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by pessimizer 1429 days ago
I'm not strictly taking notes any more.

I'm journaling/free-writing to get extended/detailed ideas down that I've had, which consists of a bunch of text files in a directory that sometimes end up combined in subdirectories, often refer to each other, and are frequently appended to/refined.

But the main thing I'm doing note-wise is that first I read a thing through once, trying to carefully understand, but not necessarily commit to memory, everything before I move on. Then I read through it a second time trying to phrase every fact I encounter as question-answer pairs that go into a spreadsheet to be imported into an Anki subdeck for that thing.

This works in a similar way live (like meetings and phone calls), but I'm taking notes with paper and pencil, and later extracting the facts from them for Anki.

Things of only temporary importance get lumped into an "ephemeral" subdeck, where cards get suspended/deleted with extreme prejudice.

I do an hour to an hour and a half of Anki every morning. Might sound like a lot, but half of it is Spanish, and at least 15-20 minutes of it is done while shitting, so it's not like I would have been doing something else.

If I don't get up to an hour/hour-and-a-half, I add new cards to review until I get there. I also add new cards to review at other times of the day if I'm bored and want to kill five minutes.

I've been told this is similar to the Cornell Method, but with a lot more review.

YMMV: I use something called low-key Anki where the only buttons used are "Again" and "Good."

2 comments

You use sounds very, very close to mine. I also put so much information into Anki - it makes me look like a superhuman to recall some keyboard shortcut or Python function or algorithmic technique or RFC. Definitely has affected my employability - two of my last three gigs were from recommendations. Anki is my superpower, and I'm not shy to tell about it.
Offtopic:

> and at least 15-20 minutes of it is done while shitting

One of things I understood too late is what a proper shit takes 2-3 minutes at worst, I just used that time to be alone with my things and thoughts.

YMMV, of course.

Just be sure to wipe before it dries, don't wait until you get up. Tip for life ))
Take your upvote and wipe.
I actually take my time because of something I heard years ago - that it's the hurrying that does damage down there. My shits are actually pretty healthy, but I just take my time, don't strain, and don't hurry things. If I don't have 15 minutes to shit, I'm overscheduled.
> If I don't have 15 minutes to shit, I'm overscheduled.

... yes.

Of course in the previous comment I talk about a... proper shit, when everything works. But again, different folks have a differnt needs.

> One of things I understood too late is what a proper shit takes 2-3 minutes at worst, I just used that time to be alone with my things and thoughts.

Becoming a parent is what finally made me realize how wise it is to tack a couple extra minutes on your poo-time.