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Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

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Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#111

Post by ska »

For what it's worth, when I was an undergrad the best improvement I saw as to take (almost) no notes in class. Instead I would:

1 Pre-read the material and perhaps attempt a few problems (if relevant) to see that I understood them. Make preliminary notes and call out places I didn't understand.

2 Prepare a list of questions I had, areas I didn't fully understand - take this to class

3 In class, mostly listen. Annotate my questions to make sure they had been covered (might be a check mark or yes/no might be a short annotation). Ask any I wasn't sure about after they described.

4 The only other things that got written down during lecture were a) logistics (e.g. quiz on X next tuesday, next lecture covers X & Y) or b) new questions or uncertainties to follow up on

5 after the lecture (same day if at all possible) revise the preliminary notes on that lecture into "proper notes" that resolve everything possible

6 If anything isn't resolved, work through it until it is, or hit up office hours, etc.

When lecturing later, I suggested this approach to my classes; many people reported it working well for them.

I would say that by using this approach, particularly by reading ahead a little bit, I cut my over all "study time" nearly in half, mostly because I rarely had to do anything else (that the above) except practice questions for exams - and those went quickly because I had good notes. This got me through a joint honors program with a fair bit of time pressure.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#112

Post by waylandsmithers »

bluGill wrote: post #22

80% of the value of notes is the act of writing them down by hand. (I don't have a citation for it, but I tend to believe it). That is notes are primarily a tool to help you not fall asleep, start daydreaming, or whatever distraction keeps you from listening. The fact that you cannot write everything down forces you to think about what you are hearing and find the important part to write down. Now that you have found…

This definitely helps me pay attention to other people's updates during daily standup

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#113

Post by glun »

westurner wrote: post #20
glun wrote: post #17

I think you ought to consider whether you should take notes at all. Notetaking is great for remembering actions that you have comitted to doing, or if you need to spread information to people who didn't participate in a meeting. Managers need to do a lot of notetaking. However, taking notes seriously hinder your ability to engage with the material and build true understanding as you are listening, which would have he…

> In 2009, psychologist Jackie Andrade asked 40 people to monitor a 2-½ minute dull and rambling voice mail message. Half of the group doodled while they did this (they shaded in a shape), and the other half did not. They were not aware that their memories would be tested after the call. Surprisingly, when both groups were asked to recall details from the call, those that doodled were better at paying attention to th…

> dull and rambling voice mail message

This is in no way a realistic study. A dull and rambling voice speaking about some random thing not related to you or your work will make people disengage. Doodling presumably keeps people from totally spacing out.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#114

Post by emmanueloga_ »

My strategy is to use two passes.

First, dump the raw content in quickest way possible. Generally the quickest way is plain text, if I have a good keyboard around. I also like eraser boards so I have some small ones by my desk [1]. Wipebooks are nice for portability [2].

The part where I put more care is the second pass, where I go trough the notes and try to structure them in a more useful way for reviewing and learning. The guidelines for formulating knowledge from the SuperMemo author are super useful here: "Effective learning: Twenty rules of formulating knowledge" [3].

1: https://www.amazon.com/Board-Dudes-Metalix-Magnetic-CXY22/dp...

2: https://wipebook.com/

3: http://super-memory.com/articles/20rules.htm

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#115

Post by ReC757 »

exikyut wrote: post #58
komali2 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The disadvantage here being notification pop-ups and email being a tab away. Also whenever someone's on a laptop on a meeting I just assume they're not listening and looking at their emails, doesn't matter what they say before or during. Happens too often. Double if it's a googler lol.

Bizarre suggestion for a device that's kinda hard to find nowadays but which I've heard is awesome: the AlphaSmart Dana. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart

WOW. I totally forgot this thing existed... I had the “3000” one in high school.

I remember it having a fantastic feel to it for being plastic. Other than that though, things like this were about having a system that you could write on without having to worry about battery life. Laptops were more expensive back then (oh man, I finally feel 31).

Currently to take notes in class, I use a 2008 MacBook Pro running Manjaro w/ i3wm. I try to copy the instructors talking points with shorthand.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#116

Post by Techies4Trump »

Get yourself a 4-color pen, or 4 separate pens, some highlighters, and in your own time (not in class), read the material from several sources - Wikipedia, text book, your professor's notes, understand the topic, then write your notes in your own words, using diagrams whenever possible.

Never copy things verbatim especially if you don't fully understand them. Understand the topic first, then write your notes.

If its taking you a long time to understand the topic, or it requires some back-tracking or further reading, do that, then return to the topic.

Taking down notes in lectures is often a waste of time because often the lecturer is just reading from his/her notes, which you have access to, however it depends on the Lecturer.

Final piece of advice is not to take them down in a text file. Use a pen and paper. I find hand-writing the notes is less distracting and forces me to think about them. However this may not be true for everyone.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#117

Post by omar12 »

bluGill wrote: post #22

80% of the value of notes is the act of writing them down by hand. (I don't have a citation for it, but I tend to believe it). That is notes are primarily a tool to help you not fall asleep, start daydreaming, or whatever distraction keeps you from listening. The fact that you cannot write everything down forces you to think about what you are hearing and find the important part to write down. Now that you have found…

From my experience, I completely agree with your statement. Sometimes I recall information by remembering the way I wrote something. Like there is a relation with the mental memory and the physical memory of writing notes.

> The fact that you cannot write everything down forces you to think about what you are hearing and find the important part to write down. Now that you have found the important part the writing helps you remember it.

Definitely! You are processing and analyzing the information "on the fly", possibly writing a shorter blurb that captures the essence of the information.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#118

Post by chanmad29 »

A lot depends on the instructor. The good ones go slow enough that you can both follow along and take notes. What worked best for me is to pay attention when professor is explaining and quickly write down in my words the explained concept- like moving it from my RAM to SSD. This way I build about 80% understanding of the concept. Further redoing the notes by referencing material/problem solving took me closer to full understanding.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#119

Post by romes »

gdubs wrote: post #68

One thing that’s missing from your question is: what’s the goal? Is it to develop a better understanding of the subject matter? To score better on tests? Having a clear goal can help unlock the right process. Otherwise you risk having a solution in search of a problem. It’s a meta skill that’s worth a lot.

This is a very good comment. Thank you for asking, I reflected more than I had on it. I agree with you fully. I'm going to get in context on the thread now, but, basically, I want to get the most of this semester's classes, and share useful notes with my colleagues

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#120

Post by mkchoi212 »

choward wrote: post #89
mkchoi212 wrote: post #88

I first just jot them down on the Mac's Notes app. This bit isn't that important. You just write whatever you are taking notes of, no particular structure. The next bit is important though. Within __30 minutes__ since the end of the lecture, I go over the notes and organize them. Note the 30 minute limit! If you try to organize the notes the next day, you won't be able to remember the lecture and not be able to fill…

Isn't organizing the notes the hard part whether or not you do it within 30 minutes?

Yes but if you try to do it after you initially jot down the rough notes, you are more likely to recognize patterns & structures in the notes. Well, this is me personally :D
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