As I read I wish I could keep a journal and record all the facts that I can and follow points to their logical conclusions and tie up all lose ends for future reference, however I usually find myself waisting an hour or two writing and usually almost rewrite exactly what I read, even on personal reflections on religious matters. I thought it would be a good scientific method: Don’t scientists pencil in all the information that they possibly can in their research? Does anyone have any advice on how I could take beneficial notes without overwhelming my sweaty palms?
Thanks, God bless.
This answer is long, but for a reason.
I suggest you tailor your means to your end.
It sounds like you have an irrational obsession with theoretical possibilities that are unlikely to obtain. This is combated not by coming up with a better note-taking strategy, but by reassessing your need for information storage itself.
In fact, it sounds like you are not really thinking about what you are doing. When people take notes that end up being mere rewrites of the source, that is the dead giveaway that they are not thinking, and they should stop taking notes.
You wrote, “for future reference” - tell me about the last time you actually used a reference that you had set aside. Tell me also about a time when you wished you had set aside a reference but, alas, had nothing.
I knew a guy once who printed out every single email he ever received, because he wanted to keep them “just for reference, in case I need them later”. Well in several years, he never once needed to look back through his ever-growing stack of email printouts for anything. But most telling of all was this: before he decided to start printing them out, there had never been a time when he wished he had a printed copy of any email at all. In other words, the need was an imaginary one that he made up for no reason, one that had no basis in real life.
By contrast I knew another guy who used to empty out all of his pockets into a bowl he kept by the front door. He told me the reason he does this is because there have been so many times in the past when he forgot his wallet or couldn’t find his keys because they were in his other clothes that he changed out of after coming home from work. So now he always empties his pockets upon returning home. See, he had a real life need, and found a way to solve the problem.
So which of these two guys are you like? The one who already had a need that had actually happened in real life, or the guy who had an imaginary need that never happened?
Are my questions making sense to you? Do you understand what I am asking? I’m not asking what you
would do or would
like to do; I’m asking what you already have done so far.
