Literature notes correspond with a single source (book, article, video, etc.). They will generally be formatted with the following sections:

• Summary – a paragraph to capture the main ideas from the text in an informational way, in the same vein as a scientific abstract. There may also be a link to a private “raw” note that stores bibliographic data and all my direct highlights.
• Takeaways or atomic notes – distinct from summaries, these are points that I want to apply directly to my life or thinking.
• Key terms – context-dependent definitions, often lifted directly from the source material. These may be linked to “definition” (permanent) notes that contain a slightly different operational definition, or link several variant definitions of the same term.
• Notes – bulleted, complete sentences that paraphrase the source. Significant or interesting points will be converted to atomic permanent notes.
  • Subheadings reflect subsections of the source material, whether explicitly or implicitly divided.
  • Direct quotes I find particularly interesting or informative may be copied over, but the bulk of text should be my own writing.
  • I will also write down questions, ephemeral observations, and possible connections to other permanent notes.

Making a literature note is my way of “processing” raw source material. The goal of processing is to incorporate what I read into my existing knowledge base in a concrete way. Ideally, processing is done at least one day after finishing the original source.