The art of note-taking is a crucial skill for every learner whether in an academic, medical setting, or a self-directed learning journey. When taking notes, learners go through a process of recording, interpreting, filtering, and synthesizing knowledge.
The theoretical framework for information processing is comprised of three main stages:
Receiving the information
Transferring into short term memory "Working Memory"
Transferring into long term memory
The receiving memory stage is very brief. Received data after being converted into a usable format might not move to the next working-memory stage without proper triggers ( being interesting, certain patterns triggering).
When new information is transferred to your working memory, the mental workbench, the information is processed, assessed, and held there temporarily. Not more than 5 - 9 items can be held and an average of 20 seconds can be maximized with active rehearsal for retention of up to 20 minutes.
In order for new learning to be retained and retrieved later, the material must be stored in meaningful ways in the long-term memory. The schemata "interconnected categories within the memory" influence how individuals process information and what they learn.
When the note-taking process is considered, two main benefits are primarily noted:
Encoding
External storage
The encoding refers to the learning that results from the act of taking notes itself, whereas the external storage refers to the benefit that comes from the act of studying the notes. Both aspects if used in conjunction provides a potent learning tool than either aspect on its own.
Combined with the external storage benefit, note-taking can enable better construction of deep-level mental representations of instructional content and empowers generative processing by encouraging creating, synthesizing, organizing, and connecting new content with existing prior knowledge.
Knowledge in the Oxford English dictionary is:
Information and skills acquired through experience or education.
The sum of what is known.
Awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
Personal knowledge management (PKM) is the personal process of collecting information that a person uses to Capture, Organize and store this vast amount of knowledge and information overload that we live in. Having a good PKM system allows one to be able to retrieve this knowledge in an efficient and timely manner.
It is not clear in research, which note-taking way is best for learners in the academic setting.
There even seem to be controversy as to whether paper-based handwriting or laptop typing is better. Further research is clearly needed, as the fast-paced technological advances in digital devices.
Whether a student or a lifelong learner, adapting a structured system for taking notes should be a skill we thrive to achieve. I dare to say, that it is very difficult to function, work and succeed without learning and perfect this skill. It is also a continuous work in progress that adapts and grows with us.
I started writing sketches and notes on Evernote sometime in 2012. Over the years I work and tweak this system as I consider it my (brain in my pocket). For academic and clinical work, the clearer the structure I work with, the easier retrieving information becomes. I keep in mind a few main points working with this structure.
Keep building on previous knowledge.
Synthesize and make connections between old and new knowledge packets.
Easy to retrieve and find information when needed.
Avoid cluttering and information overload.
frequent reviewing and deleting the unnecessary.
I have found the best system that works for me is by organizing my note-taking system
into three categories:
Personal
Medical or clinical
Archive
For my personal system, It's equally divided between notion and Evernote. I'll leave that for a different post.
For the medical and archive part, If it's a piece of knowledge that I'll probably want to retrieve quickly it gets into Evernote. If it's just an article or something I might use for research etc. it goes into dropbox and Zotero.
Now for the Evernote.
I adapt the PARA system in all my computer filings to keep everything universally organized, this applies to Evernote.
I added 2 extra categories related to my work for easy access, it just works for me this way.
Content is mostly short in a flashcard type of format. This is really important as it makes this system work.
Titles should be clear, all notes as if my future self is asking my past self about something I learned earlier. ( when to deviate from ACLS? )( How to treat acute portal vein thrombosis)
I use lots of screenshots, snippets, and referencing to the archive if I needed to go find the source, but I try to avoid adding lots of PDF files. If I have a question, all I want is an answer.
This system especially works well for conferences or online courses note-taking. The increase in digital teaching and availability of educational content online has created a negative impact on how much we can retain.
Writing down and note-taking had an increased recall benefit and enhancing distinctive memory representations for students. Activating the processing framework where not only transcriptional notes are taken, but more organized notes leads to better retention of verbal information.
One pivotal point in developing my system after I learned the Zettelkasten method and reading how to take smart notes, Where I started to take my notes taking system much seriously and learned how to maximally utilize the writing tools available. for note-taking.
What tools should you use for a note-taking system?
There is no one size fits all app.
It's a process of trial and error as you find your own system that fits your need.
As a student, there are few options that are absolutely worth checking out:
Supernotes: It excels in keeping things simple. You mainly create note cards. So this will be really powerful for creating notes meant for revision and memory recall.
Remnotes: It allows you to create flashcards, connect them using backlinking and encourage you to schedule spaced repetition to consolidate knowledge into your long-term memory.
Notion: Probably this is a cornerstone for many note-takers. It's so fluid and intuitive that can work with you however you intend to use it.
The recent addition of synced blocks have made it hundred times even better. because now you can connect any 2 notes you are working on between different pages. This can have so many uses that you can utilize in both note-taking and productivity systems.
I specially like notion in writing notes on videos or books etc. because of how easy you can embed media in the page, bookmark content, and highlight your notes in a visually appealing aesthetic.
Also for students, notion has many templates that can help you start to organize and kick off your note-taking journey. You can find them on notion template gallery, but I like those two.
Nimbus: I've been using Nimbus for some time now on and off for different projects. It is quickly claiming itself as an Evernote replacement. The best description for it would be as if you combined Evernote and Notion
Bear: If you love the simplicity of Apple notes, you will love Bear. I interchange using Bear and apple notes for capturing drafts and ideas as they are so frictionless and easy to connect ideas and thoughts in a nonlinear way. Very intuitive. If you love using Roam you will love using Bear. You should be comfortable with a non-categorial hierarchy system as it heavily depends on tagging and interconnections.
There are many other tools that can be used as your second brain and it is absolutely essential to spend some time deciding what matters to you in this phase in life. I suggest you consider the following
Define the goals you want to achieve from this note-taking system.
take a quick look at the files you frequently need to access, how are they organized? where and how easy is it to retrieve usually.
Try the tools that can simplify your need to write, store, organize and retrieve.
Further reading:
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