How to Take Smart Notes

One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers

by Sönke Ahrens

Paperback, 176 pages

English language

Published Feb. 23, 2017 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

ISBN:: 978-1-5428-6650-7

(2 reviews)

An informational book that describes and advocates for the note taking system of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. The author's primary claim is that Luhmann's system of keeping a slip-box (or "zettelkasten") full of interesting ideas and bibliographic references can help students, academics, and non-fiction writers be more productive.

6 editions

Sasu reviewed How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens

Inspiring, but the process description lacks clarity

4 stars

I found this book very inspiring, but when I actually tried to start using the Zettelkasten method, I found that I needed to find other resources to get enough clarity to get started. If you need to be sold on the merits of the method or want inspiration , this book may be helpful for you. If you just want to learn to use the Zettelkasten method, the abundance of freely available resources online is probably a better place to start.

Andrew Williams reviewed How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens

Excellent reference of Luhmann's zettlekasten system

4 stars

The subtitle describes the book well, in that the book is aimed to students, academics, and book writers. While a great source of knowledge around Luhmann's zettlekasten and the theory around it, it does spend a lot of time focusing on the academic side of the system.

Dr. Ahrens breaks down the key parts of Luhmann's system, how to implement it yourself, and points out new starter pitfalls by directing you to understand that it is a system of note-taking, not a component part that you can easily integrate.

Worthy of a read if you're interested in PKM, knowledge management, and note taking.