'Note taking is the closest thing we've to time travel' yes the Grammy and Pulitzer prize-winning rapper is a self proclaimed note taking god. In this YouTube video David Perell who's one of the most accomplished self made writers with over a million followers and a writing school that has churned out over hundreds of students. He deconstructs how Kendrick Lamar mastered the art of note taking so anyone with a brain and an idea cam repeat the steps and hopefully be a Pulitzer winner some day

He distilled them into these 5 dead simple steps

Capture Ideas As They Strike

Don’t wait for inspiration to come, instead, train yourself to be in a state of mind where you are always thinking about what kind of themes you want to explore. Note down these ideas as soon as they come to you because most creative ideas will come when you’re just living your ordinary life.. Use your smartphone’s note taking app to easily jot down ideas or if possible have a small sized diary to quickly take down ideas if that works for you.

Don’t just write down shopping lists

A good note-taking system helps you remember things that you don't even remember learning about in the first place. Pay attention to details and record them because they might be useful later. For example, the author describes capturing details from a conversation with a friend about his career while eating a cheeseburger. A year later, he used these details while writing an essay about Peter Thiel.

Build a library of ideas

Note-taking is like building an extended mind so that you can instantly find the best ideas you’ve ever had and become a more productive creator. You can leverage these ideas for the rest of your life and revisit them when you want to By revisiting your notes often, you can make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas and use them for future

Recyclable your ideas

The output of one project can become the seed of another one, this is only possible by having all your notes in one place, tagged and sectioned so you can see connections between ideas and reuse them across multiple projects. Organize your notes with searchable tags: Instead of cramming notes into folders, use a system that allows you to find them easily later

All of these is beyond possible if you make sure your don't save everything. Rather only make sure you keep 20% of the most important ideas you encounter when you revisit your notes