Unfortunately, when I revisit my highlights to write notes, I sometimes forget why certain passages struck me in the first place, making it harder for me to write. And so for me, this workflow reduces the friction for reading but adds more to the note-taking process.
I kinda do progressive summarization (also a concept by Tiago Forte) to get around that.
- Write down detailed notes.
- Revisit them a couple of days later, and rewrite them to be a bit more concise.
- Repeat step two again after a few days.
That way each note starts with just a couple of main points (mostly 3-5) that I feel like I want to get as a result when I’m opening the note, allowing me to quickly capture the essence. If I feel like I need more than that, I just scroll a bit down, allowing me to see the context that surrounds it.
As for the reading part, I kind of do both. Basically read a chapter or two highlighting the text, then re-visit the highlights and try to capture the essence of a chapter in my notes. Sometimes a chapter is insignificant enough for me that I won’t write down a single note, but I’d say on average it doesn’t take me more than 10 min to reflect on a chapter and write down notes related to it.
I also make sure to always paraphrase things differently instead of writing down quotes, unless the quote really sticks to me and I feel like I might want to re-use it (for example, quote it somewhere in an article).