✍️ 미니 에세이로 배우기: 효과적이고 실용적인 노트 쓰기 방법
1. 미니 에세이란? - 짧고 생각을 담은 글쓰기
- ==미니 에세이==는 흥미로운 주제에 대해 _짧은 글_을 쓰는 것
- 하나의 _개별 아이디어_를 다루도록 구성되어 있어 80단어~500단어 내로 마무리
- _책, 기사, 영화, 또는 자신의 생각_에서 발견한 내용을 바탕으로 20분 정도 투자하여 작성
- 주제 선정이 명확하므로 글쓸 거리 걱정 없음
- 예시: ‘트라이브’라는 책에서 ‘목적은 위협이나 도전에서 찾는다’라는 아이디어를 바탕으로 작성
2. 미니 에세이의 장점과 이유 - 왜 효과적일까? 🚀
2.1. 깊이 이해와 설명 능력 향상 💡
- 배우는 내용을 다른 사람에게 설명하는 것처럼 쓰기
- 이를 통해 이해도 향상 및 이해의 공백 발견 가능
- _리처드 파인먼_의 ‘가르치기 학습법’이 이를 뒷받침
2.2. 반성 및 심층 분석 가능 🧠
- 자신의 아이디어를 되돌아보고 _더 깊이 이해_할 수 있다
- 시간이 걸리지만 _실속 있는 학습 효과_를 얻는다
2.3. 단시간에 많은 주제 탐구 가능 🎯
- _짧고 독립적_인 형식으로 여러 분야를 탐구
- _흥미 주제_들 사이를 _빠르게 전환_하며 지루하지 않게 학습 가능
- 예시: 선사시대 역사부터 시, 영양, 저작권까지 한 시간 내 여러 주제 다루기
3. 미니 에세이 활용하는 방법과 실천 팁 💪
3.1. 핵심 원칙
- ==하나의 명확한 아이디어==만 다룰 것
- 한계 설정: 2~500단어 내로 작성
- ==목표==: _선명하고 집중된 글_로 만들기
3.2. 조직과 저장 방법
- 개인적 방식에 따라 노트 시스템 활용 (예: Obsidian, 노트, 폴더)
- 참고 자료 출처 반드시 기재 (예: 하단에 링크 또는 인용 표기)
- _일관성 있는 위치_에 저장해 쉽게 찾기
3.3. 주기적 실천과 습관화
- 매일 5~20분 투자 가능
- 1일 1개 작성 목표: 지속적인 학습 습관 형성
- 쌓인 미니 에세이를 _큰 프로젝트, 글쓰기, 공부자료_로 활용
4. 미니 에세이의 장점과 차별점 🌟
4.1. 노트의 창의성과 개인성
- 자신만의 특색 있는 글 가능
- 감성적·이야기식 또는 딱딱한 포맷 등 자유롭게 선택 가능
4.2. 학습의 재미와 동기 부여
- _짧은 글_이기 때문에 지루함 없이 다양한 주제 탐구
- _새로움_의 경험을 통해 학습의 재미 증진
- 예시: 역사, 시, 영양, 창작 활동 등 한 시간 내 다양하게 전환 가능
4.3. 창작과 연결의 확장 🎨
- _읽기, 쓰기, 반성_이 자연스럽게 결합되어 깊이 있는 사고 가능
- _책 읽기와 연결, 창작 활동_으로 활동 범위 확장
5. 참고 자료와 도구 활용 (추천: Skillshare) 📚
- 비판적 읽기·쓰기·학습 등 다양한 강좌 제공
- 비용: 첫 500명₩무료 체험 가능
- 강사 경험 많은 전문가들이 지도
- 학습 자료, 영상, 노트 정리, 창작활동 등에 활용 가능
6. 팁과 주의점 📝
6.1. 명확한 목표와 원칙
- _한 아이디어_만 다룰 것
- _짧고 집중된 글_을 유지할 것
- _일관된 조직 시스템_으로 저장(예: Obsidian, 노트, 포트폴리오)
6.2. 연속성과 발전
- 참고자료 출처 기록
- _반복 연습_으로 성장
- 쓰기 방식을 충분히 자유롭게(개인 취향 존중)
6.3. 창의적 형식 활용
- 온라인 텍스트, 노트, 영상, 오디오, 팟캐스트 등 가능
- 시작은 _간단한 구조 또는 아이디어 목록_에서도 OK
- _자신만의 스타일_을 찾아가는 과정이 중요
"==미니 에세이==는 학습을 더 깊이 하고 싶지만 시간이 부족한 사람들에게 딱 맞는 ==중간 지점==이다. 매일 5~20분 투자로 작은 노트들을 쌓으며 지식을 확장하며, 동시에 자신만의 창의적 습관을 만들어 가자."
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mini essays are one of the best tools for learning out there and they're underrated too because despite being arguably better than flashcards than boring old traditional notes or all the ai no one really talks about them mini essays are a fun and thoughtful way for you to take notes so you can truly understand and retain the ideas you talk about and that's without bogging yourself down in these crazy note-taking systems or long bits of writing that you just don't have the time for they're a perfect middle ground and in the past 2-ish years or so i've written 800 of them so all this hype you see is genuine it does come from somewhere i really like these so what are mini essays why are they so effective and how can you put all of this into practice mini essays are short pieces of writing on things you find interesting it's that simple ultimately mini essays are a tool for learning if you find something cool or interesting in a book in an article a movie or just your own mind then you can take 20 minutes of your day and write a mini essay on it every mini essay more or less covers one distinct idea based on what you're learning about and that's good because there's never any writer's block or worrying what to write about because it's chosen for you it's just what you're learning about for example a while ago i read a book called tribe by sebastian junger and there was a cool idea in there about how we often find a purpose when there's some sort of threat or challenge facing us so i wrote a mini essay on it and that leads us to the benefits of writing these mini essays and believe me there are many it does pay off when i'm writing i like to explain the ideas as if i'm teaching them to someone else because as richard feman's famous technique showed when you teach something you come to understand it better yourself and it also helps you spot any gaps in your understanding if you struggle to say something or to put it into words it's a good sign you're not quite there yet and you have to go back to the source material and fix those issues many essays also let you reflect on new ideas and come to understand them more intimately and i'm happy to admit that this is slow it takes effort but that's worth it because what you gain in return is depth and we need depth in an era of you know book summaries and ai crap and all these shortcuts we keep coping with sometimes it's good to slow down and actually put some effort in and i say it's slow but at the same time it's not too slow cuz you know you have your job you have college you have school you're busy you have to do and not everyone has time for loads of writing but with mini essays anyone can make learning a habit all it takes is you know a spare 5 10 or 20 minutes a day and that's adds up to something amazing i personally go for just one a day and even though it's such a small effort in the present it adds up to this huge library of knowledge which you can use for you know writing bigger projects for studying in college or for just becoming well read in the things you love i do all my writing in my obsidian system because you know i like to keep my notes online to keep them portable and to be able to link everything together and create these huge databases it's good fun don't worry by the way if it's not your favorite medium because we'll cover other ones soon however if you don't know what obsidian is and this looks exciting to you then i'll link a couple of videos about it down below so you know you can discover why i like it and maybe how to set it up yourself and the final major benefit which is my personal favorite is novelty why are video games or instagram reels so damn addictive well part of the reason is novelty they offer you something new very often in the case of video games you know it's new skills new maps new weapons new things to explore and in reals well every 5 seconds you get something fresh and exciting and if you don't like it you just move on to the next one that means there's no chance of you getting bored ever because there's always something new to turn your attention to mini essays exploit that same trick to make learning almost as addictive not fully let's be real it's not equal but it really does make it more fun because each one is relatively short and independent from the next one you can fill your learning with many different exciting topics in a short space of time without the risk of getting bored and that's especially great if you have lots of different interests which if you're watching this video you probably do and you know i'm the same with mini essays you can go from writing about bronze age history to poetry to nutrition to copyrightiting all within the span of an hour it's just fun dynamic they're not these long projects that sap energy from you but rather small little reps of learning that help you build knowledge over time while keeping things you know fun and playful and exciting on a past video a commenter called lapland said how mini essays were like a reader's equivalent to an artist sketch and that is so true it's such a good way to see it now mini essays are a great way to reflect over what you read but how successful you are there also depends on your skill as a reader your immersion your analysis your critical thinking yesterday i rewatched a class on reading critically on skillshare who i'm grateful to say is sponsoring this video i always found critical reading tough and this class is a great and approachable entry point with some solid note-taking advice and some good mindsets on how you can stay sharp as you read but you and i are probably interested in more than just reading and writing and skillshare's got you covered there it's the largest learning community on the internet with thousands of classes in every creative field you can imagine all taught by experts with years even decades of experience there's classes on design and illustration there's productivity for all the hustle a lot out there and my personal favorite classes on film and video which really came in handy when i was figuring out this whole youtube thing and you know i still am to get stuck in and explore skillshare for yourself you can click the link in the description and the first 500 people to do so will get a free 1 month trial so do have a look and i hope you enjoy now to the question of how and where to write your mini essays i follow three big rules to help keep my mini essays short focused and actually useful to my future self if i come back to revisit them or to use as part of some larger project now these are personal choices so don't feel like you have to obey them all but there is a good reason for each of them and do hear me out first the first rule i already mentioned and it's that many essay should cover one distinct idea not multiple at the same time this keeps your writing narrow and focused and it stops you from getting overwhelmed in all the ideas without this rule you might be tempted to make a bunch of connections to cross reference things to you know use different fields and different schools of thought and that's good but mini essays are not the time and place to do it that's best saved for larger projects when you have the room and the time to you know go more in depth and to make connections and link things for example in this note i talked about one precise idea which the title clearly explains now i could have elaborated on the idea of courage and belonging more which i talk about in the essay but i didn't i saved that for two other mini essays and i instead kept it more focused here and trust me it saves you a lot of headache when you can read the title and you know exactly what to expect in the essay there's no crazy like background context you have to know and if there is you just put it somewhere else the second rule is to keep them short cuz you know they're called mini essays for a reason i aim for 2 to 500 words roughly and that's you know a couple of paragraphs a good rule of thumb i follow is to make sure that my entire mini essay from start to finish can fit on the monitor without having to scroll down so it's all just there and you know you can adapt that idea to notebooks to a4 pages it doesn't matter the point is to have some sort of limit and that's good for two reasons first it keeps things brief and concise we all like that and second it's just time efficient you know in the past i wrote thousands of words way too much thousands of words on every book i read and it was i mean i learned a lot sure fine but it was boring i was stuck on the same thing for ages and i just felt like it was a marathon i couldn't see the end mini essays are the perfect balance between depth and slowness but also speed cuz you want to move on you want to talk about different things and to actually finish stuff for once in your life and finally i would recommend keeping your mini essays organized somehow like you saw i use obsidian and that has its own system of indexes tags links and atomic notes and all of that stuff is great for me but i'm not going to be dogmatic and say that you have to use it of course not your mind works differently from mine and from the next person's and of course your goals might be different as well so whatever you do you have to make sure that your organization makes sense to you and to how you see the world maybe you like to use a real life physical system like ring binders or folders or notebooks or maybe you also like obsidian or you make a database in notion or something the point is to have your mini essays exactly where you want them and to make sure they're easy to find so you're not scrambling around looking for things in my case i always use my mini essays for writing you know the scripts newsletters and larger projects like a book and it helps me to have a bank of those mini essays in obsidian so that i can always refer to them and use them for different chapters or different sections it's great because most of the writing and thinking is already done all i have to do is find those mini essays arrange them and give them some sort of linear structure and of course add to it i always say this but it's like having a personal assistant to your writing or your thinking also whatever you do do make sure to write your references in the bottom of the essay write where it came from and that's important because if you ever need to revisit the source you can and you know you're definitely going to forget in the future so write it down now i'm going to purposefully gloss over the nitty-gritty of the writing because i don't want to push a certain way of thinking onto you my writing style is a bit flowery it's a bit dramatic i like to tell stories sometimes and that's because i write with you in mind and that sounds very romantic not in that way it's just like i write these knowing that i'm going to share them one day so i try and keep them interesting but you don't have to do the same you can write the most diabolical weird and unique things and no one's going to know because they're yours and finally for the format it's the same it can be whatever you want i like online notes because they're portable and you can carry them everywhere and you know it's infinitely dense but you can use notebooks you can use a4 sheets you can do more abstract things like uh video logs or audio logs or like pretend podcasts anything if you're really stuck on how to start your mini essays then you can check out a past video i made on that topic which will give you some rough pointers some rough structures to follow but really it doesn't matter because these are personal to you and there is no wrong style there is no right style and that is the beauty of it thank you so much for watching and if you like these videos then you'll also like the newsletter you can sign up down below it's totally free i don't spam your inbox i hate that so i don't do it and of course we talk about similar ideas to on the channel but also there's more room for you different things experimentation and you know things like book reviews mini essays stuff that the algorithm may not like so i save it for there so don't miss out on that and i'll see you there thank you for watching it's just what you're learning about hey he burns himself and then licks his paw as if something happened what could have caused that