After I had decided to pick up a Kindle, at some point I realized it would be much more valuable if I was able to copy and store the important passages I highlighted somewhere that was more easily accessible. I then discovered it's actually not that difficult to copy your Kindle highlights and notes to Evernote, or any other place you'd like to keep them. Below, I've outlined exactly how to go about doing that below along with the structure I have in place on how to read your notes on a regular basis.
If you haven't already, check out my other article on the importance of Commonplace books.
1) To copy your Kindle Highlights, visit https://read.amazon.com/ in the browser and log in to your Amazon account associated with your Kindle device.
2) Once logged in, you’ll see that the left side shows all your most recently read books with relevant passages highlighted on the right. To select a different book just select it from the list or you can search for it on the top.
3) Once I’ve selected the book I want to copy, I’ll start highlighting from the line that shows how many Highlights and Notes you have within the book. The reason you do this is so if you ever go back and add new notes or highlights, you’ll be able to know which books you might need re-copy your notes from.
4) I’m a fan of Evernote and as such, I’ve created a notebook I call “Book Notes” where all my notes are stored. I’ll simply create a new note, copy over the highlights and give it the title of the book.
5) Next, I’ll assign a tag to the book to represent a certain category I find it to be helpful with. Here are a few ideas below:
- Business
- Communication
- Productivity
- Procrastination
- Stoicism
- Health
- Fiction
6) This next step is the most important. I utilize a simple recurring task that is due every Saturday (my Maintenance Day) where I pick and choose one of my highlighted books and to simply read my notes and make observations. As I discuss in my post about a CommonPlace book, I first ask myself what are the biggest challenges or fears I currently face as a way to read something that will end up being the most helpful
Other Methods
I should note there are a few other methods that allow you to copy your notes as well, including Bookcision and Clippings.io. However, Bookcision didn’t work for me when copying to clipboard and Clippings charges a $2/mo access fee for their chrome extension.
