How To Take Smart Notes (3 methods no one's talking about)

Vicky, thank you for another insightful video - I wish your channel existed 15 years ago when I was doing my MBA. Thansk to your hard work, anyone who watches your channel is able to significantly improve their thinking, decision making and performance. Brilliant work!

I've watched this a few times and just now saw that each q,e, and c should be it's own atomic note.

I have never understood underlining shit in a textbook or even in your own notes. I feel like it's just a distraction and I've seen many people do it to the point where it makes no sense whatsoever as they just underline everything.

Nice bit of geometry, like a taxonomy of ideas.

I'm not retarded just lazy, lack confidence too. there is nothing that can fix that, except someone way more stupider

Good to know I'm already doing this :D

mahodane

o leon

i fee like those ideas aren't conveyed as clear, but i get the gist of it:
- reframing the stuff on the fly
- deviding a story into questions, arguments and results
- consolidate them as symbols or items (on cards)
- set up a map for these symbols
- draw new red lines by thinking about 4D connections to the rest of the system

and i would add:
- to form groups out of a cluster of symbols
- to form new symbols out of entire groups, whereby all their cards go into an organized box thingy

because the whole idea about minimizing the stuff is to be able to oversee more ideas per time unit.
and symbols in my lang could literally mean to symbolify (which adds a creative thing)

is it normal to be confused about this at 14

What medium could you use to make these notes? I feel as though flash cards are hard to keep together
Also where do you know to start? I like the idea of connecting ideas to remember the better but I easily get overwhelmed, so how do you know which idea? Is the one to start with?

my dyslexic ahh read “how to make atomic bombs” and clicked on the video

Straight to the point, very informative i love it

Woah! Engaging and insightful. I've seen a lot of videos on this topic, and yours is the best. Thank you.

Exellent

The QEC method is also used by ChatGPT since it's the fastest way to relay information like you said

I feel this is good information but i just can’t hold it. I feel like it’s word vomit. I don’t think this is because of you. I think it has to do with me. It’s like my brain is all over the place when i watch videos like this

I've now fallen into a rabbit hole for effective note taking, mental models and frameworks. This is really fun and exciting.

I could really use a video about taking notes during a meeting. Not the minutes. This is much harder than lecture notes or book notes because once the meeting is over all that information is lost. There isn't any reference to follow up with.

I find it very hard for engineering subject like electronics with examples or formula to do this, can you explain how to adapt it ? Thank you!

Thank you, so useful and interesting. 😮

We used FIRAC - Facts, ID Issue, ID Rule applicable, Application of Rule to identified issue and facts and Conclusion. Thanks so much for this.

Huh

THANK YOU SO MUCH. Now i knew why a mind map felt right but not quite enough.

woman

faavdi

What's the point of the examples if they simply consist of "take this particular book, and apply these techniques to the text", without showing HOW you apply them??? The whole idea of examples is to walk the viewer through a concrete case, applying the techniques you just explained on a theoretical level, so that they can get a grasp on the abstract set of rules you just introduced. If someone doesn't understand the theoretical description you just gave of the QEC method, they also won't understand if you simply repeat the same abstract description and tack "applied to this book" on the end.

I cannot fully express how grateful i am for you sharing this for free in the way that you do.

Ive spent my whole life suffering from mental illness that held my mind hostage. Im 27 and finally getting the help i need to heal and my brain is on FIRE (in a good way). Ive felt so overwhelmed by all of my thoughts and ideas that can finally come through. Ive watched 5 of your videos so far and now i have hope that my thoughts and ideas can be put to use and wont just plague me. I cant wait to start putting things together and creating with my ideas.

Thank you thank you thank you

I'm only on the 2nd point and I already know this video is the best Ive seen on note taking. Concise and strong methods. The most important I've seen. So insightful. Thanks for this!

Climate change is a hyped narrative by the global elite, followed by people who need something like that to follow.

I thought atomic habits was a book about nuclear physics or something LOL.

Well, I find this compass of Zettelkasten strongly XIX-century-Germanic romanticism biased :-) "We come from noble Norse up North, we dream fondly of West as place of mythical Eden, we fight Slavs and any incoming Asiats to the East, and we wish to go South from here, conquer Roman Empire and bathe in warm waters and Sunshine of Mediterranean Sea coast".
But I guess each culture of the world can assign their own equivalent cardinal directions associations to these relations for better comfort in work ...

I like the idea but wish there's a more casual example in the video to explain the method, the Atomic Habits example is a bit complicate...But I love the overall explanation!!

I thought it said atomic bombs..😅

How is the North South and West Idea different from writing thing down with order in documents??

Q1: But in the long run, isn’t it better to put the QEC that we note in flash card ? Cause I think I should do this method for my textbooks and my notes in class. I have 3 subject. If I put all of it in physical flash card , I’m gonna have a LOT of card .


Q2: Do the compass of the Zettelkasten thinking work whether it’s a Question, evidence or conclusions? I’m a bit lost

I´m learning so much from you! thank you so much, for sharing your work
I´ll keep on following your content.. the more I watch the more I love it!

How would you use the Q/E/C method when reading digitally on kindle for example?

This helps a lot! I was looking at the first unit for my management class and the textbook was structured pretty neatly. So I started taking notes on everything I was reading, but then I realized that I'm not taking active notes and that the information isn't really sticking. I think the QEC method will really help me since each section has a overarching question, but my big question now is how can I use this method to memorize terms and definitions?

I have recently noticed in my notes in college I wasn’t actually absorbing the material. During lectures I would try to write down every little thing. Now I just wrote down the most important pieces, go home and piece everything together adding in more details and connecting the whole picture. One limitation was the medium I was using. I cannot use paper to connect these vast ideas because I only have so much space, but with Microsoft one-note I have a large amount of sosvd and freedom to put things wherever. I add in visuals, explain concepts then give myself and example then a visual of the example. For complex ideas in physics where particles and many forces and charges are at play this comes in handy.

mind blown abt the notecard thing holy shit!!!!!!

second one was kinda helpful but the third was incredible. It's strange to think I was already kind of doing this back in high school (mainly just for literature and GPR tho, cuz those required you to analyse texts), but your system really showed me how I could apply it to other subjects and areas of my life. I really liked this video :)) thanks!

Okay why does this have to be so complicated? Just read the things you wanna read, and try to apply it to the problem that you have (while you’re reading).
If you need “methods” to read more effectively, I’d say you shouldn’t read at all.

Honest thought it said "How to make Atomic Bombs". dissapointed

This is exactly what I needed to take my skill mastery learning to the next level. Thank you so much for this!!

Very good video, this is a concept I'm going to integrate into my advanced biology courses as the fall semester begins.

One critique of the video though, the ever so slightly sped up audio is distracting. I don't know if this feature helps increase engagement (in an already disengaged world, understandable) or if it was frequently requested, but I find it to be somewhat grating.

I knew I would forget about the video seconds after watching so I wrote down on a paint that you should:
mark questions/ideas with dots
mark evidences/explanations/answers wit dashes
write down the conclusion based on questions and evidences
make atomic notes of each Q E and C then mix they together
read them one by one and think them with the method of:
North (where this idea come from)
West (what this idea looks like)
East (what oppose this idea)
South (where this idea leads to)

In conclusion: writing down in paint works because now I remember this without need to look at what i wrote xd

Watching you speak so passionately about this made me smile throughout the video. I really appreciate you sharing this and it was so cool to hear that you used this through law school as well! 😊

does this method work best if written on a digital docs/program? doing it on paper seems limiting because of the space

qec flash connect

Did you ever take the MBTI test? ( just curious😅)