Thank you for sharing this, I am in the process of learning a new language, so this is very useful. One thing that I do when studying a subject or a book(a variant of your No. 2 )- is to build a table in Evernote, with 3 columns. The first column is the headline - it may be the name of the chapter, or something that makes more sense to me or is just a short sentence to name the section in a meaningful way. The second column is a summary of the chapter or the learning - what resonated with me - and would be 1-4 paragraphs in length. The third column is reflexive - in this column I make notes about how this connects or is similar to what I already know, and how I can apply this knowledge. I find this simple system, much like yours, creates a structure that is applicable to my own needs, and is very effective as it includes practical application of the learning — which is where knowledge really starts to embed and become part of you. (Before using this system, I was great at reading and making notes but didn’t apply or even consider the application before moving onto the next book. So I read a lot, but most of the learning stayed in a notebook and was never used).