I decided to improve the understanding of the spoken english language (I am italian).

So I am listening a bunch of english podcasts.

The cool thing is that I selected the ones about the topics I love: business online and productivity.

So a new problem has arisen: how can I take note of interesting things I listen through the podcasts?

I am building a Second Brain and I mainly save written text (articles, book summaries, casual thoughts, etc).

But the audio... eheh... this is a tedious problem.

I did my web searches, and I found I'm not the only one with this problem

So here is a summary of my research.

Let 's start:

#1 Write By hand

During your listening, whenever you wanna save an important concept,

hit the pause button and use your favourite note-taking app (mine is Evernote, but you can use Notion, Roam, Obisidian, OneNote, whatever you want).

So think about what you heard and how you can apply it into your life.

Finally, take your takeaways.

#2 Vocal Notes

Pause the podcast and use a voice note app to capture thoughts.

You have some options:

Otter.ai an application that uses artificial intelligence to create real-time transcription notes (more details later)
Google Live Transcribe app a Google app that detect spoken words and sounds and display them as text on the screen.
Google Recorder this app works just on a handful of Android devices, It automatically transcribes spoken word into text and provides timestamps.

#3 Take a screenshot

Pause the podcast and take a screenshot.

In this way you will track the time position of the concept you want to capture.

You can forward this screenshot to your note-taking app, and add comments.

#4 Use podcast apps with "simple" sharing feature

Pause the podcast and use the podcast app’s sharing feature,

I use Pocket Casts on Android, and it allows you to share a bookmark to a specific time position.

In my case, I can just share the position.

But if I want, I can go on the saved note on Evernote, and add my comments.

#5 Use "smart" podcast apps

I have found that there is a number of next-generation podcast apps, with a built-in smart bookmark mechanism.

Here's what I found:

Momento use just a tap, and it will intelligently capture and instantly transcribe anything you save. It's free and for both Android and iOS.
inspod free, easy and my favourite one: you can save key moments and add your comments. Works for Evernote, without passing through Readwise.

Other apps I didn't test

www.airr.io/ for iPhone users
Snipd
NoteCast
Podverse
Castscribe
Podcastmarks

#6 Use the Transcription offered by the podcast host

Use the official podcast transcript or the show notes.

For example, I love the transcriptions of the Smart Passive Income podcast, they are sooo useful (Thank you Pat!)

You can try to use ListenNotes.com, which is a podcast search engine, which often includes full transcripts.

#7 Create the transcription by yourself

If there is no official transcripts, you can use software to obtain them.

I suggest you try Otter.ai and Descript.

For both, you can upload an episode and get the full transcript.

Otter.ai currently only supports English (US and UK) and regional accents.

In its free version it provides you with 10 hours of transcription every month.

Descript transcribes audio and video, in several languages, with an excellent level of accuracy.

Here, too, you can try the free version

What comes first: listening or reading?

Personally I first listen and then I read the transcript.

Because as I said at the beginning, I am practicing in listening to English, and I need to make an active effort (although listening can be considered "active").

If you already have a good understanding of the language in which you listen to your podcasts, you might consider reversing the order.

For example, Mathew Lowry explains that he is better off with the opposite approach:

"I first annotated the transcript, and only then actually listened to the audio.

With the audio fresh in my memory and my notes in front of me, I saw a clear difference in how I consumed these two different forms of the same content."

Try it and you will find out what your favorite way is.

Advices for best notes

Just a few ideas to get the most out of the notes we're taking.

- write down the url of the podcast you have listened to for future reference (can always be useful)

- mark the timestamp of the concept you are annotating (so I would recover it without fail)

- do not write everything. If you can, wait for the episode to end and only take note of the key concepts

- As Ramses Oudt suggests. "As with books and articles, don’t feel bad for not finishing an episode. Listen to the interesting bits and skip the rest"

At the moment I am happy with solution # 6 and # 5.

And you? Do you know any other techniques for taking notes of the podcasts you listen to?

How To Take Notes From Podcasts: 7 Ways

I decided to improve the understanding of the spoken english language (I am italian). So I

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