How to optimize note-taking for retention


In the world of marketing, retainingretention is often more valuable than the acquisitionWithout any retention, there is no growth. Anything acquired will just be lost. users is often more valuable than attaining users. The same could be said about knowledge. It's often more valuable to retain knowledge rather than acquire new knowledge. But thanks to content overload from the internet, we're constantly bombarded with new information from various sources. It's difficultclutter slows us downHaving clutter makes it difficult to find things or gives us less space to do what we need to do. As a result, it slows us down. Also, complicated things usually add clutter which is why simple is often better for us to retain knowledge when we're constantly acquiring new knowledge.

The solution to this problem is simple—regularly review past concepts. The issue many have with regular reviews is that it's cumbersome, hard to re-discover important/relevant information, and it's not funfun is a powerful motivatorWhen something is fun, we are easily motivated to do more of it. If we make our boring tasks fun, it'll be easier to do them as well!.

How I Re-discover My Notes

A method I found more sustainable compared to other methods (e.g. Anki) is to organize my notes through the connection of ideasconnecting ideas is powerful* encourages you to revisit old ideas and improves learning. * helps you discover new ideas through connections. * allows you to reuse your ideas in a different context. Related: notes/the brain is a network of ideas. As I write new notes, I would add links to concepts that I've created in the past. This linkage of ideas improves learningconnecting ideas improves learningAccording to Bloom's Taxonomy, we need to draw connections between ideas in order to fully understand the material on the whole. This is the case because the brain is a network of ideas https://tophat.com/blog/blooms-taxonomy/#:~:text=Here%2C%20students%20can-,draw%20connections%20between%20ideas,-%2C%20utilize%20critical%20thinking and introduces past concepts that are relevant. With this system, I've effectively made review a component of my note organization. For more information on my note organization workflow see my workflow for managing notesConfused On How To Manage Your Notes? Try This Simple Workflow.If you ever took notes on an article, video, or podcast and had no idea do with it, you're in the right place. Many existing solutions suggest adding tags, and creating many layers of nested folders. But oftentimes we find ourselves with folders with too many files or tags with too few members. The fault isn't in the person but in the note-taking system itself. My goal is to create a simple workflow where the content of the note organizes the note. This effectively eliminates the third step whe.