How To Take Smart Notes
How To Take Smart Notes
4/5
It is a useful resource for anyone who reads and wants to retain and use the information from what they read.
Students, researchers, and creatives of all sorts will benefit from reading this book or looking more into the idea of taking smart notes using a commonplace book.
The key takeaway from the book is that you should have an intelligent note-taking system that allows you to connect new ideas together and retrieve information when you need it.
This includes creating a workflow that you can stick to and formatting system for your notes and not changing it once it works.
Stillness Is The Key
Rating 5/5
Ryan Holiday’s Stillness is the Key is one of my favourite books from 2019.
I believe that everyone can get something of value from reading Stillness and that you owe it to yourself to buy and keep on your bookshelf and turn back to regularly.
This is considered the third in a trilogy of books on Stoic philosophy that Ryan has written and while Obstacle and Ego are books that I highly recommend to people in certain instances, Stillness has something for everyone.
It’s also extremely practical.
Each chapter includes advice to apply the practices talked about which is something that wasn’t emphasized as much in OITW and EITE.
We live in a busy and chaotic world. Everyone is gasping for air as our attention is pulled in countless different directions and the key to it all is to find stillness in whatever way works best for you.
This book shares why stillness is so importantly (and has literally saved the world from meltdown) and how you can get more stillness in your life to become better at everything you do.
Quiet
Rating 5/5
I put off reading Quiet by Susan Cain for a number of years because I assumed I knew all I needed to about the introvert/extrovert divide and experience in the business world.
Extroverts and those with higher energy who talk more have always been perceived as smarter and as leaders. This book challenges those assumptions and shows how these perceptions are flawed and limiting great business leaders who prefer to operate with less publicity.
The information about nervous system differences between introverts and extroverts was fascinating. Introverts are more sensitive to stimuli even from infancy and this is one part of what contributes to the displayed quietness.
This book is also one of the first to dispel the shyness and introversion myth and show the differences between shyness which is more of a social anxiety issue with introversion being a tendency to recharge your batteries in solitude rather than with others.
In Quiet, Susan offers up practical advice for introverts on how to find balance and thrive in the business world which has also been reportedly very beneficial for extroverts who read this book and better understand and respect the needs of the introverts around them.
When it comes to being an introvert, know that you don’t have to follow the status quo with your leisure time by going to the bar with friends. It’s ok to get into nature alone or curl up and read a book. Also carve out restorative niches for yourself - these are places and activities in your work and home environment that help you to recharge.
Read this if you identify as an introvert and feel like it is holding you back or you have quiet children. This book is also hugely valuable for any leaders or business owners to understand their team better.
The Perfect Day Formula
Craig Ballantyne is one of the ultimate mentors in the world of fitness. I’ve always been an underling of many of his mentees more than Craig himself, but his impact on the fitness world has resonated strongly within me.
The Perfect Day Formula is Craig’s take on how to accomplish more and make the most out of every single day on this planet, because you never know when your time might be up. Memento mori.
This short book is well worth the price of admission. It breaks down the perfect day into three steps:
Control. Conquer. Concentrate.
Control your mornings - plan the night before, have a routine, and avoid distractions like phone calls and emails.
Conquer your afternoon - Maintain discipline with deadlines and making sure that meetings are limited to what is essential.
Concentrate in the evening on what is important to you - family time, walking your dog, hobbies, and productive winding down for the night (not glued to the tv).
Flow
Flow by Mihaily Cszkizentmihalyi is an essential read for anyone studying flow and world-class performers. This classic on the subject is the layman’s terms version of the decades of research that Cszikzentmihalyi did on studying and coining the term of flow state.
This book goes on a deep dive through the subject of happiness and optimal experience which is usually how flow gets defined.
It starts by exploring happiness and how we consciously process the state of happiness and then digs deeper into the state of flow and how it gets produced through various activities.
Ultimately flow requires a challenge be pushed to the limits of the individuals capabilities. Whether it is assembling widgets in a factory and striving to constantly do it a little faster, or free soloing a rock wall that has never been done before. Just about any activity or job can become flow-producing when the right conditions are met.
The Bullet Journal Method
I stumbled upon Bullet Journaling not too long ago which happened to be just in time for the Bullet Journal Method book to be released. Ryder Carrol, the creator of Bullet Journaling (fondly known as BuJo), is one of those thirty-something-year-olds who embodies the sage wisdom of an elder who has already lived a full life. I was captivated by the way he relates his journaling method to be more mindful and intentional with the tasks you do and your daily schedule. He explains it in a way that is a beautiful mix of zen and stoic, operating your notebook like an objective observer.
The Bullet Journal Method is a complete guide to how to put together your own Bullet Journal as well as a dive into the philosophy and science that ties journaling to practices of mindfulness. It is a very nice and fun to read book as it pulls in pages from actual Bullet Journals to showcase different components and examples which makes it feel like a field guide or perhaps like you are reading someone’s private journal. I liked it a lot. It was a fun read with a lot of good productivity advice as well as a very interesting take on mindfulness.
I’ve written previously about my thoughts on how the perfect productivity tool does not exist in an app and so when my timely discovery of BuJo came about I figured I would dive into the world of BuJo and see how it could benefit my organization. Bullet Journaling has been a simple, yet elegant solution to getting thoughts out of my head and onto paper as well as organizing my tasks. While many people seem to think that BuJo is life-changing or revolutionary, I’m fairly confident that anyone who has ever written things down before and kept a journal of their actions will find many similarities between the way they previously did things and Bullet Journaling but putting it altogether as a complete system does provide a lot more benefit to staying organized and intentional with your work.
Braving The Wilderness
Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown follows the track of Brene’s other books and her field of research which is about vulnerability and courage and leads us on the quest to find our true belonging.
BTW shares stories and advice on how you can act with more courage about sharing your vulnerabilities and this is what will ultimately allow people to get out of their own way for success and finding their place of belonging in the world.
Brene has one of the most-watched TED talks, which if you haven’t seen before is worth watching to decide whether this book is something worth checking out for you or not.
I definitely think the message in Braving the Wilderness is a strong one that many people can benefit greatly from by studying through a few times and then some more.
Anything You Want
Anything You Want by Derek Sivers is collection of short stories and lessons about how Derek built CD Baby, his online music store for independent musicians. CD Baby became renowned for its customer service as Derek built it to great success.
This short book / audiobook contains a lot of important lessons for any entrepreneur to pay attention to and is worth reading through a few times at least. At lot of books belabour their points with overdrawn arguments but not this one. So if you’re short on time but need to absorb a lot of knowledge from a successful entrepreneur, you’ll enjoy Anything You Want.
The audiobook is also read by Derek who’s a great storyteller and so I highly recommend checking out the audio version if you can.
Life Value 5/5
Entertainment Value 5/5
Why We Sleep
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker is the definitive answer if you need any convincing of how important sleep is to our health and performance both on a daily and long-term basis.
I listened to an audiobook version of this but think that it’s so valuable that it’s well worth buying a hardcover copy of for note taking and referencing whenever you need an answer for how something related to sleeping works.
Each chapter in the book details a specific benefit of sleep and what happens when we deprive ourselves of enough quality sleep.
Sleep is deeply tied to our evolution and our ability to build shelters to allow ourselves to get into a deep sleep with both hemispheres of our brain is suggested to be part of what allowed us to advance compared to our primate ancestors.
Sleep is important for everything from memory retention to athletic performance to blood sugar control and weight gain so if you need any support for why you need enough sleep, check out this book.
Living With The Monks
Living With The Monks - Jesse Itzler
After spending a month living and training with a SEAL known as Goggins, Jesse Itzler decided to follow up on his journey of learning through experience with experts by living with Monks at a monastery in upstate New York. In this book Jesse shares in the wisdom he gained in his 15-day experience of peace and contemplation.
While I didn't like this book as much as SEAL, it was a refreshing taste of leading by example rather than just another flowery book about mindfulness or finding peace within yourself.
There are more than enough nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout this book to make it worthwhile to read, or in my case listen to, and was an entertaining story from start to finish.
Life value 4/5
Entertainment value 4/5
Stealing Fire
Stealing Fire- Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal
Stealing Fire is a look at the state of Ecstasis and gets its name from an allusion to Prometheus - the titan who stole fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to humans, thus sparking the progress of civilization.
Ecstasis is the act of “stepping beyond oneself” and refers to experiences of the subconscious mind taking over our everyday consciousness. Ecstasis was traditionally achieved through long-term contemplative practices and also a rich history of animals consuming psychoactive plants. It is hypothesized that the consumption of these plants and fungi has been involved in the progress of human evolution and been critical to our development of cognition.
Stealing Fire breaks down the ecstatic state into the four components of the STER experience - selflessness, timeless, effortlessness, and richness and explores its relationship to the flow state and the neurobiology behind it. The book then explores the different methods of achieving ecstatic states including new technologies that are breaking through the mystery and the taboos of exploring altered states.
This is an extremely interesting read and has a lot of value to some of the changes in legislature being made in North America currently. While many people will be exploring Michael Pollan’s newest book on this subject, “How To Change Your Mind,” I think that Stealing Fire published a few years ago, is an interesting parallel to explore on the subject of altered states.
Life Value: 4/5
Entertainment Value 5/5
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck - Mark Manson
Life Value 5/5
Entertainment Value 5/5
The Subtle Art really is written as the first and last self-help book you’ll ever need to read. Even if you’re a self-help addict always digging into the latest trend or opinion on whatever secret will change your life, you should give this book a read. I hated the title when I first saw this book and refused to read it for that reason. It was when Ryan Holiday had it at the top of his list of books to read if you could only read a limited number of books this year that I figured I would give it a shot and dive in.
Mark Manson is a great storyteller and while some of his stories get pretty silly, this book is so entertaining to read that you’ll be burning through the pages. The lessons in this book are so important for so many people to comprehend and take action on towards achieving greater happiness and life satisfaction that you really owe it to yourself to give it a chance.
I’ve heard mixed thoughts on the writing style and some people think that it’s too much “bro-speak” which I can defnintely see being an issue.
The main takeaways:
Only give a fuck about things that are true and are immediate and important.
Happiness requires struggle. We all must suffer from problems.
You are not special - even world-class performers struggle with things. They got to where they are by facing their failures.
Eliminate your shitty values and build your values upon states that are achieved internally.
Take extreme ownership of your life. Even if someone else is to blame for your unhappiness, only you are responsible for your state of unhappiness.
AIM - Action - Inspiration - Motivation. We wait around for inspiration to strike us to get motivated to take action towards a goal but if you reframe it and just start moving you can fire up your own inspiration and motivation feedback loop.
Choose yourself - say no to things that don’t matter to you and eliminate FOMO. Greater success and happiness comes through committing to things long-term.
Memento mori - in the face of the inevitability of death there is no reason to ever give in to one’s fear, or embarrassment, or shame, since it’s all a bunch of nothing.
The Warrior Ethos
The Warrior Ethos - Stephen Pressfield
Life Value: 4/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
The Warrior Ethos is a brief and entertaining read about the code that populations like the Spartans lived by. If you loved the movie 300 and want to hear more about the real lives of the Spartans, this is a great read.
The Warrior Ethos is a strict moral code of the rules that dictate the lives of warrior tribes. In writing this, Pressfield draws the parallel to all humans and the values that can be extracted from warriors to live a better life. This includes taking the values that the warriors applied to fighting war and turning the fight inward to direct it to become mentally stronger and more balanced.
Who's this book for:
- Anyone who loved the movie 300
- Mind flayers looking to forge an unbeatable mind
- People interested in the history of warrior tribes
Who's this book not for:
- If you're looking for a long and intricate book this one won't satisfy that urge as it's short and to the point.
On Writing Well
On Writing Well - William Zinsser
“Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area, garbage collectors into waste-disposal personnel and the town dump into the volume reduction area.”
Rating:
5/5 - Life Value
4/5 - Entertainment Value
Who's this book for:
- Writers, particularly non-fiction writers.
Who's this book not for:
- Anyone looking for a book for purely entertainment value.
On Writing Well is a guide to writing better as a non-fiction writer in any field. This book is a perfect example of applying the craft of writing to solve the problem to book set out to solve in a to-the-point yet entertaining style. Zinsser is a master of the craft and provides countless tips along with examples of good writing and bad writing - along with how to fix it. This is the type of book writers should regularly revisit and keep on hand when tackling their biggest challenges to make sure they've satisfied the criteria of writing well.
Some of the essential points include:
- Be yourself. Don't flourish your words necessarily or use breeziness, condescension, or cliches.
- Cut out small words that make your writing a little bit less convincing.
- Leave your readers with just one provocative thought that they didn't have before reading your piece.
- Writing that will endure tends to consist of words that are short and strong.
- Clear writing is the result of a lot of tinkering and no writing decision is too small to be worth a large expenditure of time.
Mind Gym
Mind Gym - Gary Mack
“Show me a guy who is afraid of looking bad and I can beat him every time”
Rating: 5/5
Mind Gym by Gary Mack is the ultimate guide to sports psychology and mastering the inner game with sports. Gary Mack was a big-time sports psychologist who had worked with athletes in a wide range of professional leagues. This is the type of book you can’t fully appreciate until you start to apply the information in the book to yourself.
The writing style in this book is very blunt. Each chapter serves its purpose with a couple of quotes from athletes and then an example of how the practice is applied or a case study of how an athlete has used that principle. There are no excess words or rambling sentences to lose the point over, which is great because each principle can be read over in a few minutes and then used for yourself.
Athletes dedicated to maximizing their performance and matching their inner excellence to performance on their field of choice will appreciate this book and find value in it. Sports psychology isn’t a brand new revelation so many of the topics may be recognizable to the experienced athletes reading this book but it is still a great book and reference to carry with you as an athlete.
Ego Is The Enemy
Ego Is The Enemy - Ryan Holiday
“If you go looking you’ll find history is made of individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition.”
Ego Is The Enemy might be my favourite book written by Ryan. It follows the same structure of most of his other books and works tightly around a central thesis with each chapter offering specific historical examples and support.
Ego, in the modern sense of the term that has been developed, is the not the Freudian meaning of the term of being the driver behind the car is the Id. Ego is that low-level narcissism or self-importance that craves you always be noticed. Ego is the need for more followers on Instagram and likes, comments, and retweets.
EITE might be described as a self-help book but in an ironic way, as most self-help books serve to bolster self-confidence and raise up the individual to grandiose levels, Ego tries to break you down and say that there's nothing special about you. Serve a greater purpose with your work and don't even worry about getting credit for it.
I believe that everybody owes it to themselves to read this book and put into practice many of the lessons it has to offer on separating your purpose, successes and failures from the need to have them always be recognized by others.
Sapiens
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
“The real root of suffering is the never-ending and pointless pursuit of ephemeral feelings, which causes us to be in a constant state of tension and dissatisfaction.”
Sapiens - a brief history of humankind is exactly as it is described. There is an awful lot of information crammed into this book! It's a fantastic way to learn more not only about our physical evolution, but also the way our development has shaped the very essence of our psyche. Bill Gates has called this his favourite book to recommend everyone read and I think that everyone really should read it. I wouldn't be surprised if this book or information adapted from the subjects in this book becomes compulsory reading for high school students.
What has allowed Homo sapiens to conquer the world above all else is due to the unique language systems we have developed and our ability to store information external to what can be held in memory.
Harari is also devout meditator and advocate of mindful practices and if nothing else, this book provides profound value with the information about happiness and finding meaning in life.
Bird By Bird
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Many successful authors call Bird by Bird the best book on better writing ever written. I loved reading the book. While it leans towards how to better fiction, I think there is plenty for non-fiction writers to take away, especially as it relates to the life and habits of writers.
The main point is that you shouldn't obsess over getting published and just enjoy the process of writing because becoming published is not all that it's cracked out to be but the writing life is if you truly enjoy it.
Lamott is a great writer and will have you laughing and crying with this book. While writers will appreciate the book the most, it's so well written that I think everyone can find something of value in it.
Conspiracy
Conspiracy - Ryan Holiday
“Fate sends to the conspirators of the world the best of its Murphy’s Law and entropy and crises of confidence.”
Conspiracy is Ryan's first adventure into a different type of narrative than his typical form of non-fiction writing and he nailed it. The book details the battle between billionaire Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel and Gawker, once the internet's hub of most outlandish gossip. After being personally offended by Gawker, Thiel conspired to take them out once and for all so that they couldn't smear the names of any other people partial to privacy. This all culminated in the case of Hulk Hogan's sex tape scandal.
While the general information about the case may be generally available, Ryan was given intimate access to both sides of the story and tried to remain unbiased in his approach to recounting the story and detailing how the narrative aligns with the traditional path of conspiracy.
As with all of Ryan's books, this one is a real page-turner that you'll be unable to put down.
12 Rules For Life
12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos - Jordan B. Peterson
In the past few years, Dr. Peterson has dramatically come under the interrogation light of the media. I don't invest much time into most sensationalized twaddle, but this story has caught my attention as Dr. Peterson is a professor in the psychology department of my alma mater and a number of my close friends were in his classes and absolutely loved him as a professor.
12 Rules For Life is Peterson's attempt at publishing a book for the general public. I call it an attempt because if you've ever listened to any of the podcasts, lectures, or new stories that Jordan has been a part of, you'll know that he processes each point he makes with a fine-tooth comb and you're extremely unlikely to catch him off-guard or contradicting himself. This book does justice to his logic and it is challenging at times to follow his arguments and how they connect together. For this reason, I was hesitant to consider it a book that deserves a 5/5 from me.
Reviewing the books and the notes you have taken on a book are an essential step in the process and only after this step has been completed can a book be properly judged in a reader's eyes. Upon review, I have determined that this book is worth its weight in gold for the right person, at the right time. The complexity and weaving of narrative into the arguments for each of the 12 rules adds to and does not subtract from, the value of the book. I see it this way now, as this book has offered up an opportunity for virtually every open-minded person to gain something useful from most, if not all, of the 12 rules as they are outlined. The book also takes you on a journey into the deepest Hells of human nature, which is something that very few people offering up guidance on "self-help" are willing to do.
Because of the complexity of the book and the arguments, this is the type of book that grows in value as you read it multiple times, argue with it and create a dialogue, and review it for greater understanding. It is for this challenge inherent in the journey that the book takes you on, just like in life, that it is a book I would recommend everyone to read.