences and humanities, nonfiction writers and others who are in the business of reading, thinking and writing.

Instead of wasting your time searching for your notes, quotes or references, you can focus on what really thinking, understanding and developing new ideas in writing.

Dr. Sönke Ahrens is a writer and researcher in the field of education and social science. He is the author of the award-winning book "Experiment and Forms of World Disclosure" (Springer).

Since its first publication, How to Take Smart Notes has sold more than 100,000 copies and has been translated into seven languages.

Genres: Self Help, Writing, Nonfiction, Productivity

Audible Audio

Published February 19, 2025

Reviews

[Victor Herrera Guzmán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very general book, that talks about the Zettelkästen method. It mainly focuses on the importance of it, a good network of internal ideas, full comprehension and translation of what's read, rather than, the classification method itself.

I think this is highly important, since it remarks on the importance of having a slip-box, if you would like to have an easier writing process, and how the customization and interconnection of ideas, will rather help you to have too much to write about, instead of just a few topics.

You can find more information about the classification method and some ideas in YouTube or Google, but it could be useful if the book would have gone deeper around this topic which is also important .

Must read for people doing research, thesis or having a better classified information/notes/ideas of what's been learned.

[Ricardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The topic of note-taking is intriguing, regardless of whether one is a student or not. At first glance, the method presented by the author may seem convoluted. However, as the book progresses—particularly after the halfway mark—it all comes together, revealing a system that is surprisingly simple.

The key idea is that note-taking should not consist of merely summarizing articles or books (or quoting passages from them). Instead, it should focus on capturing the insights generated through reading, in the context of previous ideas stored in the slip-box system (or *Zettelkasten*, in German).

In the final quarter of the book, some chapters tend to reiterate earlier concepts without adding significantly to the overall understanding of the method.

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Let me know if you'd like to adapt this into an academic reflection or tie it back to your qualitative research interests—I think there are some fascinating intersections around personal knowledge management and sensemaking. Want to dig into that?

[Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone like me who is usually very skeptical of self-help books, especially for tangible things like writing, I was expecting to be disappointed, but I was proven wrong.

I do not remember when was the last time I read a self-help book where (1) the anecdotes are not excessive, (2) the messages are straight to the point and concise, and (3) the exposition is not wasteful, and (4) the examples are very relatable and unambiguous. The strategies, based on Luhmann's Zettelkasten, are very concrete and adaptable to modern digital technology. I managed to have a skeletal version on Notion once I read the book, and I am starting to experiment with it. Since all my issues with note-taking was spelt out in the book, I have nothing to lose even if this does not work out in the end.

To first-order approximation, the key is to have a note-taking system that does not attempt to be a library or an archive, but rather a way to simulate how we recall memory under some (random) stimulus. The idea then is to systematically build this up into a system where ideas generation are induced by having ideas appear with connections to others, where the connections are actively built through (back)links. This note-taking practice in principle will solve three problems for me:
1. I never really go back to my own annotations or notes I wrote unless it is for exams (which I no longer have because I am not a student anymore).
2. I never was able to make brainstorming works.
3. My note-taking app, Notion, was severely under-utilized.

I would recommend this to anyone who cares about note-taking in their research or writing. I know in physics some would rather not take notes at all, and that is fair. However, in my case I have several reasons why I want to resolve my note-taking deficiencies, some of which are personal, and I am very glad that the book did not disappoint and does well in being very concrete without being verbose.

[Angelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Repetitive at times, but overall a great intro to the Zettelkasten that will probably be the make or break system of my PhD

[T.L. Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

How To Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking by Sönke Ahrens read like a college dissertation. I first listened to (or at least started) How To Take Smart Notes as an audiobook while on a road trip. I didn't feel like I quite got it, so I immediately read the paperback version when I arrived home. While I understood Ahrens's point about the slip-box and its potential usefulness, I kept waiting for a depth into the process that never seemed to develop. How To Take Smart Notes felt repetitive beyond simply being consistent. Ahrens does a decent job of explaining his point, but I never felt excited about what the slip-box or its potential to change my productivity. Having read many, many books about writing techniques, this certainly felt like an option among many options including ones that already work for me. Ahrens claims that the slip-box is the only way to be productive several times and alludes to it even more putting my skepticism into overdrive. Overall, How To Take Smart Notes seems like a well-intentioned attempt to give people, particularly those in academia, a better way to write and even to think about what they're writing, but it fell short of convincing me to try using the slip-box.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The theory of the zettelkasten is well explained here but not the method. It also gave entire credit for DNA research to Watson and Crick and failed to note the involvement of Rosalind Franklin, which if you were really taking smart notes would be a big point. If you want to understand more about the ideas behind it this is good. Otherwise, a few YouTube videos will be better.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is most helpful for people seeking to write academic papers/articles. Ahrens writes about Zettelkasten, a slip-box system to take the daunting prospect of writing a book or an article to bite-sized tasks, almost with a gamified element. You write down small blurbs with a cite, which gives you momentum to read something more to complete the next piece of the puzzle. The idea is you accumulate 15 of these "slips" with an index that basically serves as a blueprint for your next piece of writing. The process I think is helpful for smart people who get "stuck" and can't proceed because they think the idea is not original enough, revolutionary enough, coherent enough etc. Ahrens points this out and highlights all the psychological factors that hold us back from writing.

The principles are similar to those espoused in "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, which is geared toward business folks. Put things down on paper and move on to declutter your brain and create space to see new connections. This is an analogous self-help book tailored towards academics. As an attorney who reads and writes a lot on behalf of clients, I find difficult to carve out time for one but find things to write about in my own voice. The book was helpful in providing a usable framework. So far, I've only managed a few "slips" in my inbox, but I can attest to the quick hit of endorphins from completing them. Wish I was recommended this book a long time ago in college or in law school.

[Notger Heinz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

Changes the way I work and think. I am on a researching binge now.

[Oday]

garbage

[Najade · Rating 1 out of 5]

quick ass dnf. repetitive and you’ll probably learn more useful tips from a youtube video on zettelkasten