Last year I read lots of books and I intend to keep up the momentum this year.  One thing I have learned over the last year is that after reading a non-fiction book, however interesting or inspirational, the knowledge seems to seep away very quickly.  Even if I have found the content fascinating it just doesn’t stick after a single read through.  I’m often able to recall general topics or memorable anecdotes but the specifics just aren’t there.

I’ve started making notes in books that I own, usually underlining a quote that I Iike or a concept that I find particuarly insightful.  Any page that I mark I will draw an astrix in the top corner of the page so I can flick through the book and quickly locate anything of interest.

But I’ve realised that this isn’t an ideal solution.  I can’t write in borrowed books.  I’m unwilling to lend my own annotated books as I might lose the notes.  But most of all underlining and brief margin notes aren’t sufficient to recall large topics without re-reading large sections.

“Information is useful only to the extent that you can find it when you need it” - Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss seem to be on the right track with his note taking system.  He takes handwritten notes while reading, and when he fills a page he writes a brief description of its contents on a index page.  When scanning or revising the information the index page can act as a distilled version of the book with pointers to more detailed notes. One thing that strikes me about the examples he has posted is that they do not look very accessible.  They are a monotone scrawl of dense handwriting.   I think  a useful complement to to an index page would be a mindmap of the key concepts.

I have been using mindmapping quite a bit over the previous year mainly so that I can quikly revise materials for a course I deliver, but also for brainstorming ideas.  I’ve attempted to create a mindmap of a book after I’ve read it, but it usually lacks detail as I haven’t taken notes throughout.

Mindmaps are great for quickly revising information due to the use of colour, space, images and the emphasis on logical connections.  Creating mindmaps is fantastic for forcing you to think about the logical flow between topics.  Unfortunately they are time consuming to draw, but I always seem to understand the topic better after competing one.

So for 2009, a semi-resolution, I intend to practise and develop a note taking system and possibly re-read some of the better non-fiction books from last year and create some easy-to-revise summaries.