How To Get Book Highlights Into Your Notetaking App

Before we can create linked book notes we must get our highlights into our notetaking software.

If you are reading from an E-book, the process is easy. Simply sync your highlights to your notetaking app of choice using Readwise. Readwise automatically syncs your highlights to your notetaking app of choice alongside your annotations; this includes books as well as podcasts and articles. In addition, it has other cool features, the daily highlight reel. Every day you can go to Readwise and read 3-15 highlights from books, podcasts, and articles. If you want to get Readwise I have an affiliate link right here.

You might be wondering, how do I import and export highlights from Readwise? Lucky for you, Readwise has two articles for precisely those two questions you can read below:

1. How To Import Highlights
2. How To Export Highlights

However, I understand you might not have Scrooge McDuck levels of wealth to pay for Readwise. Let's go into how I recommend getting your highlights into your notetaking app for each book format.

Getting Your E-Book Highlights Into Your Notetaking App

1. While in the book, access the menu (this could be through a tap at the top of the screen or a button, depending on your device).
2. Tap on 'Notebook' (usually found in the book's menu options).
3. Here you'll find all your highlights, notes, and bookmarks.
4. Within the Notebook, there might be an option to 'Export Notebook' or share the notes (it can be an icon or a text link, often found at the bottom of the screen or under a menu icon).
5. Choose to export, and you will typically have the option to send your notes to an email address. Enter your email and send it.
6. Open your email account on a computer or a device.
7. Find the email from Kindle with your notes.
8. Download the attachment if there is one, or copy the contents from the email.
9. Open your note-taking app (e.g., Evernote, OneNote, Notion, etc.).
10. Create a new note or open an existing one where you want to place your highlights.
11. Paste the text of your highlights and notes or attach the file if the app supports attachments.

Getting Your Physical Highlights Into Your Notetaking App

To get your physical book highlights into your notetaking app, you have to painstakingly type all of your highlights in over hours...

I'm just joking, I would rather live without peanut butter than do that. Honestly, I don't think you should put ALL of your physical book highlights into your notetaking app if you don't have Readwise. Readwise allows you to input physical book highlights through a camera capture feature. You can take a photo of a page and select the text you want to highlight, and send it to Readwise. However, even with Readwise, I like to take linked book notes with the physical book beside me for reference in case I need to include an exact quote.

Saves tons of time and energy.

Getting Your Audible Highlights Into Your Notetaking App

I never highlight on audible.

I either buy the book as an e-book or physical book and take highlights there. Or I create a note in my notetaking app of choice and write down my notes for the book as I read it.

In either case, refer to the directions for getting your highlights into your notetaking app respectively.

So now you have gotten the boring part out of the way. You know how to get your highlights into your notetaking app which means we can move on to learning to take linked book notes!

There aren't any action items for this lesson because you don't need to get your highlights into your notetaking app until you actually create your linked book notes.