The Right Way To Take And Use Your Notes

Look at the picture above the title. Does it seem familiar? If you have taken your notes in this way and later wondered why you can’t understand why you highlighted some parts, or even what color represents what, you are not alone.

There are countless people who highlight their textbooks (or notes) this way, and I was always puzzled at how much time they spend just highlighting all of the paragraphs in all of those colors.

Lucky me, I only had one marker so I could only use one color. Are thinking “Why didn’t you buy more”? it was because I was too lazy to go twice, so I got stuck with one color (which was a good decision in the long run).

Now, if you want to learn how to properly highlight so you can actually use your notes, you have to learn how to separate important from unimportant (or should I say less important, because everything you learn is definitely important…) material.

The first option is the easiest. Just decide that everything is important and highlight everything(I really did see someone do this) or decide that nothing is important and don’t take any notes(this was my strategy for quite some time).

For the second (and more reasonable) option, I recommend something in the middle. Firstly, I suggest that you do not even take notes during the lecture in the first place. The more effective method would be to take notes at the end of the lecture since you will most likely remember all the important points(that is if you pay attention).

I can’t do that! What if I forget some details or forget something important?

I know, I know. First of all, If it takes effort for you to remember the important points of the lecture you will remember them for a longer period of time. If you really think that you forgot something, you can compare your notes with someone else. I can guarantee that someone else(if not all of them) will take notes during the lecture.

If even this is not enough assurance, then I guess this piece of advice is not for everyone and if you think that you are in that group, then just keep taking notes during the lecture.

What I strongly advise against, is highlighting what is important instead of writing it.

Most people mindlessly read and highlight what they are reading without actually understanding what they are reading. At least you have to think about what to write, so you have a better chance of remembering it.

I would go as far as to say that highlighting doesn’t even help all that much and is a distraction, but since I still use it to this day, I will teach you the proper(if you can even call it that) way to use highlighting.

Since I know that I can’t stop myself from highlighting too much if I don’t set some rules, I set these 3 that are always being followed:

1. Use only one color
2. Read the text and think about the most important parts
3. Then pick one word(at most a sentence from each paragraph) and highlight it

This way, if I truly understood the material I was studying, I could recall what it was about just by looking at the highlighted words.

Let me give you an example. If you want to find this same text, go to Google, type “Earth Wikipedia” and go to the fourth paragraph(if you are as lazy as me you can go here).

* * * * *

Earth, like most other bodies in the Solar System, formed 4.5 billion years ago from gas in the early Solar System. During the first billion years of Earth’s history, the ocean formed and then life developed within it. Life spread globally and has been altering Earth’s atmosphere and surface, leading to the Great Oxidation Event two billion years ago. Humans emerged 300,000 years ago in Africa and have spread across every continent on Earth with the exception of Antarctica. Humans depend on Earth’s biosphere and natural resources for their survival, but have increasingly impacted the planet’s environment. Humanity’s current impact on Earth’s climate and biosphere is unsustainable, threatening the livelihood of humans and many other forms of life, and causing widespread extinctions.

* * * * *

As you can see, I chose to highlight “Humans emerged 300,000 years ago in Africa and have spread across every continent”. There is no need to highlight the rest. I already know that all the continents are on the Earth and that no one lives in Antarctica (at least I hope no one does).

But there can be other options depending on what you find interesting. You can choose “Great Oxidation Event” if that is what you find interesting. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you remember what you study.

From one part of the sentence I highlighted, I can assume that this paragraph is about life spreading and affecting the Earth. But if you remember “Great Oxidation Event” and think “Oh, that is in the paragraph that talks about how life affected the Earth” then you can continue to remember it like that.

After this, you can think of some questions related to this paragraph. Here are 3 examples:

1. When did planet Earth start taking its form?
2. When did humans start populating the planet?
3. What is the impact does it have on Earth?

What if I want to make more (or less) than these three questions?

Obviously, you won’t make three questions in every paragraph you read. Depending on its importance and length, you can make just one or more than ten questions. Don’t go and excessively make questions, and then complain about how you have no time to answer them).

Now that you have a new way of taking notes, I just have to answer one last question.

I always take notes the same way and it works for me, so why would I change it?

If you still have a question like this, then the answer is simple. You do not have to change what you are doing. What I have given you here, are ways that I used to take notes “more efficiently” and study better(and most importantly study faster 😃).

If you are struggling with your studies or you want more free time, I suggest that you give this method one try and see where it goes.

Remember:

Excessive highlighting is a waste of time because it takes too much time to highlight everything and too much time to read all of that.

Writing your notes is a better practice than highlighting because it engages your brain more.

The best practice is to write questions in your notes because it engages your brain the most.

Try a combination of these methods to see what works for you.