A desk only needs room for the page that is open.

The first pass

Read it once without a pen. The point is to see the shape, not to improve it yet.

Stay with the paragraph until one sentence feels heavier than the rest. That is the one worth keeping. The others can wait until you know why you marked this page.

Write enough that tomorrow’s you can find the spot without rereading the whole chapter. A name, a page, and the question you had not answered yet are usually enough.

What you notice

Notice the sentence you wanted to stop on. That is the one worth a note.

Stay with the paragraph until one sentence feels heavier than the rest. That is the one worth keeping. The others can wait until you know why you marked this page.

Write enough that tomorrow’s you can find the spot without rereading the whole chapter. A name, a page, and the question you had not answered yet are usually enough.

The second pass

Now mark only what you would need again next week. Everything else can stay in the paragraph.

Stay with the paragraph until one sentence feels heavier than the rest. That is the one worth keeping. The others can wait until you know why you marked this page.

Write enough that tomorrow’s you can find the spot without rereading the whole chapter. A name, a page, and the question you had not answered yet are usually enough.

Leave a margin

The margin is for the return, not for a summary of the whole page.

Stay with the paragraph until one sentence feels heavier than the rest. That is the one worth keeping. The others can wait until you know why you marked this page.

Write enough that tomorrow’s you can find the spot without rereading the whole chapter. A name, a page, and the question you had not answered yet are usually enough.

Put it away

Close the notebook. If the note was right, you will find it when you need the page number.

Stay with the paragraph until one sentence feels heavier than the rest. That is the one worth keeping. The others can wait until you know why you marked this page.

Write enough that tomorrow’s you can find the spot without rereading the whole chapter. A name, a page, and the question you had not answered yet are usually enough.