There is a post on HackerNews asking for note-taking skills. Below are some good points made:
- 80% of value of notes is to write them. The act of writing them keeps you from distracting. It doesn’t matter if you never read it again
- Two step process: Write during class and make Anki deck from nots the next day for the material committed to memory
- Cornell notes system? http://coe.jmu.edu/learningtoolbox/cornellnotes.html
- questions, notes, summary
- No note in class system: (shorten the study time)
- Pre-read, attempt a few problems, and make preliminary notes
- Prepare list of questions for the class
- Annotate questions during class
- After class, revise preliminary notes into proper notes
- “How to take smart notes” by Sönke Ahrens – highly recommended
- Cambridge Jotter A5 Card Cover Wirebound Notebook Ruled 200 Pages / Date each page / Write everything / Multicolor pen
- Feynman technique: Write the subject, skip a few lines, go through the steps to understand the subject, then summary on how I understand it
- Rewrite notes as a revision cycle and help stay engaged
- Shorthand notes in text file
- first line = subject and meeting date
- second line = attendees, etc
- every other line prefixed by symbols: * = someone to do something, X = I am to do something, - = things to remember, ? = questions to answer
- Use colored pens, and color code the notes
- e.g., red = problems/WTF, green = questions, blue = fact/reference, black = thoughts/misc
- disadvantage: switching pens slows down writing
- Note taking system for Emacs
- org-mode
- https://www.eliasstorms.net/zetteldeft/
- Sketchbook and a box of uni-ball ONYX rollerball pens
- For college level class
- before lecture: read the topic and highlight key points, transcribe highlight into handwritten notes (leave room for comments and more notes)
- bring notes to class
- before exam: transcribe handwritten notes into index cards, and quiz on them
- Books:
- “How to be a straight A student” by Cal Newport – tips in note taking and how to process the notes
- The Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde
- Bullet journals: https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn
- Quadrant method (Bill Gates): Notes, Questions, To-dos (actions taken by other), Assignments (for me)
- Smart notes https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-to-take-smart-notes/ (Niklas Luhmann)
- ideas: write on index cards
- only one side of each card is used to avoid the need to flip over
- limit to one idea per card, but each card has a sequential number (1,2,3…)
- supplementary idea goes with suffix (1a, 1b, 1c,…)
- Save contradictory ideas
- Organize notes by context (like a writer) not topic (like a librarian)
- Note-taking system implemented by Twinkle app
- vimwiki
- Scratchpad note to ease the cognitive load for quick brainstorming without caring which folder/category/project to place it
- Two pass process
- Dump everything into notes
- Capture each note as a short chunk of information, then reorganize by adding tags to categorize and reorder
- Tree-based note-taking app: https://learnobit.com
- mindmaps
- PARA https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/
- Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives
- Project = series of tasks linked to a goal
- Areas of responsibility = activities to maintain, e.g., health, finance, travel, friends, direct reports, product development
- Resource = topic of ongoing interest, e.g., habit formation, project management, coffee, SEO
- Archive = inactive items from the three above, e.g., projects completed, area no longer committed to maintain, resources no longer interested in
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Bui, D. C., Myerson, J., & Hale, S. (2012, October 8). Note-Taking With Computers: Exploring Alternative Strategies for Improved Recall. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0030367 ↩