Notes that matter

When listening to books, podcasts or seminars, the most valuable notes aren’t comprehensive transcripts. They’re the parts that hit you with a “gut punch” or trigger a “that reminds me of” moment.

Capturing everything misses the point entirely. What matters is recording your unique reaction to ideas. How they connect to your experiences or challenge your thinking.

The real value in personal notes is selective attention. This human filter is what turns random information into gold nuggets.

Your notes should reflect your thinking, not just what you heard. They’re a conversation between you and the content, capturing the sparks that light up your mind.

The magic is connecting the dots, those sparks when two oddly shaped pieces of information somehow connected in your brain and created something truly unique that only you could come up with. But that magic cannot happen when you store everything and try to remember everything to be able to connect everything.