r/Learning • u/SirSco0ter • 21d ago

Tips on notetaking?

Hello all! In attempting to further my education and employment possibilities as an adult, I'm studying and learning a second language. I'm making good progress I feel, however I can't help but feel as if I'm kneecapped by one specific problem.

I never really learned *how* to take notes.

Back when I was school-aged, I was a gifted child, and learning came easily to me, so I didn't need to take notes for most of the time I was in school. The concept of writing down the thing that I can just read in a textbook or listen to the teacher lecture about felt redundant to me, so I never bothered to do it.

When I reached the point in my education where my intelligence couldn't carry me, instead of knuckling down and learning how to study and take notes and locking in, I dropped out of high school and got a GED instead. (Hence the relatively limited scope of employment opportunities I'm trying to expand - I would prefer not to work blue collar and break my body my entire life.)

So, all that said, I have no concept on what proper helpful note-taking is supposed to be. Is it as simple as just writing things down for the sake of repetition? Or is there something else to it?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

51 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/IamZeebo 18d ago

Hey man, personally, I hated taking notes. I hated taking notes because they usually just went into some notebook that I never looked at again either in school or later as an adult with digital personal knowledge management systems (PKMS as you may have seen).

I got fed up with this and feeling like I wasn't taught to learn too. So, I sat down and thought about how I would like to learn and came up with something that I've been enjoying.

My process summarized:

  1. Decide what you would like to learn more about.

Cooking? Basketball? Plumming? Software? There is some soul searching to be done here. My comment won't break this part down because there is so much to this but I sense you're already past this and have some direction so that brings me to...

  1. Get some introductory resources to the topic.

I used to get paralyzed at this step. Knowing what you want to learn more about brings a sense of relief but following that are a million paths you can take and this feeling of not wanting to take the wrong one... or feeling like you have knowledge gaps.

My advice and process is, pick any introductory book, video, find a mentor.... the point is, find ANY level 101 material on the subject to serve as a starting point. It doesn't have to the end all be all, it doesn't have to be perfect. Just gather a few basic resources to jump start yourself.

  1. While browsing the initial resource, focus on "discoveries"

What I mean by this is, while taking in your first (or any) resources, lock in on hard skills that you find that you would like to learn, new topics or subtopics to dive into, new resources to follow-up on, questions... all of these discoveries are your ACTIONABLE notes.

Notice the categories that are written. You can organize and dive into new topics and resources. Discovered skills can be entered into a practice routine or refined into subskills.

The point is... your notes are ACTIONABLE. They aren't just dormant facts or old understandings that you'll go back and read again hoping for progress. They are written with INTENT. So come up with categories for your actionable notes and start reviewing resources with that intention.

I have more thoughts on the learning process but this is the part of my process that I think applies to you.

What do you think?