Chewing Gum at a Dinner Party

There is a huge amount of theological and equipping content online that it can be overwhelming to figure out how to not just collate it all, but organise your thoughts and learning.
I've figured out ways to streamline how I consume a lot of my information, but this doesn't mean I've really understood and learnt it and have it organised in my own mental Bible roadmap.

I've started to think of how I process my learning in four levels.
Each of these levels builds on the other and can't really be treated separately, but the higher the level the more effort is required on me as the consumer.

Level 1 - Consuming Content, But No Notes

This is a lot like chewing gum. It's quick and easy, your breath smells fresh for a short about of time, but you don't really eat it for nutrients.

Listening to or reading content without taking notes is very easy and simple. But the content I've learnt doesn't stick around - much like the freshness of chewing gum. If you were to ask me about details on a topic I've just listened to, I'd probably sound quite intelligent as it's fresh in my mind.

But if were to ask me to explain it just a couple of hours later, it wouldn't be as fresh and I would not be as articulate.

It's important to understand that there is nothing wrong with this level - you need to consume content to learn. But if you're just consuming and not processing, you're essentially spitting it out once you're done.

If I am honest, this is the level that I am at a lot of the time. I read a lot and listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks. I may even highlight or clip something, but that is about it.

Level 2 - Fleeting Notes

This is like getting take-out food - either drive-through or Uber Eats. A bit more effort is required, but not as much.

A fleeting note is a very simple (it could even be one sentence) summary of what you've learnt.

I will take note of something that I've listened to or read, and on a basic sheet I'll write down a simple takeaway. I call this my "Resonance Calendar" - this is something I've learnt from productivity Youtuber Ali Abdaal in his video - "How I use Notion as a Resonance Calendar".

The goal is to progressively capture insights and thoughts I've gained from various sources so I can go back to them later. Often I will just write a quick one-sentence summary to capture some initial thoughts.

Here is an example of what this looks like in my notes app Notion:

Level 3 - Literary Notes

I've come to think of this as making a home-cooked meal for yourself. It takes a lot more effort to organise and make your own food, but can be very satisfactory! You need to start to pull on skills and resources that you've previously prepared to cook something at home. You don't necessarily need to be the best cook though, just good enough to make a meal for yourself.

Literary notes are your own personal summaries and insights that you've captured. You'd likely use your fleeting notes to make these sorts of notes. It takes more time to process and create as well. You may need to keep chewing on the content, and then write a brief summary or a series of notes on what you've learnt.

Literary notes aren't something you'd share with others but are a way to help solidify your growth and create mental structures.

This is one area I'm wanting to improve on - going back over what I've learnt and read and listened to and writing some more detailed notes.

Here is an example from a book summary I've started on C. S. Lewis's "The Problem of Pain:

Level 4 - Making Notes

I have some very talented friends who love cooking food. They also love putting on dinner parties. It is an accumulation of various skills from cooking and presentation to hospitality and friendliness. Not only would they spend a great amount of time and effort preparing and cooking the food, but they'll also ensure it is nicely displayed and they'll explain various dishes and how it's made, and what is used to create it.

There is another level above personal literary notes, and that is MAKING notes to present to others. This means taking what you've consumed and learnt, organsing your insights, and then rewording and restructuring them in a way for others to then learn from. You don't have to publically share these sort of notes, but the act of preparing and publishing them (even for yourself) does a great deal to help you process what you're learning.

If you are a teacher or a preacher or a student, this is already a big part of what you do as you're required to present a lesson or sermon or examination to share what you've learnt and some insights.

But for many other people, this isn't a natural extension of the learning process.

Now I'm not saying that you need to start publically sharing everything you're learning, but I think it is a worthwhile activity to create some sort of formal outline or written overview of various literary notes - even if it's just for yourself!

There is a fantastic article by Anne-Laure Le Cunff on her site nesslabs.com called "From note-taking to note-making" that elaborates on this too.

This is how I come up with my blogging content - its a process that starts with consuming and chewing on content and ideas, writing down some fleeting notes and insights, gathering those fleeting thoughts and turning them into something more concrete, and then formally structuring those groupings of ideas in a way that I can present it.

I'm also trying to implement the "Zettelkasten Method" (Zettelkasten is German for "slip box") that is featured in the book "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sonke Ahrens.

It involves collating all your fleeting and literary notes and making a "zettel", a single written note summary of something I've learnt, and organising them in a simple linear order.

I'm planning on writing about this more as I go along, as it is a very interesting topic.

So what does this mean for you?

This is what your Bible roadmap is - an organised series of information that you've studied and learnt about the Bible that you can use to navigate and understand the scriptures.

The specific method you use to do this is entirely up to you, and I'll be exploring more methods and processes that I find interesting.

This takes a fair amount of time, so unless your full-time job is to present content, it is unlikely that you'll be able to make notes to the level you're happy with.

But I've started to make it a discipline and I'm aiming to have more literary notes created so that I can pull on those insights and skills to make something I'd be happy to present.

Have I fully mastered it? Am I constantly writing literary summaries on everything I'm learning?

Definitely not!

But my goal is to move beyond relying on bringing chewing gum to a dinner party.