The Top 3 Most Effective Ways to Take Notes While Reading (Farnam Street)
The most effective way to take notes while reading is to follow this simple three step process that I've tested and honed on over one thousand books.

Um ein (Sach-)Buch nicht nur zu lesen, sondern auch zu verstehen, macht man sich am Besten Notizen. Shane Parish empfiehlt seine Vorgehensweise:

  1. Am Ende eines Kapitel selbiges in Stichpunkten zusammenfassen und ggf. offene Fragen zusammentragen.
  2. Ist man mit dem Buch fertig, legt man es für ca. 1 Woche beiseite. Dann geht man die Notizen durch und schreibt die wichtigsten auf die Innenseite des Covers oder die ersten Seiten
  3. Auszüge/Notizen von Hand übertragen oder Fotografieren und in Evernote/Onenote etc. einstellen

Zeitlose Notiztechniken für Studierende und Schüler - Evernote auf Deutsch (Evernote auf Deutsch)
Studierende und Schüler gehen heutzutage ganz neue Wege, wenn es um das Lernen und Erfassen von Informationen geht. Hier findet ihr erprobte Notizsysteme, die ihr in eure modernen Lerntechniken einbauen könnt.

Ich bin zwar kein Schüler oder Student, finde das aber trotzdem interessant.

In her blogpost Mapping what I’m learning, Sacha Chua ponders about using mapping to get an overview of what she is learning and of what she knows. She already captures knowledge in sketches, blogposts and Evernote notes. For her,

Mapping is about organizing topics so that I can see the relationships, find the gaps, and keep moving forward.

This post is a reminder for me that I do not capture enough of my knowledge. I have a private wiki (as recommended in „Pragmatic Thinking and learning„) but I rarely use it. It is also a reminder that „text“ is just one option to capture knowledge. There are more graphical options like topic maps and mind maps. They tend to let you use both of your brain hemispheres whereas „text-only“ is „left hemisphere“ heavy. I try to use mind maps more these days.

Sacha mentions „How to read a book“ by Adler and van Doren. It’s looks interesting and there appears to be an online full-text „pre-view“ on Google Books. A pointer to get more out of books.

In the comment section there is a reference to IBIS (Issue based Information System) which basically is about recording issues (questions), positions (ideas) and arguments in order to preserve important decision making processes in addition to recording just the results. The overview mentions IBIS as a tool to capture design rationale. I think I read about it several years ago. It might even have been a paper about  Questions, Options and Criteria (QOC). So this is a pointer from personal knowledge management to organizational knowlege management.

So thanks for the nice post. It got me thinking.