Writing notes: 3 types of notes

Ever since elementary school I HATED writing notes. Especially because I could never actually focus for more than 10 min at a time, so naturally my notes had more holes in them than a Swiss cheese. Also I could never deal with notebooks and I always doodled in them instead of writing down what I’d have to. So I always had to borrow notes from my classmates if I wanted to study for exams.. It was a huge mess.

However in secondary (high) school I figured out a way to make notes with minimal effort, even though it needed a bit of preparation and I’m still using them in college.

So in this part, I’ll share with you what kind of notes I make in next part I’ll write about usage of colors in your notes and after that, I can make guides on how to make and use those notes.

1.Post-it (sticky) notes

How I arrange my sticky notes for easy usage.

I love using post it notes. I usually have a plastic file folder with sheets (pockets) in it so I can put post-it notes all over them. As mentioned before my attention span is really poor. So post-it notes are perfect for capturing basic ideas, words and titles that outline the lecture and give you enough to go on and do your own research. Also it’s easy to add and take away what’s needed without erasing anything and messing up the whole thing. But yeah, you need a shitload of post-it notes.

It’s also great if you use different colors and shapes of the notes, so you can easily group your notes at any time. They are also easily arrangeable into mind maps.

 

2. Mind maps

Seriously… Can you read what’s on this pic??

Like mentioned before, post-it notes can be used to make mind maps. You can literally stick them on your wall in the right order. Or use poster paper (at least size A2, but remember, the bigger the better) so you can also draw lines of what goes where.

However, I like to make mind maps for any subject that have a lot of study material, because once you learn how to make a mind map the most efficiently for your learning style, you can put all of your study material in few (5-10) mind maps (I write/draw them on A3 size paper) that are way easier to learn than 500 pages or pure torture.

3. Doodler

C’mon, it’s funny. A rap plant…

I think we all have a little doodler in us, especially when we get bored and our mind wanders. But that can become a huge problem when you have a notebook (because for some subjects notebooks are a must, sadly) doodled all over instead of having the actual study notes in them.

To fight that problem I started to use the ‘separation line’. That means that I draw a thick line about 5 cm away from the left edge of the notebook (each page). The space on the left is used for doodling and other useless stuff, while space on the right is used for actual notes that are important.

 

That’s it for today! If you want more of those make sure to check out my blog on Fridays, as I’ll regularly post ‘College hacks of a lazy student’. If you have questions, ideas, or advice. PLEASE DO SHARE THEM! I will include then in my next posts.

Thank you for reading, have a nice hack

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