8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… T H N OT C A R D Y T M : T H K Y F O R R M M R I N G , O R G A N I Z I N G A N D U I N G VRYTHING YOU RAD April 1, 2014 — 51 Comment After the repone to thi recent LifeHacker piece, I thought I would explain the tem I ue to take note, reearch ook and keep track of anecdote, torie and info I come acro in m work. Thi in’t the perfect tem. It might not work for ou. All I can a i that ince learning it aout 7 ear ago, it ha totall tranformed m proce and draticall increaed m creative output. It’ reponile for helping me pulih three ook in three ear, (along with other ook I’ve had the privilege of contriuting to), write http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 1/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… countle article pulihed in newpaper and weite, end out m reading recommendation ever month, and make all ort of other work and peronal uccee poile. Now to e clear, thi i not “m” notecard tem. If anthing, I ue a perverted verion of a tem taught to me the geniu Roert Greene, when I wa hi reearch aitant. What he taught me wa neat, clean and orderl. Mine i more of a me. ut it’ till e hugel helpful to me and I think I’m in a unique poition to explain thi method to people. I hope it inpire our own method. TH YTM -It’ difficult to decrie thi in an linear wa o I am jut going to do thi in kind a rain dump wa. the end of it, I promie the tem will make ene. -If I have a thought, I write it down on a 4×6 notecard and identif it with a theme–or if I am working on a pecific project, where it would fit in the project. For intance, a I wa preparing for m next ook, The Otacle i The Wa, I filled out thouand of thee card for idea and concept that I wanted included in the ook. ome example: “Don’t e the lave of circumtance.” (intro) “ We know ojectivel that we learn from failure, et we pend all our time tring to avoid it. Wh?” (intro) “Gaman–the Japanee word for endurance” (Peritence) “Our action our contrained, our will i not. We alwa decide whether we continue or not.” (Will ) “Ule . Grant–incident at Mathew rad’ tudio where gla fell on him and he didn’t move. Alo, where he ran toward the exploion at Cit Point. ee: impon’ io” (Nerve) o thoe are the kind of note I write to melf. ither entence in m own writing, word I like, quetion I have, or example I think might fit omewhere and want to learn more aout. -Mot of the time, what I write down are quote (I ued to put them on a log intead ut it wa too unwield). The’re either famou quote or quote from the writer that I think are mart. It’ ver important that ou mark quote properl o ou never rik forgetting to attriute. To make thi extra clear, I alwa put a circle around the firt quotation mark. If I am quoting omeone quoting omeone ele, I’ll uuall write “qtd in.” -If it’ a reall long tor or example, I will jut jot down a few note on the ke point and then put omething like: “For a tor aout _________ ee: pg 14 in [inert ook].” http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 2/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… Here are ome quote from m trateg card: “It i etter to ee once than hear a hundred time.” – Gorachev Retort: “ You ma not e afraid to have our hand cut off, ut our od will uffer.” – John D. Rockefeller “Politene i to human nature what warmth i to wax.” – chopenhauer pg 77 “Puruit hould e to the lat reath of man and eat.” – (Pruian Maxim qtd in Knight Cro) “All men work more zealoul againt their enemie than the cooperate with their friend.” – Caear qtd in chiff ’ Cleopatra pg 19 “Find them! Fix them! Fight them! Finih them!” – Gen. R idgwa/militar logan in Korean War. qtd in avior General. o thoe are the kind of quote I gra for one particular topic. Mot of the quote are longer than that, ut pace i contrained here in thi pot o I won’t rewrite the longer one for ou. For longer quote, I will tpe them out and print them. Then I cut them out and tape them to a notecard. http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 3/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… -I’ve talked aout thi efore, ut the ke to thi tem i the ritual: Read a ook or an article and diligentl mark the paage and portion that tand out at ou. If ou have a thought, write it down on the page (thi i called marginalia). Fold the ottom corner of the page where ou’ve made a note or marked omething (alternativel, ue pot-it flag). -A few week after finihing the ook, return to it and tranfer thoe note/thought on to the appropriate note card. Wh wait? Waiting help ou eparate the wheat from the chaff. I promie that man of the page ou marked will not eem to important or noteworth when ou return to them. Thi i a good thing–it’ a form of editing. -In the top right hand corner of each card, put a theme or categor that thi card elong to. If a card can fit in multiple categorie, jut make a duplicate card. Roert ue color coded card for an extra laer of organization. http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 4/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… ome categorie I currentl ue: *toicim *Life (General advice aout life) *The Narrative Fallac (omething I’d like to write a ook aout one da) *trateg (xample of trategic geniu or widom) *Pot Idea (Man card here have een turned into article ou’ve read ) *Animal (Weird torie aout animal. For intance, according to the ook One ummer ill ron, the hotel that ae Ruth lived in for mot of hi career had a live eal living in the lo fountain) *Trut Me, I’m Ling (Media manipulation) *Writing (Widom aout the craft) *ducation (Widom and idea aout learning) *Mic (Naturall) http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 5/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… -A ou compile card and tud different thing, it’ not uncommon to organicall egin coming acro unexpected theme. Thi i how new categorie are orn. -If ou are working on a ook project where there are a limited amount of theme or ou know exactl what the are, it make ene to introduce a horthand. For intance, with m lat ook Growth Hacker Marketing, I had 6 theme that roughl correponded with the chapter and tructure of the ook : 1) Intro 2) Growth Hacking 3) Product Market Fit 4) Growth Hack 5) Viralit 6) Optimization and Retention (Mic) -If anone hale me aout m lopp handwriting in the photo, I wear to god… -Originall I would do one et of note card for a whole ook (numering the card 1,2,3,4,5 etc–ut I found that limited m ailit to move the piece around ecaue unrelated ut important idea were wrongl joined together. -I think it’ important that the note are not jut aout work. In mine, m two mot important categorie are “Life” (which i motl advice for melf ) and another called “Me”, where I put thing that I think are important criticim or place for improvement in m own life. ( that I mean tuff aout dealing with parent, relationhip, etc. Jut little reminder that help.) http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 6/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… Here are ome card from thoe ection : “He’ detached aout our pain, ut God know he take hi own pain more erioul than cancer… It finall dawned on me that m father, for all hi protetation and lecture and writing aout detachment, i a ver, ver need man.” Margaret alinger, qtd in alinger pg 570 (Me) Thee people don’t work hard enough for their opinion to matter to ou. (Life) “Jut ecaue ou’re winning a game doen’t mean it’ a good game.” eth Godin, Icaru Deception (Life) “Q: Ok, ut what hould I e mot worried aout here? A: Nothing hould worr ou” converation with a friend (Me) “Character i fate.” Heraclitu (Life) “If ou ee fraud and do not a fraud, ou are a fraud.” – Tale http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 7/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… Don’t pick fight with memer of our own team. (Life) “ You know workmen the chip the leave.” – Old aing (Life) -Don’t tre aout filling up whole card. I have hundred that jut have a ON or TWO word on them. Thee might e cool new word that I’ve never heard efore, word I think have a lot of meaning in them, reminder aout topic I want to mention. -Helpful tip : If ou end up uing the ack of the card (I do it fairl often), put an arrow on the front ide. ometime when ou’re flipping through them, ou mi the fact that there i text on the ack. -Get in the hait. If ou have an idea, put it on a damn card. If ou don’t, ou’ll regret it. I can’t tell ou how man time I aved m a writing down a title idea or a thought, I otherwie would have forgotten. It’ a good thing when our own card urprie ou. -When I go ack through the card, I’ll often rememer other thing from more recent reading or thinking and add to them. Thi i wh, if ou went through all mine, ou’d ee different color of ink on the ame card. OT H R P O P L W H O U T H I -I want to e clear that I’m not the one who invented thi. I didn’t even perfect it. I’m jut explaining it ecaue people aked. -Here’ Roert explaining hi tem in an interview with Andrew Warner at Mixerg (he how one of hi oxe on camera if ou feel like looking): I read a ook and I take, a I’m reading it, I underline it and put note on the ide and then I go ack and put them on notecard. And I can gauge a good ook will generate 20 to 31 notecard. A ad ook will generate two or three notecard and I will find theme in thi ook and I will take a ook that’ mae not organized ver well and I will do the organizing. On page 30 ou talk aout thi and ou talk aout it on page 180, ou hould have put thoe two together ut I’m going to put thoe two together. And I find the theme in there and I reak the ook down into the git of it, the heart of it. And, I categorize it later a I move into the proce, I ee thee theme and pattern that ou were talking aout that an apprenticehip, creativit, working with a mentor, ocial intelligence. lowl the chapter come to life and I’m now ale to organize it in variou chapter. ach part ha the title of the ook on it and i color coded, having different color of card, depending on the kind of uject that I’m dealing with. If it’ the art, cience, politic, etc. It’ elaorate. You don’t want to know everthing aout it, ut with thi there now, if I’ve done all that work and I it down to write, I have at m fingertip, all of thi. If I want to do Leonardo da Vinci, I have 50 notecard that reak him down from ever poile angle. I can now, with that, write in a much fuller, deeper, dimenional wa ecaue I’ve taken all thi information and I’ve organized it. http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 8/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… -omeone alo aked him aout it in hi Reddit AMA . Here i that exchange with ome info aout the color coding : uer: Roert, I’m a ig fan of our. In one interview ou mentioned our reearch method for our ook (with index card and hoe oxe). Could ou provide ome more detail on the proce of our method ? [–]roertgreene I read a ook, ver carefull, writing on the margin with all kind of note. A few week later I return to the ook, and tranfer m crile on to note card each card repreenting an important theme in the ook. For intance, in Mater, the theme of mirror neuron. After going through everal dozen ook, I might have three hundred card, and from thoe card I ee pattern and theme that coalece into hardcore chapter. I can then thum through the card and move them around at will. For man reaon I f ind thi an incredile wa to hape a ook. uer: Ah–found it ! till curiou aout the color, ut I gue the oviou anwer i that the would repreent categorie, topic, and the like. [–]roertgreene The color repreent categorie, ou are correct. o, for intance, with the War ook, lue card would e aout politic, ellow trictl war, green the art and entertainment, pink card on trateg, etc. I could ue thi in everal wa. I could glance at the card for one chapter and ee no lue or green card and realize a prolem. I could alo take out all the card of one color to ee which tor I liked et, etc. It alo made the hoeox look prett cool. uer: That’ ingeniou–o ou’ve effectivel created a relational dataae in a hoeox, ecaue ou can have man to man relationhip etween card color and chapter. Your paion for organization i one of the (man) thing that make our work o incredil fun to read and reference. Thank ou for haring ome of that with u. -It look like the tem i alo ver imilar to Luhmann’ Zettelkaten. Though again, hi dicipline eem to exceed mine ecaue I am a lot le ordered. –Ronald Reagan alo kept a imilar tem that apparentl ver few people knew aout until he died. In hi tem, he ued 3×5 notecard and kept them in a photo inder theme. Thee note card–which were motl filled with quote–have actuall een turned into a ook edited the hitorian Dougla rinkle. Thee were not onl reponile for man of hi peeche a preident, ut efore office Reagan delivered hundred of talk a part of hi role at General lectric. There are aout 50 ear of practical widom in thee card. Far more than anthing I’ve aemled–whatever ou think of the gu. I highl recommend at leat looking at it. -It’ not totall diimilar to the Dewe Decimal tem and old lirar card catalog. -I’m ure there are other aweome people who ue a imilar tem. If anone ha example, end awa! http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 9/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… FA Q What do ou ue thee note card for? Whatever I want! Recentl I tarted tweeting quote that I had taken note of. ut that’ jut a little thing. I ue thee notecard for m life. When I have a prolem, I flip through them. When I am looking for material in m writing, I ue them. For intance, I wrote thi pot excluivel off m notecard (if ou couldn’t tell ). How do ou know what to write down? You jut write down whatever ou want. Don’t tre aout it. Thi i our tem. We all have our own preference. Peronall, I look for actionale, mall ized chunk. Where do ou put the card? I have one ig ox that I ued that’ actuall meant for photo. It’ called a Cropper Hopper. ut it took me a long time to acquire enough card to need that. efore, I ued the mallerVaultz 4×6 Index Card File oxe. There are alo cheaper cardoard verion out there. What do ou do when a ox get full? If I am taking note for a pecific project, like a ook, I give it it’ own ox. For intance, m Cah Mone ook i jut aout at the tage where it can fill up a Vaultz ox. After another hundred or o notecard, I’ll move it into it’ own Cropper Hopper. Wouldn’t digital e eaier? Ye. ut I don’t want thi to e ea. Writing them down hand force me to take m time and to go over everthing again (taking note on a Kindle i too ea and that’ the prolem). Alo eing ale to phicall arrange tuff i crucial for getting the tructure of our ook or project right. I can http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 10/27 8/23/2016 The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read | RyanHoliday.netThe Notecard System: The Key For R… move card from one categor to another. A I huffle through the card, I ump into tuff I had forgotten aout, etc. In’t it hard to carr around? Yeah, a little. ut o what? It pa off o it’ worth it. Joking aide, what I tend to do i jut take the ection I am working on with me. If I am working on chapter 2–I take thoe card. If I am writing a pot aout education, I’ll take the education card with me. Ver rarel do I find that I need the whole thing with me. How do ou rememer it all? That’ wh doing it phicall i o important. I am inveted in each one of thee card. I made them and arranged them with m own hand. Thi tactile relationhip help. A one reader put it, it help make a “memor palace.” I don’t vaguel rememer what I put on the note card, ut where I put it, what it’ connected to, what’ around it, when I did it, etc. Do ou review the card? Aolutel. If I am lacking inpiration or jut kicking omething new off, I alwa tr to flip ack through them. It doen’t have to e all of them either. Jut gra a few. Another example: When I wrote the new foreword for Trut Me I’m Ling, I tarted going ack through the card. When I tarting prepping the paperack of Growth Hacker Marketing (out in 2014), I went through the card and wa ale to find a place for ome that I hadn’t ued the firt time. ut wouldn’t vernote e etter? Mae for ou ut not for me. If that’ what ou want to ue then go for it. ut I think there i omething irreplaceale aout the phical apect. Phical ook, phical notecard, that’ the et in m opinion. What if omething happened to our ox? M houe recentl got roed and I wa o fucking terrified that omeone took it, ou have no idea. Thankfull the didn’t. I am actuall thinking of uing TakRait to have omeone create a digital ackup. In the meantime, thee oxe are what I’m running ack into a fire for to pull out (in fact, I ometime keep them in a fireproof afe). × Can You Recommend Any Books? Of Course. — Enter your email address Join 40,000+ Subscribers! Rememer there i no right and wrong wa to do thi. The tem that I have wa taught to me omeone and I made m own modification. Hi wa work et for him, and I have a wa that work etter for me. Make our own wa. ut I think ou’ll love thi tem. Thi pot originall ran on ThoughtCatalog.com. Comment can e een there. 4 287 Shares Like 192 Tweet 1197 In log 192 http://ryanholiday.net/thenotecardsystemthekeyforrememberingorganizingandusingeverythingyouread/ 11/27
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