4.f 学会记笔记

Make Time Your Friend 4.f: Learning to Take Notes

> By Li Xiaolai · 2008-05-19 · [Original (web archive)](https://web.archive.org/web/20110927235100/http://www.lixiaolai.com/archives/439.html) (Chinese)
> Our translation from the Chinese original.

People too lazy to take notes are usually clever people. Precisely because they're clever, they think their memory is good and they understand everything, so there's no need to write it down. As the saying goes, cleverness is undone by cleverness. These "clever" people won't listen to advice, because they can't know what they'll lose by not taking notes. Once you fall into the state of "not knowing that you don't know," there's no longer any way out.

First, don't trust your memory. We often see characters with extraordinary memories in films: someone who can recite long passages of the *Bible*, for example Samuel Jackson (塞谬•杰克逊) in *Pulp Fiction*; someone who can count in an instant the number of toothpicks scattered on the floor and never forget it, for example Dustin Hoffman in *Rain Man*. Such artistic treatment makes many naive people think there really are many people who can reach such a magical level, and even think that they too are human and probably not much worse……

For this I have to thank my father, who, when I was in my teens, made me understand what "extraordinary memory" is all about. My father is a person with an extraordinary memory. He is the person I've seen who is best at citing classics and quotations, every time to the point of astonishing everyone present, and he always seemed to do it effortlessly. Finally, one day, when I wanted to quote a clever sentence from a book I'd just read to prove my point, my brain suddenly short-circuited; I got stuck less than halfway through the sentence, and the remaining half was like a fart just let—you couldn't see it or touch it—leaving only the first half of the sentence stinking like that fart.

My embarrassment amused my father. He thought for a moment and told me, don't be nervous, go find that book and turn to that sentence and look. I must have been very embarrassed, but I still did as he said. When I came back to the living room, my father handed me a thick notebook and said, "Open it and have a look." It was a notebook long since filled to the brim and already worn through from leafing. On opening it, every page inside was full of all kinds of allusions. What amazed me was that under each allusion, a date was actually marked—the date on which he had used that allusion in seemingly casual conversation. Of course, besides the dates, there were also many seemingly scrawled but information-rich notes, such as what point this allusion, sentence, interesting story, anecdote or joke could illustrate, and where it could be used…… I'll always remember what my father said—"When you learn something, learn it properly; you can't learn only the look and not the substance."

Believe me, very few people have a "magical" memory through innate ability alone. Don't forget, "forgetting" is our self-protective function. We must struggle to regularly organize the information already input into our brains, and try to arrange it in order—the most basic method is taking notes. If we forget to take notes, that information will eventually be stored as disorderly "subconscious" material that is hard to call up directly. "Oh, why can't I remember it for the life of me?"—everyone has had this experience, and that in itself says something.

If you've really met those people with "extraordinary memories," believe me, they probably also used some method of their own and poured in a great deal of patience to manage it. Only one thing is certain: wanting to do it without the slightest effort is surely a dream. I do believe there must be people in this world who can do it innately; it's just that I don't know who they are; but one thing I know for certain is that that person is surely not me. In the earlier text I mentioned Roger Horchow, the Dallas businessman in *The Tipping Point* who remembers 1,600 names and related information; how could he do it without some method and patience?

In addition, taking notes is not only for writing down what you "didn't understand" at the time so as to digest it later. Anyone who learns will find that our learning process is very similar to a cow "chewing the cud." Much of the time we simply can't understand every aspect of a point of knowledge at once; instead, after some time has passed, we discover that we didn't fully understand it before. Even a sentence as ordinary as can be [Translator's note: the original writes 在普通不过, with 在 ("at"); 再 (as in 再……不过, "as … as can be") is meant; translated by the intended sense] may be like this—I think I've mentioned that it took me many years to really grasp the deep meaning of the saying "a good memory is not as good as a worn-out pen." And sometimes we discover long afterward that our past understanding was a donkey's lips not matching a horse's mouth, or a donkey's lips matched to a horse's mouth—either way it was wrong. At such times the benefits of taking notes go without saying.

[Michael Hyatt](http://www.michaelhyatt.com/about.html) (迈克尔海特), the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers (托马斯尼尔森出版社), believes that in any situation, whether attending a lecture, a meeting or a seminar, taking notes has at least these benefits:

1. It keeps you engaged.
2. It provides a complete mechanism for capturing inspirations and doubts.
3. It can be used to communicate and discuss correct information with other participants.

He uses the following method to divide the page into different areas:

［Image］

- Notes area: record the talk as completely and comprehensively as possible.
- Cue column: while you're taking notes, keep the cue column blank. After the talk, condense your notes into concise cues for later memorizing, review and digestion (reflection).
- Summary: sum up each page of your notes in one or two sentences.

When taking notes, you can use some symbols to simplify the writing, for example

- [ ] square brackets mark things to do
- ( ) round brackets mark things assigned to others
- \* an asterisk marks important things
- ? a question mark marks things to research or ask about next

What I personally use often are some logical symbols:

- ->, to show cause and effect, or sequence
- <, >, ≤, ≥=, ≈, ≠, can be used to show various comparative relationships
- :, ——, can be used to show examples
- {, can be used to show categories or lists

In fact, much of the time, taking notes may be homework you must come back and make up after the event. Through practice, I've developed a prejudice against most electronic products such as PDAs and smartphones, thinking they're not only useless but can only bring trouble. But there's one electronic product that's an exception: the "voice recorder pen." Today's voice recorders have become quite ingenious and practical; when going to a meeting or listening to a talk, a voice recorder really is a good thing—it can be used to organize clear notes at leisure.

Take some advice: starting today, form the habit of taking notes at any time. Believe me, the plainest paper and pen are the most effective tools. Only after taking notes becomes [Translator's note: the original writes 称为 ("be called"); 成为 ("become") is meant; translated by the intended sense] a long-term habit will you really appreciate the benefits of doing so. And those who think themselves clever and don't do it will only remain "without regret" because they have never experienced such benefits.

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