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How to Take Smart Notes

One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking
– for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers
Sönke Ahrens • CreateSpace © 2017 • 176 pages

Workplace Skills / Speak, Write, Present / Business Writing

Workplace Skills / Speak, Write, Present / Storytelling

Take-Aways
• Your willpower has limits; your ability to think does not.
• Niklas Luhmann, who created the “slip-box system,” wrote 58 books in 30 years.
• Follow the steps of the slip-box system to prepare and write non-fiction material.
• The slip-box system increases your freedom to explore ideas.
• To master the slip-box system, always read “with a pen in hand.”

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 Recommendation
Researcher and author Dr. Sönke Ahrens explores the meaning of writing and discusses how to write
effectively using the “slip-box system.” He explains how to follow the lead of Niklas Luhmann, a prolific
author and sociologist who produced 58 books in 30 years. Luhmann’s slip-box, note-taking system allowed
him to connect notes he’d made from his readings with other information from a variety of contexts.
Whether you follow this manual’s process or create a digital version, the concept remains the same. It starts
with writing notes about what you read and tracking how they intersect, which makes this illuminating
for students, academics, researchers, businesspeople and other writers.

Summary

Your willpower has limits; your ability to think does not.

Many self-help books on writing focus on what to do when you confront a blank page. They overlook the
potential of creating an information-gathering process that ensures your page isn’t blank when you begin.
Most writing manuals omit an important part of academic, research, business or non-fiction writing: taking
notes.

Bad note-taking has no immediate repercussions. The problems appear later, when you attempt to write a
cogent work based on flawed notes. At that point, many people will reach for a how-to book so they can get
on track. But by then, it’s too late.

You write daily. For many people, writing is akin to breathing. If you hit a snag when you begin to write, it
may be because you’re trying to retrieve arguments and points of information from your head. Combining
smaller points and referring to the material you have already written might make writing significantly easier.

“The key to successful writing lies in the preparation.”

To have these smaller pieces ready to use, you need a system that allows you to concentrate on ideas and
arguments instead of trying to remember minutiae, which most people can’t retain anyway. Having a
powerful information retrieval system helps you write without significant energy or willpower. It allows you
to enter a state of “flow,” wherein the work itself pulls you forward.

This process isn’t about planning, which limits your flexibility and saps your energy. Instead, become
an “expert” by structuring your information supply to enable you to concentrate on creating a new
understanding of your topic.

The slip-box system provides a simple way to deal with the complexity of academic, research, business and
non-fiction writing. It links your notes in an external manual or digital system, allowing you to connect
disparate pieces of information and leaving your brain free to concentrate on ideas. Using a slip-box doesn’t
mean redoing everything you’ve done; it means modifying your workflow moving forward. As with any
change in how you work, you may find it initially awkward, but it will soon become routine.

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 Niklas Luhmann, who created the slip-box system, wrote 58 books in 30 years.

German sociologist and author Niklas Luhmann developed this system to support his learning and
writing. Luhmann was the son a German brewer. After getting a law degree, he worked in a government
office while spending his free time reading about “philosophy, organizational theory and sociology.” He
wrote notes as he read, but realized he couldn’t access them easily. He started annotating his notes with
a number and putting them in a box. This led him to realize that subject categories weren’t linear. An
idea from one subject often proved relevant in another context, so he changed his annotation method to
record new ideas and indicate connections among the notes. His slip-box became a “dialogue partner…and
productivity engine.”

In the late 1960s, Luhmann wrote up his research findings and gave the information to a distinguished
German sociologist, Helmut Schelsky, who encouraged Luhmann to take a position as a professor of
sociology. Luhmann demurred, since he had neither a doctorate nor the additional thesis required. But
within a year, he had both. He achieved this remarkable feat by using his slip-box system. In 1968, Luhmann
became a sociology professor at the University of Bielefeld.

Luhmann’s life-long project, studying the “theory of society,” explored “law, politics, economy,
communication, art, education, epistemology,” among other subjects. His was groundbreaking work. Unlike
many academics who wring as many works as possible from one idea, Luhmann never ran out of new
concepts. When he died, he left numerous nearly completed manuscripts on other subjects. Unlike many
academics today, who often collaborate on published works, Luhmann was the sole author of his books and
papers.

How was Luhmann able to be so prolific and consequential? By making his writing effortless. “I only do
what is easy,” he said. “If I falter for a moment, I put the matter aside and do something else.” This attitude
reflects the findings of various studies of highly accomplished people. They apply a martial-arts mentality to
avert “resistance” instead of pushing through it. Luhmann developed simple way to work that added value to
every step, especially when connecting complex ideas.

“Writing notes accompanies the main work and, done right, it helps with it.”

He used his main box for individual ideas based on what he read. He kept another box for bibliographical
information. He wrote each note in complete sentences and limited any note to one page. Instead of
organizing his slip-box topically, he gave his notes numbers and letters. When he included a note, he linked
it to other notes in the box.

Writing notes in your own words allows you to make sure you understand a concept fully. The act of
externalizing what you know by writing notes deepens your comprehension. Writing notes isn’t the goal;
notes are a consequence of your reading, thinking and learning. Collating your notes in a slip-box provides a
structure for working with them outside your brain.

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 Follow the steps of the slip-box system to prepare and write non-fiction material.

Follow these simplified steps to use the slip-box method to create any non-fiction work. Everything starts
with learning to take smart notes.

1. Write any ideas that come to you as “fleeting notes” – Jot them down in a notebook or on a scrap
of paper. They serve to remind you of an idea. “Process” them later.
2. When you read, create “literature notes” about the content – These notes should include
elements you might use in your work. Write concisely to convey the meaning of what you read. Keep
these notes with bibliographic information from the book.
3. Daily review your fleeting notes and literature notes – Reflect on how they connect with your
work. How does the new information affect your current ideas? For each idea, write one “permanent
note” that you will put in your slip-box system. Write these in full sentences with sources and references
indicated. Throw away your fleeting notes and file the literature notes along with relevant bibliographic
information.
4. File and link your notes – Luhmann created his slip-box manually, but free computer programs,
such as Daniel Lüdecke’s Zettelkasten, smooth the process of creating and referring to your notes. The
software enables you to file and link permanent notes behind numerous other notes. If you’re saving a
new line of thought, file it behind the last note in the system. Link it to your index.
5. Develop your projects from the “bottom up” – Even when you’re starting out, you will have
ideas for projects to add to your box. Use your slip-box system, whether manual or digital, to modify
your initial idea whenever you uncover information that leads in another direction. Because you are
reading and creating notes that add up, the information and the links in it lead to new, better questions
to investigate.
6. Write based on the information in your system – When you have researched and noted enough
information to decide on a writing direction or subject, your writing is now grounded in information
you have on hand versus an unfounded supposition. Look through the links in the system and collect
the information by copying it to the Zettelkasten or similar desktop – if using a computer. Due to your
method of connection, much of the information is already organized. Check what information might be
missing, and do more research if necessary.
7. Using the notes, create an initial draft – This document should contain your argument as
constructed from your notes. When you find problems with your assertion, add information, do more
research or change your assertion.
8. The last stage is to edit your manuscript and start on the next one – These steps outline a
linear process, but in most cases, you won’t be working on only one idea. The slip-box method allows
you to work on numerous projects at one time. You will move between ideas without losing your place or
momentum.

Your process requires only four tools. Your first tool is the ideas you write down – fleeting notes. You can use
a phone, computer or tablet instead of pen and paper, but gather the notes in one place.

Your second tool is a reference management tool such as Zotero, which is free and available for multiple
platforms. Using this tool, add notes and link them to your reference material.

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 “Good tools…help to reduce distractions from the main work, which here is thinking.”

The third tool is your slip-box. If you prefer to do the work manually, use an actual box. Otherwise,
Zettelkasten is free and easy to use and follows Luhmann’s process.While software makes adding links and
formatting easier, a greater boon is that it’s more portable.

The last tool is an editing program. Programs such as Microsoft Word, OpenOffice and others are
compatible with the Zotero program. Writing with software that can access your reference system makes
annotations easier.

The slip-box system increases your freedom to explore ideas.

As you add notes to your slip-box and link them, your system becomes exponentially more valuable. It
becomes a repository for ideas you may have forgotten that you can easily access.

“The slip-box is designed to present you with ideas you have already forgotten, allowing
your brain to focus on thinking.”

By contrast, if you organize information based on topics, you make your brain responsible for remembering
what information you put where. Working with Luhmann’s system leaves your brain free to think along the
lines of the linked notes in your system.

To master the slip-box system, always read “with a pen in hand.”

People who write successfully follow certain guidelines. The first is to understand how the brain works.
Multitasking, which includes interruptions from emails or texts, cuts your productivity by 40%. Short-term
memory has its limits, also. To retain information, transcribe what you read in your own words and put its
ideas into context.

When you transcribe information into the slip-box process, this frees your mind to stop thinking about it.
This counters the “Zeigarnik effect” – when your short-term memory tracks tasks you haven’t completed.
When you write a note and add it to the slip-box, your brain believes you’ve completed the open issue.

When you move ideas out of your brain and into the slip-box, you “forget them,” which, strangely, improves
your “long-term learning.” Psychologists once found a man who remembered conversations verbatim.
However, because he was unable to forget anything, he couldn’t zero in on the relevant information or
context from a conversation or book. For him, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was not about tragic love,
but concerned only two feuding families. The ability to forget information helps you let go of data that isn’t
relevant to a given situation. Transcribing what you read in your own words means you understand what
you’ve read; this proves beneficial to your work.

“While writing down an idea feels like a detour…not writing it down is the real waste of
time.”

When you turn to your slip-box to generate ideas, don’t use it as an “archive.” It should be a place to explore
your thoughts and change your understanding of a topic as you learn more. Use it to create a “latticework”

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 of ideas instead of simply facts. Connect your notes, and build your theories based on the information you
record to nourish your learning cycle.

Stories of scientific breakthroughs often describe a moment of inspiration that resulted in a discovery. But
any insight is the culmination of time spent researching and thinking about an issue. The slip-box allows
ideas to interact in ways that helps generate new insights.

Perhaps the most important factor in creating a slip-box is to embrace the process. Instead of internally
mandating new routines for researching and reading, incrementally create new habits to replace the old.
When you sit down to read, pick up a pen and paper. Then, you’ll more readily write down ideas, put them in
the slip-box and link them to other notes.

About the Author

Education and social science researcher Dr. Sönke Ahrens also wrote the award-winning Experiment and
Exploration: Forms of World-Disclosure.

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