My take on a question in Quora: 

What type of notes should I take in history?

First and foremost, I would use a "Divide and Conquer Strategy", in conjunction with proven graphic organisers and visual tools, when it comes to reading history, and taking notes and making notes about history .

For me, history is just a few important things:

• the chronology of important events, places, era, time, moods, ambience;
• the causes and consequences (or impacts) of the foregoing events;
• the person(s) contributing to the foregoing events;
• the vital lessons learned;

To help me navigate the book terrain and flesh out the essential facts, I would use:

• a Timeline or an extended version known as Transitive Order Diagram to flesh out the "important events, dates, places and persons";
• an Idea Map, as a supplementary reading strategy, to identify and lay out the attributes and motivations of the "important persons";
• for the "causes and consequences" in connection with the "important events", I would use a Fish Bone Diagram to isolate the causes and consequences;

Here's an example of a Transitive Order Diagram: