When I was in school, the teachers always emphasized the importance of taking notes in class and while reading. In the first semester of junior high school, our English teacher gave us a requirement to bring our own notebook to record the grammar knowledge she taught in class. From then on, every English class, whenever grammar or vocabulary appeared on the blackboard or in the PPT, I would immediately jot it down with a pen. This is my first memory of taking notes.
On January 24, 2021, I made my first note using flomo, which was also my first encounter with a note-taking app. I don't have much recollection of how I came across flomo. Today, nearly three years later, I read the book "The Method of Note-Taking" written by Shao Nan and Light, the founders of flomo. I used to think that note-taking was simply about jotting down whatever I wanted to remember in any way I liked. However, after reading this book, I realized that there is a method to note-taking, and learning these methods can save a lot of unnecessary detours.
There was another popular book about note-taking in the past two years called "The Card Note-Taking Method" by Shenke Alunsi. It gave me the impression of being quite obscure, both in terms of translation quality and language style, making it difficult to understand and apply the card note-taking method mentioned in the book. On the other hand, "The Method of Note-Taking" is completely different. Its biggest feature is its simplicity and the combination of theory and practice. While reading it, I felt like I was in a classroom listening to a teacher sharing their experience of note-taking, with specific examples provided for reference.
The book is divided into four parts, and based on my understanding after reading it, I believe it mainly introduces three aspects: why we should take notes, what we should take notes on, and how to take notes effectively.
Why should we take notes? Taking notes is not about collecting information, but rather hoping that these knowledge can be helpful when we encounter problems in the future, that is, "reinforcing our future selves". For example, as a student majoring in human resource management, recording knowledge about performance management may come in handy when I work in that field in the future.
What should we take notes on? Based on my note content, most of them are my occasional inspirations and ideas, moments of "enlightenment". This is also the reason why flomo was created, to conveniently and quickly record inspirations, as well as valuable and meaningful content seen on social platforms.
The book mentions that we can record the following content:
- Record our own thoughts
- Record inspiring content
- Record counterintuitive information
- Record things that evoke emotions
- Record our own practical experience
- ...
How to take notes effectively? Taking notes is not about the end result, but rather a process. As the book says, input should not be the goal, but rather a process to achieve the goal. The ultimate goal is to change ourselves and the world.
Therefore, the key to effective note-taking lies in information preprocessing. First and foremost, do not simply copy and paste, but learn to take notes in your own words. Increasing the difficulty of note-taking can help us remember the content more effectively. Secondly, review your notes regularly. I didn't have the habit of reviewing in the past, so I wasn't clear about what I had recorded or not in my flomo. By reviewing our notes, we allow our brains to continue receiving stimulation from past notes. This is also an important method of preprocessing notes. On one hand, it can counteract the forgetting curve, and on the other hand, it can promote knowledge internalization. During this process, we may have new insights and thoughts about our past notes, and we should supplement them in a timely manner. Lastly, use tags to categorize your notes. The function of tags is mainly for classification and retrieval. Unlike folders, we can add different tags to the same note, and different keywords can be used to search for corresponding notes. The book also mentions tagging methods, whether it's the original P.A.R.A. principle or the modified I.P.R.A. principle by Shao Nan, they should be adapted to our own habits. It doesn't have to be exactly the same, and we can adjust it according to our own needs to fit our habits. I'm still exploring my own categorization method.
The book also discusses how to use notes. It is not advertising for flomo, in fact, the methods mentioned in the book can be applied to any note-taking app, or even the most basic handwritten notes.
Therefore, there is no need to be too entangled in choosing a note-taking app. Most people don't need very specialized features, such as the popular term in the past two years - "double-linked". Only a few people truly understand and use this feature, while most users only need to record and easily retrieve their notes.
In my article "How to Recommend Blogs and Note-Taking Apps to Others?" on Douban, I also mentioned that using a note-taking app should start from simple to complex. For beginners, choosing an all-in-one app like Notion or Obsidian is easy to give up because there is too much to learn and the cost is too high.
If you have never used a note-taking app and want to start taking notes, I think flomo is the best choice.
I uninstalled flomo for a while and imported the data into my self-deployed memos program, naively thinking that memos could perfectly replace flomo.
Originally, it was intended to be an open-source alternative to flomo, but now it is more like a decentralized microblog. The content can be made public, and some people collect memos sites to create a small square, which is intended to facilitate viewing of publicly available content. As a result, memos has become a platform for showcasing content, increasing exposure, and driving traffic to one's own website, including one's own thoughts as well as various websites, videos, and images. But I have always believed that the content stored on flomo or memos should be private.
At the same time, it is unknown what memos wants to become as a product. There is no roadmap on the project page, and when users suggest adding new features, the developers add them if they think it's feasible. As Han Yu said, memos is a project, while flomo is a product, and there is a huge difference between the two. A project is something that is created with code, while a product is created through thinking and code. The most important difference between the two is the "thinking" process.
The philosophy of flomo is to continuously record, and the meaning will naturally emerge. This corresponds exactly to the idea that note-taking is a process and requires a long-term perspective. Your notes will bring meaning and value at some point in the future.
Therefore, last month, I abandoned memos and returned to flomo.
In conclusion, I would like to end this article with my short review of this book on Douban:
A great book that is easy to understand, rich in content, and not just an advertisement for flomo. It truly introduces methods and insights into note-taking, and I recommend it to people who already have the habit of taking notes or those who want to start taking notes.