Our understanding of reality works through webs of meaning. Build the web to strengthen the understanding.
Just as we cannot achieve perfect isolation of objects and reactions away from external influence in the laboratory, neither do we have thoughts that exist entirely on their own without reference to the outside world or other abstracts.
In fact, we only understand a thing through its relationship and comparison with other things.
e.g. A web is a thing a spider makes - the two things are understood through their links.
We should therefore take advantage of links to increase our understanding of any particular thing.
You want to understand a thing? Look at its context also.
When Resurfacing notes or ideas, we should engage with them creatively - updating and linking them with other ideas to strengthen our understanding. Reading and re-reading are not enough. Creative Recall (generative learning) leads us to creatively engage with pre-existing knowledge.