The Top 3 Most Effective Ways to Take Notes While Reading

• Highlight and write notes as you read. After each chapter, write a summary and include personal application if you can.
• Once you’re done with the book, wait a week and then go back through your notes. This gives your mind time to process the book. Save anything that still seems worth remembering. Perhaps create a small overall summary of the book, covering both its main arguments and the gaps therein.
• Incorporate the notes into your larger system.

To aid recall, connect the ideas to something you already have in your mind. Is it a continuation of the idea? Does it replace an idea? Is it the same idea in a different discipline? I add these connections to my notes and percolate them in my mind. Often I turn out to be mistaken but that’s the process.