Back to School 2021: Note Taking 101

Just Start

This is the hardest part about note-taking, beginning. Before you make any marks on that paper it's neat, fresh and you've not made any mistakes and it's hard to then get over that and begin writing something. Just like hoarding new journals and copy books because they're pretty.

The way around this is to simply start. It's hard to do, and I still get anxious when I'm beginning to take notes in a new book for the first time but you've just gotta go for it.

Organisation comes later

Relating to the last point, the organisation system comes later. What's important now is just taking those notes, getting everything down on paper first so that you can then go through and organise them when you see how you're taking notes. This makes it easier since you're not trying to fit your notes into a system but working a system around your notes. It'll be more suited towards you rather than that one creator who you saw taking notes in that specific way.

Have a good organisation system

But, you do need a good organisation system in place at some point. Look at how your notes are structured - are there ways you can make that take less time? Do you like highlighting? A binder to keep all the loose sheets of paper in or a copy book with an index?

Once you've made a few notes (I'd say a week's worth of classes at the very least), you can see which styles you naturally fall towards and implement them.

What works for you won't work for me

So this is true of every content creator out there. We each do things differently and note taking methods are the same. For me this looks something like....

• Notes taken first on a piece of A4 lined paper, and put into the relevant file.

• These are then digitised and organised by me typing them up, grouping like ideas together.

• I use Obsidian and link [[like this]] to other notes when relevant. This helps keep to one topic or point per note and if I feel there's enough for it to split then I'll have two notes in a folder with similar tags, linked to each other and their parent notes/ MOCs.

• This is a lot more flexible than just simply copying out the notes again and gives me a "clean" version to look at and one that's searchable more easily.

• I tend to store the notes in the file by subject / area and then by date if I'm doing a series of lessons as this is how I'm more likely to remember the physical notes.

Types of Note Taking

Cornell Method

Mind Mapping

Outlining

• Heading

  • Supporting info

    • More info relating directly to info above

    • Continuation

  • Second piece of supporting info

• Another main point here

  • And so on

Slides

Actually use them afterwards

All of these note taking methods only work if you review your notes afterwards. The best note taking method won't help you if your notes sit in a drawer somewhere for the rest of the year, you've got to review these notes. Actively commit to learning the information in them. So the Cornell method is good because it's systematic and organised, but if your lecture topic keeps jumping all around the place it's going to be more difficult to use. This is the same for the outline method.

Mind mapping and using the slides take care of that but both of those can be quite cluttered in my experience, and those styles didn't suit me as well. Having the information on the slides was good, but since we got a copy anyway, I didn't see the point in printing them out. Instead I could make a note of which slide we were onto / when they changed and then when I was rewriting my notes include relevant information from said slide there.

Fenyman technique

This is more of a general learning technique but I'm throwing it here because it's useful for seeing how to review your notes and improve your learning.

Rubber Duck it

Explain what you're wanting to learn to someone (a rubber duck sitting on your desk) or write it down on a piece of paper. Explain it like you would to a non-expert in the area. Use simple language, no hiding behind jargon!

Identify gaps in your explanation

Where did you struggle to explain things simply? What didn't you understand well enough to reword and rework? Look up explanations, definitions and find other sources that can help.

Organise & simplify

Take this thing that you've just written and now organise it into something more coherent. Make it into a narrative that flows, if there's anything that feels like it's skipping over something go back to the last step and repeat until you have something you could explain to a child and it would make sense. Or that you could explain to said rubber duck on your desk that's judging you.

Transmit

Okay this last step is optional but this is where you take that explanation and run it past someone else. I used to do this all the time when I was doing my degree; choose someone who hadn't studied English Literature and explain my dissertation / the latest point I was making. If they understood I'd keep going with it, if they didn't then I'd rework it.

Pay attention to what these people are saying - which questions do they ask? Why? Is it because of a gap in your explanation or is it because that's a natural progression and you've explained yourself well?

E.g - I may say that Sarah's journey in Labyrinth is about her growing up. If someone asks if that means that when we see similar characters in Peter Pan to what Wendy & the boys have in their 'normal' lives, it shows them growing up, then that's good. It's a progression.

However, if they are asking how imagining her childhood toys in the fantasy means she's growing up, then I have to re-work my explanation to include more detail.

Not all questioning means you're not understanding the topic!

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Hey! Tara here and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.