There is always a tug of war between analog and digital notetakers. Analog note taking has psychological evidence that it helps us to better comprehend and remember our notes, while digital note taking has an advantage that it is easier to find notes that we are interested in.
How can we make our analog notes easier to find? By creating an index.
Is That The Same Thing As a Table of Contents?
Short answer. No.
Many of us will reserve the first few pages of a new notebook for a Table of Contents. This simply a topic (often the title) followed by the page number(s). These are often entered chronologically. As entries are made, the table of contents expands. Disconnected topics can and are written next to each other, such as in a CommonPlace book. It can also happen with other types of notes, such as those taken during meetings at work.
Examples of Tables of Content are shown here.
What’s Wrong With A Table of Contents?
Nothing. It gives us a quick overview of what’s inside.
But, it’s sometimes difficult to find what we are looking for, especially if the same idea occurs in multiple places
Look at the picture on the left. I have several entries for various topics concerning note taking. But what if I’m specifically interested in reading about techniques for linking like minded notes together? Where would I would look? One of the linking ideas I remember was called The Idea Compass. Where would I find that?
The answer is in creating an Index.
How to Create (and Use) An Index
My thoughts on Creating and Using an Index borrow heavily from Lion Kimbro’s article on note taking in the book Mindhacker as well as an internet article I found from Soren Bjornstad. Lion Kimbro had an earlier article on his note taking system (it was simplified later on, and published in the Mindhacker book), but you can read the original here.
Here are the key steps in the Indexing process.
- Number the pages in your notebook
- Create a place in your notebook for the index, probably either the front or the back, to make it easier to find. I tend to put mine in the back, reserving the front for the table of contents
- You’ll need to reserve several pages for your notebook. In my 240 page Commonplace Book I started off with 6 pages, but quickly ran out of room so I’m now using 7, You’ll probably need to experiment a bit.
- You’ll need to add capital letters to the index pages to separate the alphabetical entries, preferably in a contrasting color
- You’ll need to reserve some space for each letter. Mr. Bjornstad has the following suggestions.
- In a 240-page ruled notebook with 30 lines, I use five or six as a baseline number and add, subtract, or combine letters as needed.
- C usually takes up more space than any other letter. Give it at least one-third more space than a baseline amount.
- I takes up somewhat less space than average.
- J and K can be combined effectively into JK, using an average amount of space together.
- N and O can be combined into NO, using an average amount of space together.
- Q needs almost no space, as one would expect. I prefer to not combine it with either P or R, since they are average space-users, but rather to write it on its own, giving it only one or two lines.
- S needs more space than average.
- T does too.
- U and V can be combined into UV and still use slightly less space than average.
- W takes the most space of any of the end-of-the-alphabet letters, but can still use slightly less than average.
- XYZ123 can be just one section and still look empty most of the time. (123 indicates entries that start with a number, like 3-ring binder or 911.)
How Do I Use The Index?
The keys to the index are Keywords. Keywords are NOT the same as the title. For example, you can see that I refer to the Idea Compass in two places. These two entries are from different sources, and even from different media. I can quickly find both entries.
A good keyword helps you find what you are looking for, and also doesn’t refer to many different notebook entries. You’ll see above that I have the word “quotes” mentioned quite a few times. I need to create better index entries for my quotes so that I can find the exact quote that I’m looking for.
The most important point is that the Index is never finished! When reviewing your notes, or looking for something specific, as you think of new keywords, add them into your system.
You might find it helpful to roughly alphabetize your entries within each letter of your index. The system won’t be perfect, but it doesn’t need to be.