Note Types

Oftentimes when working or reading for leisure, there’s a particular text we either wish to highlight or jot down for future reference. Literature Notes are the notes you make as comments to the text you have selected or marked down.

Taking literature notes adds context and helps you remember the thoughts you had when reading or writing down the information. The whole point of adding comments to the text you highlight is to help you summarize the point of the text, to include your thoughts and your key takeaways from it.

The worst feeling when researching and taking notes is finding notes you previously made without any helpful context as to why you wrote the information down in the first place. Taking good notes is important so you don’t ever have to double back on your work.

Tip: It’s best to write down more information than later necessary.

For research purposes, make it a habit to include the book title, author, chapter, and page number. If you find yourself needing further context than your comment and notes provide, you won’t have to search the entire book to find the exact location you referenced to. Instead, you can immediately open to the right chapter your note addresses. ## Reference Notes

The technique of grouping information, organizing ideas into categories, and creating tags to help you find grouped information at a later stage is the art of reference notes. When we reference something, it is safe to say that the topic or idea we are writing about is part of a bigger topic or is information accredited to someone or someplace else. We use this technique in various daily circumstances and the function is available on almost every software and app available today.

Common ways we use referencing in everyday life include the use of the hashtag (#) on social networking platforms, attributing credit when writing a thesis paper, or when adding a hyperlink to the source location of a particular referenced media file such as pictures, GIFs, or videos. Using a search engine when interested in a particular keyword and tagging others or replying to messages in chat apps also constitute referencing. Helpful ways to mark reference notes include applying a hashtag when using digital software, color coding, or including a unique ID address. ## Permanent Notes
Permanent notes are stand-alone ideas that can be made without any direct context to other sourced information such as books, videos, or other available data.

Permanent notes can be made as a recap or summary of the information just researched or learned, but can also be thoughts that popped into your brain while thinking over a myriad of information or while analysing any given context.

The aim of permanent notes is to process the notes you have made and analyze how they affect your interests, thinking, and research. You then cherry pick the notes that add value to your existing ideas and connect the new information to what you already know and have saved in your database. ## Fleeting Notes
Because our brain works 24/7 and our thinking cannot be contained to a dedicated note-taking moment, we might take notes on the go. When you jot down the random ideas, thoughts and information that untimely flow through your mind, you are taking fleeting notes.

Fleeting notes are unstructured and unorganized notes. They serve as temporary holders of information for later use that you will need to organize into your system. In short, fleeting notes are temporary reminders of ideas.