Deana Birks

It all started in the doctor’s office, chatting with a nurse who was considering buying a Kindle. She hadn’t done much reading for pleasure since nursing school and she was looking forward to reading something that wasn’t related to her job.

“I love my Kindle!” I enthused. “I read on it every morning while I drink my coffee.”

“What are you reading now?” she asked.

“It’s called 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and I’ve been reading it for the last several days.”

“Sounds fascinating. What’s it about?”

“Uh, well … see … it’s … about … like, I guess some of the challenges or whatever of the upcoming, um, years.”

What. the. heck.

I’d been reading the book for days on end and I couldn’t think of one intelligent sentence to string together about its contents?

When I got home and pulled out my device, I saw that I’d made 140 highlights in this book! Yes, 140 times Yuval Noah Harani said something that struck me as interesting enough to remember later, yet I wasn’t even finished reading the book and already remembered none of it. Ironically, the first highlight said:

In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.

Nor was this an isolated incident. It’s not like I remembered the main points of every other book I’d ever read and this book alone failed to stick in my mind. It was much worse than that.

When I joined Readwise and imported my Kindle highlights from the last decade, I had “read” more than a thousand books and I barely remembered most of them. Some I’m certain I only read the introduction or first few chapters. Others it was clear I’d spent a good deal of time with but I still hadn’t retained much. There were probably ten that had made a real impression on me, though I may not be able to articulate that impression clearly. It was more like a vague sense that I enjoyed my time with the book and thought of it fondly.

So, was I actually reading every morning while I drink my coffee? Or was I just drowsing in my reading chair, hypnotically staring at the screen?

In the time since, I’ve read books about zettelkasten and commonplace books and building a second brain and taking smart notes. I’ve watched YouTube videos where people show off their elaborate systems for never forgetting anything. I’ve tried notebooks and journals and apps (so many apps!).

In the last few years I’ve learned what works for me, what frustrates me, what doesn’t work for me but I wish it did, and what was a complete waste of time (and, often, money!).

If you’re looking to get more out of your notes and reading and to leverage your thoughts into projects instead of something you forget about five minutes later, you’re in the right place. I want to help you manage the information in your life so that it’s useful to you.

Opening your notes shouldn’t feel like opening one of those sitcom closets where you get buried under a pile of clutter and a soccer ball bounces off your head.