Why Successful People Take
Notes And How to Make It Your Habit PART I
I
have always been an avid note taker. It has become a habit to carry my trusty
moleskine and pen with me everywhere.
It
helps me capture notes during client coaching sessions, write down inspiring
headline I’ve seen, capture the insights from a seminar and becomes a place to
write down ideas.
Taking
notes helps me get things out of my mind and down on paper. It also inspires me
to take action on the things I’ve written down.
These
notes become my ‘creative reference
point’ that I can take action from, refer back to, build ideas from and
they help to improve my time management and increase my focus and productivity.
In
this article, I’ll look into the importance of taking notes and how you can
start to take notes, make it a habit and get closer to success.
Table of Contents
A.
Who are some successful note takers?
B.
Why taking notes is important
ABOVE IN PART I
C.
12 Benefits of note-taking
ABOVE IN PART II
D.
How to make taking notes a habit
E.
The bottom line
ABOVE IN PART III
A.
Who are some successful note takers?
The
art of note taking is a common habit among the world’s most successful people.
Taking
notes can help you to organize your thoughts and record vital information in
every area of your business and life.
Richard
Branson believes everyone should be taking notes and carries a notebook with
him everywhere. He credits note taking as one of his most important habits.[1]
“I
go through dozens of notebooks every year and write down everything that occurs
to me each day, an idea not written down is an idea lost. When inspiration
calls, you’ve got to capture it.” – Richard Branson
Other
highly successful note takers included:
- Thomas Edison – During his
life Thomas Edison captured over 5 million pages of notes. His note taking
skills were developed to ensure that everything useful or important was
captured and recorded so it could be referred back to as a powerful memory
aid.
- Bill Gates – According to
many reports, Bill Gates is a big note taker and prefers to use a yellow
notebook and pen to capture important information.
- George Lucas – The Star Wars
director kept a pocket notebook with him at all times for writing down
ideas, thoughts and plot angles.
- Tim Ferriss – Entrepreneur
and author Tim Ferriss’s devotion to handwritten notes allow him to
remember the most important parts of his life. He is quotes as saying “I
trust the weakest pen more than the strongest memory.”
Other
notable note takers from past and present include Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain,
Pablo Picasso, Sheryl Sandberg, J.K. Rowling, Bruce Springsteen and Aaron
Sorkin.
B.
Why taking notes is important
Taking
notes is an essential part of success in business and life. It can help you
improve how you listen, learn, visualize and create.
“The
best leaders are note-takers, best askers” – Tom Peters
But
for many, note taking is still not a common practice despite its many benefits.
There
are several reasons why taking written notes is important:
- Help you
emphasize the key points and get them clear in your own mind.
- Help you engage
with the content at a deeper level in a meeting, lecture or event and not
lose concentration.
- Help you to make
links between related thoughts and ideas.
- Allow you
illustrate your notes to suit your personal style and help recall
information.
- Help you
summarize information.
- Let you make
notes of anything you want to understand further or go deeper on at a
future date.
- Help you capture
simple thoughts or ideas that could be lost.
Think
about it:
Are
you really going to remember everything? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to
simply write down what you’re hearing, learning and thinking?
The
habit of note taking can be developed and has a huge upside.
Now,
there are many apps that can be used for note-taking from Evernote to OneNote
and many more. But the most successful people I’ve mentioned above also had
another thing in common:
They
used a pen or pencil and paper to write down their notes.
I,
as mentioned earlier, prefer the pen and notebook method as it feels like the
notes mean more, being written down. I follow a similar method when reading,
even on my kindle.
I
may bookmark the page but will write down key points or ideas I’ve taken from
the book.
CONTINUES IN PART
II
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