Note Taking - Blog Posts

life has been so kind to me lately

Did really well on my 2nd human physiology exam!!! I'm really proud of myself cause I went in really tired and not having studied much the night before, but I think studying throughout the weeks beforehand helped a lot!!

Had another night of drinking with my friends and I felt so happy and at peace with the fact that my friends and I are living our lives the way we should 🙂

Haven't done much school work recently besides the bare minimum, but it still feels okay since I am keeping on top of it all and not falling too far behind

I applied to Pharmacy school!!! Still waiting to hear back, but I am not too worried since I have a guaranteed interview because of my program I am in. The actual interview is gonna be the hard part 🫠🫠 Hoping it goes well, but my program directors say I will do fine!!

life lately <3

- visited the science museum with my mom to donate blood, was very disappointed not to see any bacteria exhibits

- finally made a friend in my human physiology lecture!!! she got my number and we did our group quiz together :) she is pre-nursing

- drank for the first time and learned that my anxiety disappears when im tipsy-ish, also pet a stray cat

- had my first human physiology lab, not too sure about my group mates so far... but we'll see!

life is going really well, but i miss a lot of my friends who i dont see as often now.

t-1 year til pharmacy school starts hopefully. my application is due in october and my interview will be in december!! so excited!!!!

trying to grind hard so that my boyfriend can be my house husband one day

life is good 🙂

hoping I can keep this momentum up and last the semester without burning out!!

08.21.22

The first week’s been pretty cool, the teachers can be intimidating but the experience is fun. I think I accidentally grew into those people who take cool notes with memo pads, annotations, and highlights during class hehe <33

School’s about to start in two days, does anyone have any tips for taking notes?

January Study Challenge

day 22 - do you use color-coding? explain your system!

yes!! i have a very elaborate system :) red is for circling notes that go together. yellow is for definitions. green is for numbers/formulas/dates/equations. teal is for highlighting subtitles. light blue is for people/names. darker blue is for sub-subtitles 😂 purple is for important things. pink is for examples. red PEN is for the most important things. and lastly, purple pen is for parts of the body (i rly only use that for anatomy lol). this may seem like a lot of work, but it’s really not, and it genuinely helps me find stuff within my (usually) very detailed notes. :)

p.s. sry for the super dark picture, i have trash lighting in my room

Hybrid Note Taking Style

A note taking method that blends the best of paper and digital note taking that I’ve been exploring lately. So far it’s working really well for me :) Hope it helps! 

Hybrid Note Taking Method

Problems with other note taking systems

Each note taking system has its pros and cons. Here are some of the problems I found with (fully) paper and (fully) digital note taking systems.

Paper

Can’t use the search function on your notes.

Can’t add images and other types of digital files easily.

Difficult to keep overview between notebooks.

Can’t share these as easily as digital notes.

Digital

Not as ‘romantic’.

Sometimes less engaging.

Lack of physical presence can lead to you forgetting about it.

Can be more difficult to do things like sketching, making schemes, making illustrations etc.

Benefits of Hybrid

I like using hybrid methods because they bring you the best of both worlds.

Easily searchable.

Information in your notes is traceable.

Makes it easier to find and carry out actions e.g. finding extra info.

Doesn’t damage books.

Allows you to embed different types of files.

What you’ll need

Source material (e.g. book, academic paper)

Any kind of notebook :)

Digital note-taking app → I like Notion (it’s free).

Step 1 - Read & number the material

As you go, use a pencil to lightly put numbers into the margins whenever you deem something worthy of noting down or remembering. This will help you locate the source of specific parts of your notes later.

Step 2 - Write Q&A-style notes

Write the information down in question-and-answer style. Come up with useful questions that link to the material you want to remember (e.g. Q → What is the main problem with using platform-based planning for new ventures? A → Assumptions underlying the plan are used as fact rather than best-guess estimates to be tested and questioned). Use the numbers you placed in the margin of the pages to specify the source of the information you used for each answer.

Example → Chapter 1 page 27 note 3 becomes 1.p27.3

Step 3 - Write actions as you go (Supporting notes)

Supporting notes

Write down your thoughts, anything you’re curious about, things you want to look up, things you’re confused about, actions you’ve been inspired to do, etc. For example → ?m Maybe I can apply this to my visualization assignment? / ! Look up what 'plurality of the future’ is / fex Organizational transformation through design. I find this a great way to support and manage the learning process.

Action key

Keep a small action key in which you have an overview of what your action marks mean (e.g. ?m→ questions to myself, f → find, fex → find example, ?? → I don’t get it, ! → general actions)

Don’t be afraid to customize your actions!

What you’ll get

Actionable notes

Your paper notes will contain a structured and easy to read overview of actionable items that came up during the reading. This can be questions you need answered, reminders to find specific information, etc. This will make them a lot harder to forget to do!

Easily traceable sources

With the codes you’ll be able to tell easily and quickly where the information you’ve written in your notes came from.

Searchable & review-ready notes

Notes will be (mostly) made in question-and-answer style. This will allow you to easily review using active recall. All you need to do is cover/hide the answer and you can check how well you truly know the material.

Thanks for reading!

some of my favorite notes 🤩

reading!

i'm sorry i didn't updated lately 😪

study, study & study

what app are you using to freehand write on your ipad with a stylo/pen, if you don’t mind me asking? thanks so much in advance!

Mainly using Goodnotes 5 + apple pencil first gen. for everything! 💖 I love this app because it offers a lot of options. + I think the investment of those 10 or 11$ is totally worth it✨💗 I’ve been using it for 2 years now and they still make huge updates which make it even easier to take handwritten notes!

Something I worked on the past few days~

I’m really proud of myself how this first attempt of making a digital notebook turned out!🥰🌸

Would you be interested in getting a notebook like this for free? If you are interested, leave a comment and maybe soon I will open up a etsy store where you can download my creations (or maybe even buy something in the future)✨

Another gloomy/rainy day of studying!✨

I wish I could write as fast as in the timelapse in real life🥺🥲

Getting stuff done on a rainy day~ ✨📚

What are you up to today?😊

Tbh I’m currently thinking about starting a study youtube channel, but I’m still hesitated bc I’m scared of what other people will think about it. + I don’t know if I can post consistently on there, because making videos is a whole lot of work. I’m glad that I’m able to post on here somehow regularly😅

I’m really uncertain about what to do…😵‍💫

What do you think about this? Would you enjoy watching some kind of study vlogs? Or “study with me”?🥺