I Stopped Trying to Take Perfect Notes and Ended Up Taking Better Ones. Here’s Why According to Science
Four years ago I finally gave up writing “perfect” notes and discovered something better.
Like most people, I wanted a perfect record of at least the main points from any talk I attended or book I read. After all, I needed an accurate record I could revisit later and refresh my memory.
But this approach doesn’t work:
- If you take a perfect record, then it’s not a summary
- When you try to take a perfect record, you don’t listen to the information
- Your notes are always subjective and never a completely accurate representation.
Instead of taking perfect notes, take personal notes
Personal notes are notes on what is important for YOU.
Yes, this means you won’t take notes of everything a speaker says. You may not even record the thing the speaker thinks is most important. Instead, you take notes on what you care about and add your personality to them.
It might sound less effective, but here’s why personal notes are more effective.
Personal notes are more memorable
Personal notes connect new knowledge with what you already know.
This process of drawing connections is at the heart of memory. By entering with topics already in mind and giving yourself time to think (not just write and write), you can draw connections that make ideas stick.
So your personal notes may have old information in them too.
Personal notes are relevant
Personal notes are notes you’ll apply.
When you have a specific goal or question before you take your notes, you are going to take notes that address those issues. This means it will be information you will apply today or tomorrow. Perfect notes on the other hand may have some useful information but it’s buried within the rest.
There’s no useless information in personal notes.
3 tips to start taking more personal notes
If you are ready to give it a go, here’s what you should do.
- Before you start, write down a goal for your notes (or questions you have)
- Only record information related to that goal, other background questions you have, or if it sparks a question you want to investigate
- Add your own commentary in addition to the speaker’s information
This post was created with Typeshare
