Walk with me for a moment down Imagination Lane, to the beautiful kingdom of Knotes on the isle of Suxess. Here, the grass grows tall, and the sun always shines warmly. Through commitment and hard work, Knotes has become a kingdom of contentment and prosperity.
You are a knight of Knotes, famous for your prowess with a pen. That’s right, in the land of Suxess the pen is even more effective than the sword, because it can be wielded with fierce precision and deadly detail. With nothing but your pen and your courage, you can subdue dragons of data and krakens of chaos, bringing them to heel like helpless (and, in hindsight, rather adorable) puppies.
Accompanying you on your quests into the nether-reaches in search of information is your trusty stallion of structure, who carries you effortlessly to lands far and wide on his powerful back, ever sure-footed and stout.
And on your arm rests the Shield of Confidence — which, I might add, you found one dark twilight deep in the Forests of Fear, where you often ventured when first given your pen by the king of Knotes. The added protection that this shield offers allows you to step forward boldly, knowing that you can overcome anything that the nether-reaches of information can throw your way.
There has never been a foe that you couldn’t conquer, or a challenge that you couldn’t face. Your popularity in the kingdom of Knotes has been well-earned, but it didn’t come easily. For on your well-worn armor lies a crisscross of scratches and dents, reminders of battles hard fought and close calls narrowly avoided.
Yet, each encounter was a learning experience that made you into the warrior you are today. To have backed down out of fear of risk and hard work would have left you a mere squire in service to a different knight, one with the courage to brave adventure and grow in expertise.
But that was not your calling, and not your fate. Instead, with the help of some mentors and the handy tools and companions already mentioned, you have achieved a rank of mastery in the land of Suxess.
Training for Success
Just like your knight alter-ego (let’s just agree that the Knight of Knotes is you in a parallel world, shall we?), you too can master the art of simple note-taking and rise to heights yet unimagined.
And the path you must take to get there is a similar one: you must venture into forests of fear, overcoming any self-doubt or uncertainties, to truly take charge of your own learning. You must find and become adept at wielding various tools and techniques that will aid you in your note-taking endeavors.
And you must be willing to put in the effort, because there are no significant rewards that come for free. Even treasure must be discovered and uncovered!
If you are willing to put on your helmet of hard work and pick up your pen, then stick with me, your official Guide to Good Notes, and I will be your first mentor on your quest to get the most out of your notes.
Everything Rests on Effectiveness
Before we go gallivanting off on some half-planned adventure, let’s take a moment to evaluate our gear and identify our destination.
Why did you set out to take notes in the first place? Is it because you feel that it’s expected, like it’s just “what you do” when you’re attending a lecture or presentation? Or do you find yourself sitting in attendance and want to jot down a couple of the main points, thoughts, or main ideas that the speaker said that really struck home for you?
Perhaps it is neither of the above, and you feel a deep motivation to recapture as much of the material as possible for future reference.
Any of the above scenarios is valid because, at the end of the day, only you can decide what purpose you want your notes to serve. But keep in mind that notes’ usefulness is geared towards understanding and remembering the material, and if your motivation lies elsewhere, then the benefits of note-taking are going to be severely limited for you, if not negated entirely.
Even if your motivation for note-taking is to gain better understanding and retention of the information and so make yourself into a modern-day Knight of Knotes, there are still ways you may fail in this quest if we don’t plot our way forward carefully.
Because when push comes to shove, your memory of a presentation is only as good as your notes, and your notes are only as good as they are effective. Without the proper tools and techniques to sharpen your pen and bolster your offense, your gear won’t be up to the task of fighting the dragons of data and krakens of chaos.
Instead, you will find yourself reeling in a swamp of information, uncertain of which way to turn or how to navigate to solid ground. Disorganization is your obvious enemy, but there are plenty of little gremlins biting at your ankles who could distract you and keep you from success.
Not all of these dangers are obvious to the unpracticed eye, which is why I am going to bend all of my wizarding powers to bring you the power of enhanced sight and teach you how to immediately identify the good, the bad, and the ugly so that you can get the most out of your notes.
Buckle up, my aspiring knight errant — we are now going to begin training in earnest!
Pay Attention to Appearances
Don’t get me wrong, beauty is less valuable than brains when it comes to note-taking, but let’s not sell aesthetics short. There is a science behind this that makes it worth looking into.
First, I should clarify: when I say “visually pleasing,” I’m not talking about color coordinating each section of paper and drawing doodles in the margins, though you can certainly do that in your free time if you feel so inspired.
Rather, I’m referring to writing a set of better notes that is clean, neat, and put together. You may include color, images, and visual representations — all of which we shall discuss momentarily — but the bottom line is that visually pleasing notes are organized and easy on the eye.
Of course, you can definitely go overboard in overemphasizing beauty in your notes and end up undermining their quality. What I am suggesting here is an attention to aesthetics, but in moderation. In this blog post, we’re going to cover three ways that you can get the most out of your own notes app, and of those three, putting some effort into aesthetics is only level one.
Ease of Reading
With that being said, the first benefit of aesthetic notes is that they are easy to read. Any level of symmetry and order will give the page a polish that pleases the mind that reads it. You will find this set of notes much easier to navigate and more pleasant to read than a chaotic mess of scribbles.
And hey, it might seem like small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but this stuff matters! You’ll prefer to study documents that are in a pleasing format, with pages that have a clear title, artful use of space, two or more photos, and neat writing.
Other things to consider are how easy it is to even find your notes in the first place, because you don’t want to have to dig through a pile of notebooks or scroll through a long list of digital files trying to find the right document. Aesthetics begins with how you arrange your files, too!
Organize any smart folders or assignments in your digital notes for easier access on your home screen. Whether you’re using a notes app, smart folder, quick notes folder, group notes, or other note-taking app, make sure the folder icon doesn’t get lost in the mayhem of too many folders.
Be sure to include the date created for select notes, and a specific tag or two may help it stand out on your home page. Or you can use the gallery view in your folder and change the default name of each document to be orderly and easy to scan or search for.
Pulls You In
The second benefit is a similar bonus feature, namely, that pretty notes are more interesting. They’ll draw you in and hold your attention longer, which is always a help when it comes to the reviewing stage of note-taking. They can also boost your creativity and inspiration, which can then fuel your ability to think creatively about the subject matter. Adding a bit of color and relevant images will be especially helpful in this regard.
If taking notes on digital devices, you can always link an attachment to a particularly relevant image and repeat as necessary. Creating a unique format may be worth your time up front if it helps draw you into the process of taking notes. You can use italics, underlining, or highlighting to grab your eye.
Create checklists with icons tied to any existing notes you may have already taken, and then use the same tag throughout the document as your own sort of code. Capture your own attention with an amusing sketch on the top right-hand corner of your written page. Circle the main ideas, underline anything that stands out to you, pin a photo to your paper — and then talk about it on Twitter!
Anything visual will help keep your attention on your page. In fact, this can be a bit of a game to trick your brain into enjoying writing and studying.
Color and the Brain
Color has actually been shown to play an integral role in our visual experiences. When applied to note-taking, color coding aids in relaying information from the eyes to the brain, and has a notable effect on enhancing our learning and memory. You can use different colors to signify different purposes in your notes, which makes this practice both pretty and useful!
Research has even shown different colors to be linked to different functions of the brain. For example, blue is linked to productivity, while green is associated with long-term concentration and clarity. Both sound pretty useful for note-taking, don’t they?
Including relevant drawings, images, charts, infographics, and other visual representations will activate the visual parts of your brain while succinctly presenting information that would be tedious to write longhand. When done responsibly, these visuals serve the dual purpose of being attractive enough to catch your attention while also aiding your learning process. Now that’s what I call a win-win!
When speaking of visuals, let’s not forget handwriting. Assuming that all the notes that you are taking are longhand (which experts recommend, as studies have shown that learners who take notes by hand have greater comprehension and retention rates), your handwriting needs to be legible. It does you no good to have notes that you can’t decipher! A modicum of neatness, then, will keep your handwritten notes easily accessible to you whenever you have need of them.
Keep it Productive
We’ve already made a case for why note-taking is a desirable destination, but let’s dive into even more of the nitty-gritty details of how good notes benefit their authors’ productivity, specifically.
From the very start, you can make your notes work for you simply by taking them in the first place. The act of taking notes quickly during a presentation keeps you focused on what the speaker is saying, because you must be engaged in order to recapture the key concepts on your page. While your mind might be tempted to wander on its own accord, your pen will keep it tethered to the task at hand: taking good notes.
In the process of taking good notes, your brain is more fully engaged than it would be otherwise. You will be more attuned to the information, which will help you to pull out key concepts, important points, themes, and ideas that the speaker discusses. You’ll be able to identify the overall structure and supporting points of their presentation and paraphrase them on the screen on your page.
For this reason, note-taking has been proven to improve learners’ comprehension of a subject, as they are more likely to absorb and understand the content. And through active engagement with the material, you will find yourself better able to pull patterns, connections, examples, and comparisons out of the sea of information. These insights will make the material even more fully yours.
In that sense, good note-taking is a process by which the learner takes ownership of the subject matter itself — not just your learning approach.
Other cognitive benefits include an improved ability to focus your attention, organize and analyze data, and access and retrieve information from memory. You will learn how to better identify, organize notes, prioritize, and summarize large amounts of information being handed to you, whether that be in a lecture setting or a conversation with a friend.
Because of that, your communication skills will evolve. Not only will you be better able to grasp the frameworks being used by others, but you may also find that your ability to articulate your own thoughts will improve the more you master the art of note-taking.
These critical thinking skills are transferable, and you will be able to apply note-taking to any context that strikes your fancy. From lectures to business meetings to home projects and watching the cooking channel, you will glory in your newfound ability to bring order into chaos and a method into madness.
Good notes are also the key to an effective review. If your notes are clear, concise, and comprehensive, they will be not only easy but pleasurable to study. Reviewing may even become a hobby rather than a chore!
And the more effective your review process, the more your time management skills will benefit. You will begin to see where investments of your time and energy create dividends and ever-multiplying rewards.
In short, you will get the most out of your notes when they are productive.
How to Make Your Notes Productive
That’s all well and good, you may be saying, but if you already knew how to make your notes productive, then you wouldn’t be reading this article in the first place! Fair point, fair point, so let’s take a look at what a set of productive notes actually looks like.
There’s many a bold tip and a trick that will serve as a tool to upgrade your notes entry. Grab a pencil and add these things to your existing practices to generate a more effective approach to taking notes.
Much can be gleaned by looking at the Where, Why, and How of productive note-taking:
Where: You can take notes on anything you want, in any situation. Choosing where to invest this skillset is in itself an exercise in productivity, as you must decide — aka, prioritize — where you are going to invest your time and energy in exchange for the boost in productivity that note-taking offers.
You can only use your time once, so think carefully about what you want to spend it on. There will be more and less productive avenues upon which to travel, so choose wisely!
Why: We’ve already touched on the benefits of good note-taking, but let’s refocus here on the elements specifically related to productivity. Effective note-taking enhances your comprehension of the subject you are studying or taking notes on because it encourages you to more fully listen to, engage with, and analyze the material.
It will also serve you well when it comes to reviewing by including only the relevant information and streamlining your study process. Your retention rate for the material will also greatly benefit. In essence, good note-taking is very productive because it optimizes your reward for the time and effort you put into a session, be it a course, a business meeting, or a book club.
How: There are many ways to make your class notes more productive. Start by preparing well, before the presentation even begins. If you are aware of the topic of the presentation, try to identify the key points and concepts that will likely be touched on and make a list of potential headings and subheadings. If you’re taking a class, you can use your textbook’s table of contents as a potential structure for your notes.
Make sure you write down the main topic or title of the presentation as well as the date. That way, you will always know exactly when and where these notes and photos were taken, and on what topic. If they ever get shuffled out of order, you won’t have to waste valuable time trying to reorder them.
Use headings, tags and subheadings to create structure in to organize your notes, as this will make them much easier to scan for relevant information. Save time by using symbols, acronyms, and abbreviations and leaving out unnecessary words such as definitive articles like “the” and “a.” You can also use color coding, underlining, circles, and stars to draw quick attention to various points you want to highlight.
Don’t bother using full sentences unless the word or concept is extremely complex; it will only take up extra time while serving no real function. Paraphrase is your friend when it comes to good note-taking — just make sure you make phrases that include a full word or full thought that you will later be able to understand; you can’t get much more productive than that.
And of course, one of the best ways to make your notes productive is to include the correct information. You don’t need to copy down everything the speaker says; the most productive notes are actually the ones that are a bit more sparse and streamlined. Try to focus on fleshing out the key concepts and their supporting details; extraneous information may be interesting, but if it doesn’t tie in well with your headings and subheadings, then it will clutter up your notes and make them less useful. Quality over quantity, my friends!
Make Your Notes Effective
If productivity is about getting things done, effectiveness is about getting them done right. And there are several ways to make your notes more effective, and in doing so, to make them work for you like Santa’s elves in late November: You can make them stalwart by simply avoiding common note-taking mistakes that hinder effectiveness; you can use a new note-taking template or method that’s been proven to work well; or you can stick with the dependable Five R’s of note-taking.
Better yet — this is my advice, as your faithful guide — do all of the above.
Avoid These Common Note-Taking Mistakes
There are as many note-taking mistakes as there are fish in the sea, but not all of them are blunders worth our attention today. Let’s stick with a few of the more common note-taking mistakes and the ones that will give you an immediate return on your efforts once you put them in their place.
You might think that effective note-taking is all about taking stellar notes, but there are a few more pieces to the puzzle. A common mistake that note-takers make that hinders their effectiveness is not asking enough questions — during and/or after the presentation.
They don’t have to be brilliant questions or particularly deep. They just have to get your curiosity peaked and focused on the topic at hand. This will make your note-taking and listening processes more effective because you will be more likely to see and address any potential gaps or confusion that you have about the material. The result will be a rock-solid set of pages of notes with every angle covered, and your mastery of the subject won’t be far behind.
Another easily rectified mistake that will pay big dividends is not reviewing enough documents. When you’re engaged in a quick note-taking session, the information you gather from multiple notes is stored in your short-term memory. The only way to transition it to your long-term memory — and to make this information truly your own — is to review, review, review.
Experts suggest conducting your first review immediately after the session ends. Studies have shown that students who do this retain up to 75% of the information for that day, whereas students who don’t retain less than 50% — and even that dwindles quickly. Schedule a number of review sessions in order to truly own that information and make your notes work for you.
Use a Note-Taking Template
A huge part of whether or not your notes are effective comes down to whether or not your organization style is sensible. One of the best ways to achieve this is by using a tried-and-true note-taking style. There are many to choose from, but let’s just take a look at a handful.
The Cornell method is a classic template that was developed in the 1940s and remains one of the most popular styles today. It divides the page into three sections: a narrow column on the left where key words, clues, and questions go; a large section on the right for the bulk of your text and your notes; and a section on the bottom for your summary of the content.
This method will boost your notes’ effectiveness by keeping them very clean and orderly. Students who use this style absorb information at a faster rate than their peers, largely thanks to the handy and efficient summary section as well as features such as the highlighted key words and concepts.
When you imagine a brainstorming session with a bunch of interconnected circles and ideas, you’re essentially picturing the Mapping method. This method uses nodes and branches to create a visual representation of ideas and their relationships with one another. It will boost your notes’ effectiveness by bringing your engagement with the topic to the next level and highlighting complex connections and insights within the material. It’s also very flexible and versatile.
The Outlining method is just what it sounds like: use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to recreate an outline of the material on your page. It’s simple, straightforward, and logical. Not only does that make it easy to implement, but it also improves its effectiveness because each note has an obvious place in the hierarchy of information. That makes it easy to read and easy to review, gives you a very clear idea of the topic that was covered, and does all of this while optimizing speed.
Meanwhile, columns, charts, and tables are the bread and butter of the Charting method. Organizing information in this way is effective because you can easily compile vast amounts of data by identifying a few comparisons, and it does so in a way and format that are easy to understand. Key notes are highlighted, and relationships between pieces of information are recognized.
Another visual method is the Boxing method. Yeah, you can probably guess how this one works: you put your data into boxes and frames, with smaller pieces of information going into subsets of boxes like Russian nesting dolls on a page. This helps you group information together in a way that is visually very obvious while still being organized. This style of note-taking is effective because it can smoothly incorporate images, compartmentalize information with ease, and is a breeze to review.
The Five R’s of Note-Taking
No matter what style or system of organization you use for your notes, the 5 R’s are a staple. Write them in the front of your notebook, post them on a sticky note taped to your bathroom mirror, tattoo them on your forehead — do whatever you’ve got to do to remember them, because they will make your notes work for you and save your bacon:
Record
During the presentation, record as many meaningful facts and ideas as you can. Remember to prioritize which facts really are meaningful, an important note as you don’t want to overload your notes with a bunch of unnecessary clutter that will only get in the way. Keep track of dates, main ideas, timelines, and anything else you hear that sounds important. Do the same when reading your textbook or watching any videos for class.
Reduce
As you’re taking notes, reduce the amount of information you’re absorbing into digestible sound bytes. This is where paraphrasing and summarizing do you a huge favor, both in the present and in the long run.
Summarization clarifies not only the meaning of concepts but also the relationships between them and how they fit into the big picture of the topic. It also strengthens your memory and boosts your comprehension by making you really think about the essence of the material.
Don’t worry about whether you’ll miss anything important or not; you can always go back and edit your content. Ask your teachers for clarification if you don’t understand the material enough to simplify it. Share notes with others for tips and feedback.
Recite
Put the content into your own words, both on the page and when explaining the material to others. It’s true what they say: You never truly know something until you have to teach it to others. Find a person to listen to you, or simply start dictating to yourself.
The important thing is to use your own phrases and answer any questions that come up. Be honest with yourself if you don’t understand something; your professor doesn’t expect you to be an expert on the topic quite yet. You can always ask your professor for support if you run into any questions or gaps in your knowledge.
Reflect
Take some time to think about the material. Reflection will help you form your own opinions and consider how the material overlaps with other information in your memory banks. This practice opens the door for deep insights.
Review
Finally, remember to review important notes immediately after the session ends. But even if you only spend 10 minutes a week reviewing the information in your notes, you’ll find that adequate for retaining a big chunk of it in your working memory. The more frequently you review, the better your memory will be.
Tips for Digital Notes
There are many great features available when using a device for note-taking. Using a notes app makes studying extremely convenient and portable. Whether on your iPhone or laptop, a notes app or Microsoft Word document, you’ll be able to sync notes, sort notes, view attachments, and scan documents very easily. There’s always a risk that you’ll lose or accidentally delete your notes app, but the same can happen with handwritten notes; luckily, you can often restore deleted notes.
The camera icon on your phone can be useful for taking photos of presentation slides. If using Apple devices, create a new folder or notes Apple icon for each of your Apple notes and photos. You can take Apple notes effectively, just like on any other device or notes app. When using a digital device, you can always make your notes into a PDF file and print them out for a hard copy.
Conclusion
Well done, young apprentice! Your path to knighthood is now open and clear. But before you take off riding into the sunset on your valiant steed, let’s just do one final recap of what you’ll need to take with you.
Remember, your notes are only as good as they are useful. We discussed a number of tips and ways for you to make sure that your notes work for you, and not the other way around. We wouldn’t want you to find yourself in a battle against a dragon of data without proper tools at your disposal!
We talked about how the first thing you can do to make your notes work for you is to pay attention to their appearance. There are a number of benefits, some scientifically proven, to putting a bit of effort into the visual aspect: they’re more organized and easy on the eye; they’ll hold your attention better in the review stage; and pictures are worth a thousand words. Color, we learned, can enhance our learning and memory as well as apply more orderliness to our notes.
Then we discussed the importance of making your notes productive. This includes easily-implemented practices that will produce an end result, such as paying attention to the speaker and taking notes in the first place. By actively engaging in the material, you’ll not only understand it better, but it will also boost your communication and critical thinking skills and set the stage for a good reviewing habit. You can make your notes more productive by preparing them well, using meaningful structural elements, and not going overboard.
Lastly, we emphasized that one of the best ways to get the most out of your notes is to make them more effective. You can achieve this quite easily by simply avoiding some common mistakes, such as not asking enough questions and not reviewing enough. You can also utilize ready-to-use note-taking templates, such as the Cornell method or the Outlining method, to optimize your notes’ organization.
But regardless of which specific note-taking style you use, the characteristics of effective notes remain the same, and are summed up by the Five R’s of note-taking: Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect, and Review.
So there you have it, aspiring knight. With these tools in your hands, you can go forth and conquer distant lands and uncover untold treasures, armed with the confidence that there is no dragon of data or kraken of chaos too intimidating for you to handle.