The 7-Word Note-Taking System That Turns Any Book Into A Life Upgrade

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I don’t know about you, but for many years, my book note-taking “system” looked like this:

1. Step one: Highlight every sentence that sounds smart.

2. Step two: Write a few random thoughts in the margins.

3. Step three: Close the book, put it back on the shelf, and feel accomplished.

4. Step four: Never look at any of it ever again.

Sound familiar?

The thing is, as readers, most of us think we’re being productive when we highlight and underline a bunch of stuff.

But the truth?

Most of those great lines we underline turn into mental clutter, useful for 5 minutes, but then forgotten forever shortly after.

So what do we do?

We keep reading, keep underlining, keep buying more books, keep feeling productive. But nothing in our life actually changes.

A few years ago, I got tired of that loop.

If I was going to spend hundreds of hours reading books that promised to change my life, I figured I owed it to myself to actually remember and use the best stuff inside them.

But I knew it had to be dead simple. Why? Because complicated systems always fail to stick long-term.

So I made up a tiny rule for myself that changed everything:

I call it…

The “7-Word Note” rule.

Here’s how it works: