Take notes with the book closed
This is meant to somewhat activate active recall. The idea is that you read the content first, understand it and process it. And then attempt to write your notes afterwards from memory and only after you have exhausted your memory and understanding do you return to the source material to fill in the gaps of your knowledge.
Follow On Thoughts
It probably doesn’t necessarily have to be notes, perhaps it’s the same effect as drawing a mind map with the book closed of the topic of interest. I only say notes, because it’s probably the most common way of distilling learned information.
A faster alternative is to directly start making flashcards with the book closed and then going back to the book as you review those cards. This is faster, since you’re probably going to making flashcards from those notes / mindmap or whatever anyways, so it skips the middle medium (Never trust your brain to remember, always make flashcards for things you want to remember). I tend not to do this with my medicine notes because I like to habe my notes as reference and my flashcard application of choice (Anki) does not succeed well in this department.
Connected Ideas (Similar / Opposing Ideas)
- Notetaking
- Learning Phase
- Studying
Backlinks
Notetaking is only thinking if something comes out of it
Bounds
Bounds
- Bounds
- Take notes with the book closed, which is the practical version of the same idea. Closing the book removes the option of transcribing, so it forces the synthesis rather than relying on me to notice the difference.
Workflows
Claims that Came out of Here
- Phones to collect and triage, not to read
- Take notes with the book closed
- Annotate your books
- Read it later apps make you more productive
Workflows
Claims that Came out of Here
Claims that Came out of Here
- Phones to collect and triage, not to read
- Take notes with the book closed
- Annotate your books
- Read it later apps make you more productive
Cite this note
@online{hoque2025take,
author = {Sabiqul Hoque},
title = {Take notes with the book closed},
year = {2025},
url = {https://sabicool.github.io/Braindump/notes/20251006153940-take_ntoes_with_the_book_closed.html},
organization = {Braindump}
}