Think of yourself not just as a taker of notes, but as a giver of notes—you are giving your future self the gift of knowledge that is easy to find and understand.

Good notes should behave like memory

At its best, a good collection of notes is like a powerful extended memory. It helps us quickly answer questions like, “What did this person tell me?” “What should I remember about this topic?” “What things am I currently working on?” We think tens of thousands of thoughts every single day, and the job of a good

Your job as a notetaker is to preserve the notes you’re taking on the things you discover in such a way that they can survive the journey into the future. That way your excitement and enthusiasm for your knowledge builds over time instead of fading away.

It’s time to elevate the status of notes from test prep and humble scribblings into something far more interesting and dynamic. For modern, professional notetaking, a note is a “knowledge building block”—a discrete unit of information interpreted through your unique perspective and stored outside your head.

Facts are useful, ideas are interesting, and arguments are important, but only a story is unforgettable, life-changing even.

If you want to be more effective when sharing yourself and your work, you need to become a better storyteller. You need to know what a good story is and how to tell one.