Summarizing the main ideas of the material you read in your own words, as Luke advises here and elsewhere, does appear to increase retention. After experimenting with several different note-taking software programs, I’ve reached the conclusion that WikidPad is the best option available. I also try to write one-sentence summaries of every article and book I read, for future reference. Here a citation-management application might help. Of the ones I tried, citeulike strikes me as the most useful.
Summarizing the main ideas of the material you read in your own words, as Luke advises here and elsewhere, does appear to increase retention. After experimenting with several different note-taking software programs, I’ve reached the conclusion that WikidPad is the best option available. I also try to write one-sentence summaries of every article and book I read, for future reference. Here a citation-management application might help. Of the ones I tried, citeulike strikes me as the most useful.
Update: In case this is of use to anyone, I’m now using Springpad instead of WikidPad, and Diigo instead of citeulike.