What is the point of taking notes? It is a time-consuming process. And if you think the only point is to store information, then it's no wonder you feel like you're studying and revision and you're taking notes does nothing.
Because just storing information, you might as well not be taking notes at all. The real reason that you want to be taking notes and the only way that they're going to be beneficial for you is if the reason you're taking them is to think deeply, to connect ideas, and to generate insights. And when this is your goal, traditional note-taking methods don't work.
You want to be using something called the Zetelcas method. I might be absolutely butchering that pronunciation because I've only ever seen it written down, but it doesn't matter how I pronounce it because it is very, very useful. And I'm going to break down how you can be using it, how I use it as a Cambridge student, and why it is just so much better than every other note-taking method.
If your real goal is complete understanding of complex ideas, the ability to generate insights, the exact skills that you are rewarded in with exams. Zetel Carson literally means slip box in German and it was made famous by a German sociologist Nicholas Lumen who essentially used this note-taking strategy to help him write over 70 different academic papers. So he was prolific.
And the reason why he was able to do this is because the way that this works is instead of your notes kind of being, okay, I go to a lecture and then I write some stuff down in a notebook and then I forget all about it, you're not doing that anymore. You're breaking down your notes in terms of ideas. So you come up with an idea, you put it down in a note, you link it to other ideas.
This allows you to generate new insights. So basically the big switch that you're trying to do is you're utilizing your notes as a thinking system as a second brain. And this is where note-taking really comes into its own because people will say, "Oh, don't take notes.
It's pointless. " Yeah, it's pointless if you're just writing stuff down on a sheet of paper line by line. But they've never experienced the benefit of this sort of a note-taking method because basically what you're doing is you're rethinking what it means to take notes.
It's not just about okay linear linear this happens and this happens and this is what the lecturer said and I'm just going to fill the entire page. No, the key principle behind this particular note-taking strategy is the idea of the atomic note where every single note card contains a singular idea. You're breaking down your thoughts into their constituent components like you might break down an element into its atoms, right?
So everything consists of a single point. Why are you doing this? Well, instead of an entire page of notes on inflation, for example, you might have multiple different note cards on the definition of inflation, the causes of inflation, the effects of inflation, how inflation looks in different countries and under different monetary systems, inflation expectations, and you now have got multiple different cards that are all related to a singular topic, but they're also related to other topics.
Because when you're looking at inflation, the causes of inflation aren't only relevant for the topic of inflation. They're relevant across so many different areas of economics and the ability of you to physically move around your cards and see them in connection with different ideas and different topics is something that mirrors the way in which your brain works because your brain does not work in a linear fashion. It works in a web style fashion.
So, if you can replicate that with your note-taking strategy, it's going to be so much easier for you to generate linking and new ideas. Basically, the entire goal is you're making ideas easier to connect and reuse. And there are three types of notes that you take under the Zetto casten system.
The first type of note is the fleeting note. This is for sort of quick thoughts, things that pop into your head. They're temporary notes that you might capture whilst you're reading something or writing something.
And so, basically, you basically always want like a little stack of note cards on your desk. You can get a,000 note cards on Amazon for about two pound. So, I always have some on my desk.
Funnily enough, I've just run out, but I have an order to pick up um so I can go and get them. But basically, you want these on your desk, and every time as you're reading through, as you're thinking through stuff, and a little idea pops into your head, write it down on a note card. That's the first style.
So, these notes are quite messy. They're quite short. They're not permanent.
They're just there to capture your thoughts in the process. Now, the second type of notes are the literature notes, and these are summary based. So, let's say you're reading.
As you're reading, you come up with an idea at the end of a sentence, that goes onto a fleeting note. But once you've finished your reading as a whole and you're summarizing, okay, what did I learn? What was the point of this?
What were the key ideas? That goes onto a literature note. There's no fundamental difference between the two.
It's just that you've got this like mental differentiation between them so you understand sort of what you're talking about. So this is the source, the key ideas, your interpretation. You want to be citing essentially on these notes, which is the difference between a literature note and a fleeting note.
Now, permanent notes are the core idea of the Zetto casten methodology. And essentially, these are your own ideas written in your own words relating to a certain topic. So, you might, like I say, let's build on this analogy.
You're reading through a book, a textbook, and it's all about inflation. You get to the end of a sentence, and you think, okay, um, so inflation is an increase in the general price level over time. Okay, that goes down on one of your fleeting notes.
You might finish the entire thing and you might have come up with like a very insightful point. You might think people people often make decisions based upon their own emotions rather than rational behavioral models. Okay, that can go down on one of your literature review uh notes together with the exact source and the author and sort of the idea like I just said.
But on a permanent note, you might think, okay, maybe people care more about relative wealth than absolute wealth. That's an idea that I come up with that isn't necessarily directly out of a book or a textbook. We can put that down on a permanent note.
It can stand alone, but it can link to so many different ideas. And that's the whole point. You want to be engaging in linking.
So, how do you do that? Well, if you have these note cards, you organize them by topic. So, you have little baskets that you put your economics notes in, that you put your physics notes in, that you put your geography notes in, and then when it comes to the time of you learning and revising, you can take them all out and you can begin to map them out.
So, you might get an essay question and go through your notes and think, "Okay, is this relevant? Is this relevant? " You might come up with interesting links between different ideas that you didn't think were relevant and all of a sudden they are.
And you're only able to do this because you've got each individual idea presented to you one at a time such that they can be meshed and gelled together in completely novel and interesting ways. It's so powerful for research, for essay writing, for creative thinking. And initially it will feel a little bit strange because the education system generally does not teach you creativity and it sometimes does not value creativity as much as it values conformity to the specification.
But the more that you do this, the more that you're going to see your own understanding and comprehension of complex ideas develop. And that's going to make it easier for you to write highquality essays that fit a mark scheme, for example. But you're also getting this just really highlevel personal understanding alongside it all as well.
which is why I think this particular note takingaking strategy is so superior to all others. That's all for this video. I really hope that you're going to be trying out this particular note-taking strategy.
Like I say, I use it all the time and I hope it's going to be super beneficial to you. If you have any questions, queries, want to develop any of these points, let me know in the comments and I will respond to you. As always, please do give this video a little thumbs up.
