The Powerful Way to take Notes as A PhD Student

Hi I’m Ben, I did a PhD and survived to tell the tale. What got me through was my level of organisation and the system I built to collect and process information; it basically felt like a PhD in organisation (it wasn’t it was in nanophysics). I wanted to share my note-taking approach as it’s something I think about a lot at the moment and still use avidly in my day-to-day life and work. Link to Protolyst here: Quick stats. I finished my PhD in 3.5 years. I wrote 5 papers (and 1 paper that never got published) in 18 months starting ~in year 2 of the PhD. My final thesis write up took 4 weeks. My viva (thesis defence) took 1 hour (but I hated it 😅) Very happy to answer any questions. Join the Protolyst Community Slack here: ---A bit about me now---- 🚀 I’m the CEO and founder of a company called Spin Up Science (). We help scientists turn their discoveries into start up companies to get breakthroughs into the hands of the public. 🧪 I’m the cofounder and director of the Science Angel Syndicate (). We invest in great science and great scientists looking to change the world. 📓 I’m the CEO of cofounder of Protolyst. The note-taking and linked knowledge app I mention in this video. Link to Protolyst here: (we just entered BETA! 👋 yes there will be bugs) 0:00 Introduction 1:31 Learning About Knowledge Management 3:50 The Three Principles of Good Note Taking 5:26 How To Take Fleeting Notes 8:23 Introduction to My Knowledge System 10:02 How to Takes Notes from Research Papers 12:35 How to Take Permanent Notes 17:10 Linking Your Knowledge Base 20:42 Using Workflow Tools 21:45 Conclusion! #gradschool #notetaking #phd #zettlekasten