In the recent post, I have made the argument on why you should have a Commonbullet notebook. And what are hard-hitting books. Those were basic posts that I request before you read this post. Only depending on tricks won't work in long term. This only says the "what" of it, not "why". And knowing your "why" is important in the long-term.
How to set up a CommonBullet notebook.
Notebook.
This is a humble notebook. Nothing fancy. Just have at least 200 pages.
Index.
Why I asked you to leave 15 pages, in the previous post, is for the index. This is where you keep all books and topics names. And this makes your notebook organized.
Spread.
What's spread is important to understand.
A spread is those two pages that you see when you opened a page.
Books.
Any hard-hitting book that you have read, open a new spread and write the book name and author's name.
And write them in bullet here. If you are done with 2 or three insights of that book and want to add insights into other books, then turn up a new spread to add a new topic.
Topics.
Commonbullet notebooks are just not for books, its also for online courses.
You can even write lessons you learned from a particular person not related to any book or any topic. (for example, Naval Ravikant).
As the basics have been down, let's take a case study.
Case Study Example
Suppose you finished reading Sublet Art Of Not Giving Fuck by Mark Manson. And assuming you find that book a hard-hitting book for you.
You should not try to write insights as per what's in the book. For example, you should not write what I have learned from chapter one.
Instead, you are writing insights that are most resonate with you, in a way that makes sense for you and only you.
You first finish reading that fully, ask yourself is that hard-hitting book. And only then proceed to write them in your own words.
Only add insights into Hard-hitting books.
You don't have to be limited to bullets.
I use dash for my own life example.
I use star for the most important lesson (for my current life).
I even draw diagrams or mind maps that I could make.
See the point is, that's your place to go crazy, from sketching or doodling to just using words to get across the book as fast as possible.
Just don't forget to write page numbers in each page. And add them to your index.
Suggested reading,
Take detailed notes only of those books in your CommonBullet notebook that you find hard-hitting, that too when you are re-reading that book.