Glean From Everything!

    Gleaning.  It basically means to collect or gather something. You would glean berries from berry bushes, glean apples from an apple tree, and glean information from a source.
    I think gleaning from everything is an awesome way to improve as a writer. You can learn from almost anything--including an addicting TV series, the way someone talks, a crummy experience, or a story you read. Jotting down notes and reminiscing certain things you noticed can give you ideas about a different design technique, another way to describe things, what makes characters likeable, what makes dialogue realistic . . . all useful things that a writer can use. It's not copying someone else or stealing their ideas, but learning from them and adapting similar skills. Like learning from a teacher.
    So what do you think? Do you have a specific note-taking/gleaning technique?