Following my last post on efficient learning, If you like spaced repetition software, you're going to love incremental reading, a reader asked if I could describe how I use Dendro with hard copy books.
The first relevant point is how I mark the book. My markings within the book are very simple, <I put arrows around any bits of text that I find particularly engaging>, then put a star in the margin to help that portion of text stand out. I then put a mark at the top right corner of the page to show that there's a note on that page. This means that I can quickly flick through the book and identify on which pages there are notes. From time to time I may also jot down a thought that the passage has prompted.
When I start reading the book, I make an empty note in Dendro with the same note title as the book's title.
As I read, I use two bookmarks. The first bookmark says ‘Read to here', and the second says ‘Dendro from here'.
From there, whenever I'm using Dendro and the book note pops up, I pick up the hard copy of the book and go to the ‘Dendro from here' bookmark. I then work forwards through the book from this bookmark, re-reading the portions that I've marked and, if I still find them interesting, I'll either type a quick note summarising the idea into Dendro, or I'll copy out the passage verbatim into the Dendro note. In this way, Dendro acts as a prompt to pick up the hard copy and look back over the sections that I've marked. Those notes look like this.
Sometimes I work from my ‘Dendro from here' bookmark all the way to my ‘Read to here' bookmark, but I don't force myself to do so. I just read through the marked sections in the book and transfer them into the Dendro book note as I go, then stop when I feel like I've done enough, and go on to my next article within Dendro. Learning should be fun, the value of Dendro is it supports me to just hit ‘next' whenever I get bored of a particular article I'm reading, or note that I'm reviewing. No pressure, just fun learning.
The next time this particular book's notes pop up within Dendro, I'll read through the notes already there, and I may create some sub-notes for further pondering and refinement down the track. If I re-read a note within Dendro and think, ‘Wow, I really want to commit that to memory', I'll make a task. Here's what that task looks like,
I then quiz myself, check the answer (see below) and give myself a grade.
(For advice on creating good tasks, and reviewing them effectively whether in Dendro or other apps like Anki, see this article)
I can then use the search function within Dendro to find any Tasks I've made from the book, or a specific task:
I can also look back through the knowledge tree to find the original source of the quote : )
If anyone is curious to know how I use Dendro with PDFs (e.g., academic papers), give me a hoy and I'll blog on that too.
Good luck with your learning.