Studying
How to study from your own notes before an exam
Rereading your notes feels like studying. Testing yourself on them works better. Here's how to do that with the notes you already have.
4 min read
Notes on studying, meetings and AI you can check.
Practical reading on getting more from the notes you already keep. Every research claim links to its source.
Latest posts
Studying
Active recall: how to quiz yourself from your own notes
Active recall means pulling an answer out of memory before you look. Here are four ways to do it with the notes you already have, and the research behind them.
5 min read
AI & sources
What to check before you give an AI tool your notes
Whether it's safe to put your notes into an AI tool depends on two things: what's in the notes, and what the tool does with them. Here's how to check both.
4 min read
AI & sources
What an AI citation tells you, and what it doesn't
A citation next to an AI answer tells you where to look. It doesn't tell you the answer is right. Here's what the research found, and a one-minute way to check.
4 min read
Note-taking
The Cornell note-taking method, with an example
Cornell notes split every page into notes, questions and a summary. The layout takes a minute to learn. The part that makes it work is what you do with the questions afterwards.
5 min read
Meetings & work
How to take notes on customer calls
A week after a customer call, you remember your impression, not their words. A short template, quotation marks and ten minutes after the call fix most of that.
5 min read
Meetings & work
How to keep a decision log your team will actually use
A decision log is a running list of what your team decided, when, who owns it and why. Here's a short template and the habits that keep it current.
4 min read
Note-taking
Dictation vs typing: which is better for taking notes?
Speaking is faster than typing on a phone, but a dictated note is a rough draft. Here's when to talk, when to type, and the five-minute edit that makes dictation worth it.
4 min read
Studying
The Feynman technique: learn a topic by explaining it simply
Explain a topic in plain words, find where your explanation breaks, go back to your notes, and try again. Here's the method step by step, with a worked example.
4 min read
Meetings & work
How to find what was said in a meeting or customer call
Nobody remembers a call word for word, including the people who were on it. Good notes, named consistently, are what make it findable a month later.
3 min read
Meetings & work
A simple notes system for founders
Three kinds of notes, one naming pattern and a thirty-minute weekly review. That's enough structure to find what a customer said in March, without building a second job out of your notes app.
4 min read
Studying
How to run a group study session that actually helps
A study group can be the most useful two hours of your week or a long coffee break. The difference is a goal, a plan and a habit of checking the source.
4 min read
Meetings & work
How to write meeting minutes people will actually read
Most minutes fail because they try to record the conversation. Good minutes record what was decided and who is doing what by when, and they fit on one screen.
4 min read
Studying
Interleaving: why mixing topics helps you study
Practising one topic at a time feels efficient. Mixing topics feels messier, and in many studies it leads to better test scores. Here's why, and how to do it from your notes.
4 min read
AI & sources
Keyword search vs asking your notes: what's the difference?
Keyword search finds the words you typed. Semantic search looks for what you meant. Each one misses things the other catches, so it helps to know which to reach for.
4 min read
Meetings & work
How to capture action items so they actually get done
Most action items die in the gap between "we should" and "I will, by Friday". A simple format, a two-minute recap and one follow-up habit close it.
4 min read
Note-taking
Five note-taking methods and when to use each
There's no single right way to take notes. There are five classic methods, each suited to a different kind of lecture or meeting, and it helps to know which is which.
4 min read
Meetings & work
How to take notes in one-on-one meetings
Keep one running note per person, a short template for each meeting, and a clear line on what doesn't belong in it. Here's how, for managers and reports.
4 min read
Studying
How to organize your notes for every course in a semester
Five courses, three lectures a week, slides, readings and labs. A little structure set up in week one means you can find any of it in week twelve.
4 min read
AI & sources
What is RAG? Retrieval-augmented generation, explained simply
RAG means an AI looks up relevant passages first and answers from them. Here's how that works, step by step, with a notes example, and where it still goes wrong.
4 min read
Studying
How to make a revision timetable you will stick to
Most revision timetables fail in week two, because they assume nothing will go wrong. Here's how to build one from your exam dates that has room for real life.
5 min read
Meetings & work
How to write a sales call follow-up from your notes
A good follow-up email proves you listened. Here's a short structure built from your call notes: their words, the agreed next steps, and the open questions.
4 min read
Studying
How to use spaced repetition with the notes you already have
You don't need a flashcard app or a new set of cards. A calendar, your lecture notes and a few minutes of recall at the right gaps will do.
4 min read
Studying
How to study for an exam in a week
A week is tight but workable. Here's a day-by-day plan built on testing yourself and spacing your reviews, plus what to cut if you fall behind.
4 min read
Studying
How to study from lecture slides without just rereading them
Lecture slides are an outline of the lecture, not the lecture itself. Here's how to fill them in, turn them into questions, and revise from them properly.
4 min read
Studying
How to keep research notes for your thesis
A thesis runs on hundreds of sources and months of feedback. A simple note system keeps track of who said what, in whose words, and what you decided to do about it.
4 min read
AI & sources
How to use AI for studying without skipping the learning
An AI tool can make studying faster and learning weaker at the same time. The difference is whether you try first and ask second.
4 min read
Meetings & work
How to synthesize user interviews from your notes
Ten interviews in, you have pages of notes and a strong hunch. Synthesis is how you find out whether the notes agree with the hunch, and it works well only when every finding can point back to who said it.
4 min read
AI & sources
Why AI answers make things up, and how sources help you check them
AI tools sometimes give fluent, confident answers that are wrong. Knowing why it happens tells you how to check them.
3 min read
Note-taking
The Zettelkasten method, explained without the jargon
A Zettelkasten is a collection of short notes, each written in your own words and linked to related notes. Here's where it came from and a version you can start this week.
5 min read
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