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Learn how to collect information from books and other sources by taking notes. Students will learn organizational techniques that act as foundational skills for all present and future areas of study.
Now a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Learn a new talent, stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way. Ultralearning offers nine principles to master hard skills quickly. This is the essential guide to future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage through self-education. In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, staying ahead depends on continual self-education—a lifelong mastery of fresh ideas, subjects, and skills. If you want to accomplish more and stand apart from everyone else, you need to become an ultralearner. The challenge of learning new skills is that you think you already know how best to learn, as you did as a student, so you rerun old routines and old ways of solving problems. To counter that, Ultralearning offers powerful strategies to break you out of those mental ruts and introduces new training methods to help you push through to higher levels of retention. Scott H. Young incorporates the latest research about the most effective learning methods and the stories of other ultralearners like himself—among them Benjamin Franklin, chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, and Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, as well as a host of others, such as little-known modern polymath Nigel Richards, who won the French World Scrabble Championship—without knowing French. Young documents the methods he and others have used to acquire knowledge and shows that, far from being an obscure skill limited to aggressive autodidacts, ultralearning is a powerful tool anyone can use to improve their career, studies, and life. Ultralearning explores this fascinating subculture, shares a proven framework for a successful ultralearning project, and offers insights into how you can organize and exe - cute a plan to learn anything deeply and quickly, without teachers or budget-busting tuition costs. Whether the goal is to be fluent in a language (or ten languages), earn the equivalent of a college degree in a fraction of the time, or master multiple tools to build a product or business from the ground up, the principles in Ultralearning will guide you to success.
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 organisation of ideas and notes. This book 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 technique: 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 counts: 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 Exploration: 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.
"Why would I need a book on how to take notes? Notes are just notes!" -- FALSE. Scientists have found that note taking can be as mentally demanding as playing chess can be for an expert. While you take notes, you listen carefully to the lecturer, you process the new material, you organize it in your working memory, and you finally write down what you think is most important. All this happens while someone is talking at an average speed of three words per second and someone is writing down at an average speed of one-third of a word per second. It doesn't sound easy now, does it? Notes are an important tool for learning. We don't take notes just to record a few facts so we can review them later. Learning happens as we take notes. Taking notes the right way leads to good study practices, better performance on exams, and long-term retention of information. "Note taking comes naturally." FALSE. Note taking is not obvious or intuitive. Research has shown that students fail to capture 40% of the main points in a typical lecture. First-year students capture only 11%. In some studies, even the best note takers seem to record less than 75% of the important information. People think they take good notes until they're told they don't. Few of us have consciously thought about how we take notes (let alone how to improve the quality of them). We often reproduce the lecturer's phrases verbatim. We don't save time by systematic use of abbreviations. We fail to become a "good psychologist" of our lecturer. We fail to pick up his enthusiasm. We fail to interpret the tone of his voice. We fail to read his body language. And the result is that we fail to take good notes. "Anyway, no one taught me how to take notes in school or in college." TRUE. Educators believe that students are able to assess the quality of their notes and follow good practices. However, studies have shown the exact opposite. The fact that there isn't a course in college dedicated to the art of taking notes (or learning in general) makes students believe that this is a natural skill that they can perfect with practice over the course of their studies. "At the end of the day, everyone has their own way to take notes." TRUE. In this book, you may be surprised to learn that I don't make any references to different types of note-taking systems like those that other books do. The reason is that it's the practices behind the note taking that matter most. For example, you should not copy the lecturer's phrases word for word, but generate the main points in your own words. And you should leave space on your notes for adding comments and testing yourself later. I encourage students to use the Cornell note-taking system because it utilizes most of the principles of effective note taking. No matter which note-taking system you decide to follow, the cognitive effort you will have to expend is equally high. Note taking may not be rocket science, but it's definitely science-cognitive science. And cognitive science has produced a lot of useful insights that we can use now to take better notes. This book presents these insights in simple words, so you can make the most of your notes and use them to study effectively. The title of this book is How to take good notes. However, note taking is just one part of the picture. Note taking is much broader in the context of this book. We take notes so we can interact with them later. What matters most is what we do with our notes after we finish taking them. Notes can do so many good things for you. They hold all your learning efforts. Treat them well. Look after them.
"Building a second brain is getting things done for the digital age. It's a ... productivity method for consuming, synthesizing, and remembering the vast amount of information we take in, allowing us to become more effective and creative and harness the unprecedented amount of technology we have at our disposal"--
Updated and revised edition As every student quickly learns, merely sitting through a class and paying attention is usually not sufficient to ensure good grades. The proper taking of good notes is essential. Note-Taking Made Easy tells why the student should take his or her own notes (rather than buying them or taping lectures), and tells exactly how to determine what is worth noting, whether during a lecture, classroom discussion, even from a book or during a meeting. The authors describe the two most successful methods of organizing notes—outlining and patterning—and provide shortcuts to really make note-taking easy, from shorthand devices to abbreviations. Special sections are devoted to taking notes from texts, fiction as well as nonfiction, and handling charts, graphs, and photos. A final chapter shows how to tie together notes from various sources. This STUDY SMART reference guide series, designed for students from junior high school through lifelong learning programs, teaches skills for research and note-taking, presents strategies for test-taking and studying, provides exercises to improve spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, and reveals secrets for putting these skills together in great essays.
“This book will help you own your calendar, block time for what matters most and reclaim your life.” —Paula Rizzo, author of Listful Living: A List-Making Journey to a Less Stressed You You want more time to spend with family, to achieve big goals, and to simply enjoy life. Yet, there seem to be more and more things competing for your time, and more distractions interrupting your day. Craig Jarrow has spent many years testing time management tactics, tools, and systems and written hundreds of articles on productivity, goals, and organization, Through it all he’s learned a simple truth: Time management should be easy, not complicated and unwieldy. And it shouldn’t take up more of your precious time than it gives back! Time Management Ninja offers 21 rules that will show you an easier and more effective way to take control of your time and manage your busy life. Follow these simple principles and get more done with less effort. It’s no-stress, uncomplicated time management that works. “Read this book, apply its rules, and you’ll find freedom.” —Hyrum Smith, bestselling author of Purposeful Retirement
Unsure if you are taking notes that cover everything they should?Unable to write notes fast enough to keep up with your teacher? Want to know the secret to getting 100% from every lesson and meeting?This book will give you the answers to these problems, and much more. Written in easy to read language, and packed with practical, easily applied tips, this book contains everything you need to know to take great notes.Includes chapters on: The two biggest mistakes people make when note-taking, and how you can avoid them. Tricks for using mind maps to never fall behind with your notes. An easy step-by-step guide to using the super-effective "Cornell Method". How to effortlessly build an insanely productive system for work/study/ and note-taking. The best ways to organize your notes for easy studying. Examples of good note taking and bad note taking with clear pictures. Tips and hacks to get the most from using technology. ...and much more.To make sure you get the most value for money possible, there's a short, 15 minute FREE book included: "How to Study" It contains my best advice on time management, goal setting, and how to get the best grades with the least effort. It's advice that also transfers brilliantly well to professionals, the self-employed, and anyone who manages their own projects and/or daily work cycle.
We used to live in a knowledge economy. No longer. With the speed and scale of change in our world today, knowing is not enough: we must constantly be learning. In 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner, Jeff Cobb shows you how to take charge of your learning and turn the challenges of our hyper-connected, information-overloaded world into opportunities for growing and improving. Whether you are trying to advance in your career, or simply want to build new knowledge and skills to enrich your life, this is the book for you. Grounded in research, but practical in its application, 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner is a quick read that delivers high impact. About the Author: Jeff Cobb is the founder of the Mission to Learn blog, co-author of Shift Ed: A Call to Action for Transforming K-12 Education (Corwin, 2011) and author of the forthcoming Leading the Learning Revolution (AMACOM, 2012).
