
Ask HN: How to take notes? - varbhat
What are the effective ways of taking Notes?<p>I am learning programming (&#x2F;languages) , new things and I think that I should take notes so that i can quickly revise&#x2F;remember things if i forget.<p>Are cheatsheets helpful? How should i do it? Any suggestions?
======
hprotagonist
I try very hard not to get caught in bikeshedding the perfect note system over
actually writing things down. This is very much in the “don’t let the perfect
be the enemy of doing literally anything at all” territory.

Features i find are actually helpful:

\- keep a link to the source where you found the information summarized in the
note. A url, a DOI and an equation number, whatever.

\- when you can, physically recopy the data in the note. Retype the code,
write ideas out long-form.

\- ELI5 (explain it like i’m five) or up-goer [0] the contents of a collection
of notes. Or at least write summaries or abstracts about a collection of them.
Recapitulating information instead of blindly saving it makes you digest it
better.

\- Rubber ducking works. Go pester your partner, your pet, the potted plant,
whatever.

[0]: [https://www.splasho.com/upgoer5/](https://www.splasho.com/upgoer5/)

~~~
mlok
ELI5 : I did not know about this acronym. For those who don't know, it means
"Explain me Like I'm 5 years old".
[https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/)

~~~
afarrell
> it means "Explain me Like I'm 5 years old".

Note that it does not actually mean this. It usually means something more like
"Explain like I'm 15 years old"

"Fun" fact: ASAP does not mean "As soon as possible" but instead refers to a
wide range of urgency levels from "sometime in the next two weeks" to "as soon
as you are humanly capable of doing while keeping your risk of major injury
below 2% and cost below $300.

------
nikivi
I have a bind (3+n) to open notes.md file in Sublime Text I can drop things
into. Although I don't use it much as often I can write notes directly under
some topic in my wiki. It usually fits under some of the 840+ topics I have

[https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge/blob/master/SUMM...](https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge/blob/master/SUMMARY.md)

On mobile, I take quick notes with Telegram's Saved Messages.

This kind of question has been asked many times before on HN and elsewhere.
Here are some links I collected around note/wiki management.

[https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/other/wiki-
workflow#links](https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/other/wiki-workflow#links)

Oh and for effortless sharing of notes, I use my tool gitupdate to
automatically push changes made to my folder of notes. i.e. here is a commit
where I add this very thread to my wiki under `wiki-workflow.md` topic. To do
it, I pressed two buttons (`+v)
([https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/dotfiles/blob/194d8453b2af...](https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/dotfiles/blob/194d8453b2afcd14b8df1c791916b768ef132f85/karabiner/karabiner.edn#L531))
which runs a KM macro
([https://i.imgur.com/fmXgUYv.png](https://i.imgur.com/fmXgUYv.png)).

[https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge/commit/cfaab75dd...](https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge/commit/cfaab75dda2270a9dfbd428edec96c39fee2e46b)

~~~
runjake
I’ve been marveling over your repo all day (and night). So great!

Do you auto generate the SUMMARY.md files, if so how? A script doing a simple
recursive directory walk?

~~~
nikivi
It uses Manage Notes workflow I made
([https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/small-
workflows#personal-w...](https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/small-
workflows#personal-workflows)).

The workflow also lets me create hyperlinks between documents within the wiki.

------
technoryt
If you are already an Emacs user, try org-roam. It encourages to divide the
note writing into short chunks that can be easily linked together (as in
Roam), but you get all the goodies of the org-mode ecosystem, including:

\- For programming, you can use org-babel to write short snippets that you can
then run directly in your note (a la IPython notebook, but for pretty much any
language). Super-useful if you are learning a new programming language.
Alternatively, you can add an org link to specific files/functions inside a
code base.

\- To promote recall by generating flashcards directly from your notes, add
anki-editor to sync with Anki, or org-drill. With Anki you can do reviews from
your phone.

\- To quickly incorporate a screenshots, use M-x org-download-screenshot
(useful while taking notes off an online video or presentation)

\- To refer to sources: file links (e.g., PDFs) and web links work out of the
box; for academic papers, use org-ref and BibTeX files; if you are on macOS,
you can also link to emails (useful to keep track of projects); I am still
figuring out the synchronizations with PDF annotations.

\- If you need math equations, use LaTeX snippets inside your org file and
org-fragtog to automatically render them inside your notes (without having to
export/compile the entire file as LaTeX).

\- Use ag or pt to search through all your notes using fuzzy searching.

Notes are just text files all in the same directory, so you can use
git/Dropbox/Google Drive to sync. If you use Dropbox and have an Android phone
you can use Orgzly to edit your notes. The most useful feature is that from
any app you can "Share" with Orgzly, and add it to one of your notes (I use it
to add notes related to podcasts).

I concur with other commenters about making your note taking as frictionless
as possible (I have Emacs opened all the time, so org-roam was an easy choice
for me)

------
Yvonne_McQ
There are 4 effective methods for taking notes:

1\. The Cornell note-taking system

First, divide the page into three parts: one narrow column on the left side,
one wide column on the right side, and one section at the bottom part of the
page.

Write your notes in the right column of the page. That’s your note-taking
column.

As soon as possible after the lecture is over, use the left column to create
questions for every part of the notes. That’s your cue column.

When this task is completed, write a short summary in the bottom section of
each page.

That’s it! Congratulations!

2\. T-notes method

Just divide a page into 2 parts. One part is for writing down terms,
equations, formulas and theories. The other part is for definitions, examples,
evidence and proof.

3\. Mind map method

Write down the main idea in the center of the page. Then draw “branches” every
time you need to add a sub-topic or a detail to your scheme. At the end of the
lecture you’ll have a detailed flow chart of the content you listened to.

4\. Flow note-taking method

A flow-based note-taking method is the most effective way to take notes if you
are a fast learner.

The principle of the flow note-taking technique is to represent the ideas you
hear using textual and visual information recorded on the page.

The flow note-taking method includes a lot of tables, schemes, arrows, points,
offshoots – anything that helps you to represent your “mental model.”

More details and examples are here [https://ivypanda.com/blog/everything-you-
need-to-know-about-...](https://ivypanda.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-
about-note-taking/)

~~~
entha_saava
While not exactly a note taking method, Flash cards a la Anki come to mind.

------
mikece
It's a truth that teaching is the best way to learn; even if you never "teach"
the course you're learning it's useful write down key points as questions
(along with their answers in your notes) and compose an exam from the material
you just learned as though you're going to use it to test someone else's
knowledge. Then take the exam you created, first right after you're done with
your learning session and then again the next day before you start with your
next session. The act of recalling from memory what you've learned is key to
locking in information for long-term retrieval. (And your collection of
practice exams make for a great way to cumulatively test that you're recalling
everything you've learned.)

This and many more tricks were learned by reading "Make it Stick: The Science
of Successful Learning" \-- [https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-
Successful-Learnin...](https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-
Learning/dp/0674729013/)

~~~
zomglings
I've heard of Serge Lang [0] that, when he wanted to learn something, he would
write a book about it.

0\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Lang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Lang)

------
psahgal
I made it a point to take detailed notes for all of my lectures in college,
and I did pretty well in my courses as a result! So here's some advice.

Consider taking notes by hand instead of using a computer. I found one study
from some time ago that suggested handwritten notes are better:
[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095679761452458...](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581)
I personally find taking notes by hand better for me. Since I can't find any
studies replicating the result of the one I cited, I suggest trying it out and
see if it helps!

When I was taking notes for class lectures, I would split sections of notes by
date, titling subsections in a given day as appropriate. This sort of chunking
will help you remember the notes better, rather than writing in one continuous
stream. If you're taking online courses to learn some programming languages, I
think this method will work! If not, I would suggest keeping a notebook per
programming language and just organize your notes by day.

When taking notes, you do NOT want to copy what's on screen or what's being
talked about verbatim. You want to capture just the highlights, so that
they'll jog your memory later. I generally write tons of bullet points instead
of complete sentences, and I end up with more of an outline at the end than
paragraphs of information. If you need the finer details, it's better to go
back and review the source material itself.

Once you have your notes, you can review them by going day-by-day. For your
case, if you need to refer to previous sections quickly, consider bookmarking
them with sticky notes. (Not sure how you would do this digitally.) You might
be surprised to find that the act of writing down the notes was enough to keep
them in your head, and you may not actually need to review your notes often.

Hope this helps!

~~~
specialist
Taking notes for study, I have to use pen & paper. I just don't retain
anything I don't write down. (I have a very terrible shorthand, basically
illegible to anyone else.)

Taking minutes for meetings, I have to use a computer. I'm able to kind of get
into a stenographer flow state. I capture a lot but remember Little.

I have no idea how or why these strategies work.

------
eindiran
The system I have personally settled on is tracking todo/task related
information in a paper notebook, copying the relevant info for each day to a
new section each morning. For personal knowledge, lab notebooks, etc I keep
them in dated markdown files in a single notes directory, which makes them
easily searchable. If you want a good markdown editor, checkout Remarkable
([https://remarkableapp.github.io/](https://remarkableapp.github.io/)).

As other commenters have pointed out, don't worry too much about sticking
obsessively to one system. Just try one out, and if it works well (enough) for
you stick to it.

There are several old threads that are pretty helpful covering this topic as
well:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20101911](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20101911)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21419478](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21419478)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22473209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22473209)

[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=ask%20hn%20note%20taking&sort=byPopularity&type=story)

------
D13Fd
Since 2012, I've used a single folder of text files organized by date. The
titles follow this format:

[Creation date] [Subject]

So if I'm taking notes on, for example, Regex use in Python, the text file is
titled:

2020-07-15 Python Regex

The notes themselves are loosely formatted with markdown, including code
blocks for code.

I have about 3k of these files at this point, all in one folder and easily
searchable.

I've found this is the best way to take short notes, for me at least. Even if
you can't remember what you would have titled a note, it's always pretty easy
to remember about how long ago you took it.

There are a variety of text editors with interfaces that designed for this
style of note taking, displaying the text files in a searchable list with
syntax highlighting for Markdown and the internal code blocks in the notes.
Here are some (on Mac, but there are others):

\- Notational Velocity (ancient and outdated)

\- nvAlt (old)

\- nvUltra (in eternal closed beta)

\- Ulysses

Currently I use Ulysses and it works pretty well. The syntax highlighting for
Markdown and internal code blocks is decent, with a great UI. It does tend to
get bogged down with super long files, so you need to break those up.

Before this system I tried many alternatives over many years. But eventually
every program becomes outdated, and then you are dealing with incompatible
file formats etc. The good thing about this system is that in the end it's
just a folder of text files, and there will probably always be good text
editors.

~~~
specialist
That's a great system.

I will often remember when I was thinking about something. Using your system,
I'd be able to better retrieve stuff.

I will also remember where. In a future perfect world where you and I create
the ultimate notes app, we'll have to also add geolocation to each note's
metadata.

------
kirubakaran
Try my [https://histre.com/](https://histre.com/) to take notes on things you
read online. I use it extensively of course.

\- It suggests appropriate tags you. #python etc. This lets you review things
by topic.

\- Tags are inlined in your notes. You don't have to create them first

\- If you want to publish some of these notes, you just add #pub

\- You can also publish notebooks (collections of notes). You can think of it
as lightweight super fast blogging. This will help you get a following on a
subject, without having to spend a lot of time doing it.

Examples: SaaS Pricing [https://histre.com/notebooks/03lt8gml/saas-
pricing/](https://histre.com/notebooks/03lt8gml/saas-pricing/) ; New Project
[https://histre.com/pub/notebooks/x6rfhtd5/links-for-
starting...](https://histre.com/pub/notebooks/x6rfhtd5/links-for-starting-a-
new-project/)

\- Highlight sections in the web page you like to review later

------
ChuckNorris89
A paper notebook is severely underrated.

I tried replacing it with onenote, chery tree and others. It's just not the
same.

Things I write down by hand seem to be burned in my brain much easier than
when I mindlessly type them on the keyboard.

~~~
varbhat
I feel the same. But,i think taking notes in software is faster.

~~~
kranner
And you can't "grep dead trees" (search paper notes).

------
chrisbai
Cheatsheets are a very helpful resource and you need to have a tool to keep,
interlink, retrieve and organize them. A physical notebook is not the optimal
choice because of some limitations like fast retrieval of topics and almost
impossible filtered searching etc. Organize your "new things" and resources to
cheatsheets in a Zettelkasten like tool. You can use a simple text editor or
there are applications and plug-ins available to get a Zettelkasten-like app.
I personally use Passfindr ([https://passfindr.com](https://passfindr.com)), a
freemium Personal Information Manager with powerful and fast search
capabilities.

Learn what a Zettelkasten
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten))
is, how it can help you and make yourself familiar with its concept.

------
TadasPaplauskas
Apple Notes for long-running projects or anything I want to come back to and
expand upon in the future. Since I expect to read these notes more than write
them, I optimize for searchability and access.

If you're into apple ecosystem, nothing beats Apple Notes - seamless access
right from the spotlight search, you can paste images or files right into
notes (surprisingly few apps have that feature - it's a must for me), to-do
lists that just work, cloud-sync, so on. And it all comes built-in, for free.
I've tried all major alternatives and I always come back.

Paper notebook for daily plans and short-term notes. I don't expect to refer
back to those notes in the distant future, so I choose to optimize for writing
experience, and nothing I've tried beats paper.

A personal blog for anything worth sharing. In my case it's a bunch of
markdown files in a static site generator.

------
testcase_delta
If learning is the goal, I highly recommend taking notes into a flash card
system (I use and recommend Anki). Then review your flash cards daily.

You can always refer to the flash cards like regular notes, but by memorizing
the information instead of just jotting it down you greatly increase the speed
at which you learn new things.

~~~
kd5bjo
I make photocopies of all my notes: the original gets filed by title, and the
copy goes into a Leitner box after having key details redacted.

------
cborenstein
I surveyed 50 engineers a little while ago on how they take notes. This is
what I learned.

Most people's notes have two phases [0]:

1) Jot-down

2) Organize

In the jot-down phase, you write down thoughts and gather any raw resources
that are useful to you (code snippets, links, etc.). These notes are messy.

In the organize phase, you pull notes from your jot-down that are worth
keeping and refine/categorize them. These become your reference notes.

Usually people use two different tools - one for jot-down and one for
organize. This leads to lots of copy-paste and things being more difficult to
find later. Working on a tool [1] for fast jot-down and organize in one place,

\--

[0] over 90% of people surveyed used Apple Notes, Google Keep, or raw text
files for their notes.

[1] [https://bytebase.io](https://bytebase.io)

~~~
jokab
this sounds like zettelkasten method.

------
jcun4128
Just my opinions:

Try to avoid getting into rote learning. I learned that way as a kid, I'll
find myself writing squiggly notes just because somehow it makes me remember
stuff the act of writing something.

For coding stuff I don't really have notes about "coding" more on random neat
tricks/concepts(like about Git/Systemd), which means store them somewhere eg.
an app that has a global search like OneNote/Evernote/Notes(Mac).

For general fast learning I recommend crash courses on YouTube eg. by Traversy
Media/others.

Also using sandboxes where some code is already setup so you can have
something to work from.

Generally though I think practice is what will make it stick and personal
desire to achieve/build something that you want.

------
Peteris
You should try [http://roamresearch.com/](http://roamresearch.com/) and follow
#RoamCult on Twitter - they are way ahead on note taking.

~~~
varbhat
Looks nice but that is paid service. Unfortunately i can't afford.

~~~
jackofalltrades
If you use macOS and/or iOS check FSNotes out:
[https://fsnot.es/](https://fsnot.es/)

It's really powerful if you go through all of it's capabilities, but can be
used quite simply too.

------
madaxe_again
It’s down to whatever works for you.

I find I memorise concepts well when there’s some kind of physicality to them,
and I’ve therefore repeatedly gone for the “serial killer wall” method of note
taking - in my case, it tends to be multiple A4 sheets with handwritten notes
or printed reference sheets plastered on every visible surface around my
workspace, using cork pinboards for more space, with an arrangement of
information that makes sense to me - I like a four coloured biro for splitting
out either dimensions or topics of information, and sharpie or string to link
disconnected areas together. This translates well for digital applications,
like coding and electronic engineering, physical applications, and more
abstract learning efforts, like cramming a masters in physics, or learning a
language.

Yes, you can replicate this with a wiki or hyperlinked whatever, and I
sometimes do for pocket guides, but being able to fetch information _at a
glance_ is key to making that recall just happen _without_ looking, for me.

The structuring of the notes takes an effort in understanding, in creating a
landscape of interconnected information - and the structure of the notes
becomes the physical representation of the structure of the information
framework. I then, later, when referring to some part of some knowledge
acquired this way, find my mind’s eye using that same structure to identify
the relevant information.

Anyway. It really is whatever works for you, and trial and error will get you
there - for me, it’s paper, pen, and somewhere to put it all.

------
rramadass
I have been thinking on these lines myself and here is what i have settled on
for studying of non-trivial subjects/ideas/concepts etc. (NOT for Todo/Task
list/Journals etc.);

1) Use paper and pencil/pen to write down everything. You can use a computer
based tool later for transcribing it into electronic form(weekly/monthly).
Studies have shown that writing by hand engages the whole mind/body and helps
in retention.

2) Use a simple system like the "Cornell Note-taking
System"([http://lsc.cornell.edu/study-skills/cornell-note-taking-
syst...](http://lsc.cornell.edu/study-skills/cornell-note-taking-system/)) or
anything else of your choice. It should not be too complex so as not to
unnecessarily distract from the object of the study.

3) As you take the notes mix both textual and graphical methods to express and
amplify the idea/concept as required. The key is to use whatever feels natural
to express clarity and facilitate understanding. Use precise mathematical
notation/graphs as much as possible eg; Venn diagrams, Tree diagrams, X-Y co-
ordinates, Statistical graphs etc (the book _Mathematical Notation: A Guide
for Engineers and Scientists_ is helpful to gain fluency in mathematical
notation). I suggest writing text on the vertical left half-side of the page
and pictures/graphs on the other half similar to how some Maths texts show
their graphs on the margin next to the text (think also "Literate
Programming"). Take a look also at Leonardo da vinci's notebooks for
inspiration.

------
devan23
A strategy that's helped me: After you've decided what topic you want learn
follow these steps. 1\. Quickly familiarize yourself with the topic. I usually
watch a quick video on the topic (<10min). This helps you familiarize yourself
with terminology, concepts, and why it's important to learn. 2\. Next find a
cheatsheet. Print it out if you can or grab a notebook. You want something
that's already done some of the leg work for you. If you can't find a
cheatsheet, go back through the tutorial video and in a notebook, write out
concepts they mention, leave some space between them, you'll fill in details
later. 3\. Follow along to more in depth guide. Be it a tutorial video,
course, written document. When going through your course, in your cheatsheet
or notebook fill in concepts that you've missed and add short notes to your
cheatsheet. This will help you learn more because you'll memorize concepts as
you write notes along with it. Don't rush and after you've written something
out, close your eyes and actively try to recall what you've written. Active
recall is one of the best methods for memorization. Also, these cheatsheets
can sit on your desk and you can reference them when you begin to code
something in the language you've just learned.

------
HouseOfBagels
I've researched the several ways to do this and found that a combination of
the following usually works for me:

\- Samsung Note device using an S-Pen to either draw diagrams, rough sketches,
or jot notes and then later convert them to saved image files.

\- Fountain pens and individual notebooks for meeting notes, book excerpts,
quotes, etc. I find that writing down things and having no structure just
leads to confusion and a mess of notes that's more time consuming to find when
needed. Having sections or just dedicated pages for topics makes it
manageable.

\- Jotlin app for extensive note taking on a particular topic/interest that
wouldn't fit neatly into a couple of handwritten pages.

\- Apple Notes/Google Keep rarely but it does serve its purpose if there's
nothing else available.

\- I type faster than I write and when taking notes or highlighting captures
from a book, Google Books has a very useful way of creating a doc file from
everything highlighted: book page, page number, relevant highlighted section.

I've tried the whole Bullet Journal techniques and found that it's just an
obsessive methodology of note taking with a steep learning curve, it didn't
serve my purposes though and I don't knock it if others find it valuable.

------
bollu
I dump my notes in three categories:

\- Links that I find interesting which I'd like to archive:
[https://bollu.github.io/todo.html](https://bollu.github.io/todo.html)

\- Short pieces that are accessible to folks with background. This goes on the
blog: [https://bollu.github.io/](https://bollu.github.io/). Visualizations of
theorems, which are far scarcer than I like on the internet, also go up on the
blog.

\- Long form notes from books and courses goes into a notes repo where I write
up stuff in latex:
[https://github.com/bollu/notes/blob/master/algebra/main.pdf](https://github.com/bollu/notes/blob/master/algebra/main.pdf)
[This is an example of the notes I've been taking while attending AGITTOC:
Algebraic geometry in the time of covid]. The latex file:
[https://github.com/bollu/notes/blob/master/algebra/main.tex](https://github.com/bollu/notes/blob/master/algebra/main.tex)

\- The blog and links are powered by latex-enabled markdown. (i) blog
[https://github.com/bollu/bollu.github.io/blob/master/README....](https://github.com/bollu/bollu.github.io/blob/master/README.md)
(ii) todo:
[https://github.com/bollu/bollu.github.io/blob/master/todo.md](https://github.com/bollu/bollu.github.io/blob/master/todo.md)

All of these tools are motivated by a principle of being _fast and easy_ to
edit; Otherwise, I literally can't take notes because it doesn't feel as
fluid. So I have symlinks to README.md and todo.md in my home folder, and
similarly for whatever course I am attending currently. I edit very little, I
write down the idea I am interested in and then git push.

I feel this system works well for me. I'm able to go back and review ideas
that I had seen before and polish them up. It's fast, easy to write, upload,
and share.

I've tried using other elaborate methods [org-mode, evernote, ...] but none of
them had the simplicity of:

1\. Open a plaintext file, wherever you are [I am always in a position to open
a plaintext file, whether from my IDE or from the command line]. 2\. Start
writing 3\. $$$

So I strongly recommend some system that is as simple as "open a file and
start writing".

Hope this hepls.

------
rungekuttarob
Check out 'The psychology of effective studying' by Paul Penn. Thought it was
going to be dry but actually pretty helpful.

He goes through study techniques and backs up their effectiveness by
discussing research experiments conducted around them.

Chapter 3 is on academic reading and note taking. It's very good.

Penn recommends the read, recite, review method. @Yvonne_McQ comment gave you
some really cool ways to do this like The Cornell note-taking system.

Penn's main point is your memory doesn’t work like a camera, so stop studying
as if it did. He says you don’t reproduce information with your memory, you
reconstruct it.

Penn also argues that repetition is not the most effective means of committing
information to memory. Thinking is the key to memory so he says if you want to
remember something, work on explaining it.

He cautions the reader with how we summarise. Not all summaries are equal. He
gives an example by asking you to try summarise the story of batman the dark
night. You could talk about Harvey Dent and the Joker being the pillars of
good and evil and how Harvey becomes two face or you can summarise the film as
'Wealthy man assaults the mentally ill'.

Finally he says to treat everything your trying to learn like 50 shades of
grey.

As in people picked up the book with an idea of what they want to get out if
it before they started. They skiped over the content that didn't match what
they were looking for. They extracted the good bits. When they put the book
down it's the good bits they remembered.

Read, recite, review. Check out the Cornell note-taking system mentioned by
Yvonne_McQ and Check out 'The psychology of effective studying' by Paul Penn.

------
alfiedotwtf
I’ve tried everything, and my latest iteration is a single textfile in
markdown for _everything_ (topical notes, personal TODOs, work TODOs, random
paste snippets etc) which then gets turned into HTML for easy viewing (I may
style it in the future). It’s also in git, and on the hour, cron commits _the
changes themselves_ as the _git message itself_ so changes are searchable via
git log.

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seanhunter
I use 2 systems. For online note writing the key thing is low friction, so use
a real editor you're very familiar with and make the system as simple as
possible. I personally use neovim with vimwiki and a plugin called notational-
fzf-vim. This makes it very fast to search and very fast to start new notes. A
lot of people have a similar system using org-mode in emacs. The main thing is
that it works well for you and doesn't introduce friction and slow you down.

The vast majority of my note-taking is in paper notebooks. I personally use a
leuchterm notebook, zebra sarasta pens and a system of my own design that is
similar to the "bullet journal" system but modified a bit to suit my needs a
little better. I personally find if I'm attending a meeting, taking notes in a
paper journal makes me more 'present' and able to concentrate than using a
laptop (even though I've been using computers for ever, can touchtype fluently
etc). I also find a paper system helps me with recall compared with typing.
Obviously a lot of people prefer a digital format. I use a completely standard
pen and notebook so all my notes and notebooks look exactly the same, and put
every note on a separate page (eg if I have several meetings the notes each
start on a separate page). I have also find this combination works well for
ocr when I need to, so it's very easy for me to just take a snapshot of a page
in my notebook if I need to send it to someone, put it in something like
evernote or OneNote or whatever.

I second the comments a few people have made around retyping/rewriting notes
etc. I find "curation" activities of this kind incredibly helpful as they are
a forcing function to think again about things, helping me with recall and
conceptual clarity. So would strongly recommend you try this.

//Couple of updates about process

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harveytoro
Depends partly on how you learn, generally a better approach to learning a
programming language (from my perspective) would be to work on a project or
some problems that way you will have runnable code in that language that you
can reference back to at any point. If you do take programming notes it is
also useful to capture edge cases or syntax comparisons either against two
languages or different approaches you can take in a single language rather
than just noting down syntax.

Having said that I have in the past captured a Syntax file for a programming
language I was learning e.g:
[https://github.com/harveytoro/TIL/blob/master/go/syntax.md](https://github.com/harveytoro/TIL/blob/master/go/syntax.md)

But more recently if I just want to refresh my knowledge on the syntax of a
language I use: [https://learnxinyminutes.com](https://learnxinyminutes.com)
which has syntax cheatsheets for a lot of languages

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laurieg
When I was in college I more or less tried a different note-taking system
every semester.

I tried just writing things down free-form, making flashcards while I was in
the lecture, drawing mind maps, drawing one continuous mind map that would be
compressed over the weeks of the class.

They all had benefits and draw backs. Flash cards were kind of fiddly and
distracting to make. Freeform notes were slightly disorganised.

Whatever I did, I found it helps. For note taking, the act of taking notes is
more important than what remains at the end. Be honest, how often do you
really go over your notes?

For things you absolutely have to know, I really do recommend flashcards. That
said, I think they are quite difficult to produce when you are are learning
something new. Flashcards aren't really for learning, they are for not
forgetting.

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Spooky23
There is no right answer. For what I do, I use a paper bound notebook, and
take notes using mindmaps with annotations as necessary on the right margin.

Writing things down doesn’t aid my recall and distracts me from whatever is
going on.

My goal is to memorialize important items and provide anchor points so that I
can reconstruct memory or effectively use a reference source. It’s a system
that works for me, but I’m not an attorney or someone who is pulling
information from a person or some source that is gone forever once the
conversation is over.

I would recommend not futzing around with apps. Come up with something that
works on paper with pencil. Then if you need to, find an app. Productivity
porn is a huge time suck.

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kevinslin
I take notes by finding common concepts among different topics and
constructing a hierarchical mental model of the domain i'm taking notes on.
for example, for programming languages, while there might be many dozens of
languages, they all share similar components:

\- data structures

    
    
        - boolean
        - array
        - hash
        - ...
    

\- control flow

    
    
        - for
        - if
        - ...
    

\- io

    
    
        - read/write
        - ...
    

I use [https://dendron.so](https://dendron.so) to actually take my notes. Its
a markdown based, hierarchical note-taking application built on top of VSCode
(disclaimer - i'm the author)

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robotsquidward
I take notes in Markdown as
[gists]([https://gist.github.com/](https://gist.github.com/)) on GitHub. The
web editor for GitHub is pretty good, does excellent code formatting, and has
some other web niceties. Plus all my stuff stays in one place.

I'm a little biased with this workflow because I wrote an iOS client that lets
you manage notes as GitHub gists. If this flow sounds attractive you can check
OctoNote out here:
[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octonote/id1433164731](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octonote/id1433164731)

~~~
leafboi
joplin is similar.

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notsag-hn
Cheatsheets are helpful when you already studied the thing, but not as your
only source of info. The way I used to take notes at uni for example was to do
it in layers. First, take a lot of notes, including your own impresions about
what you're reading/writing/listening, be very verbose. Then start going
through your notes and generate a summary of them. And then a summary of the
summary over and over again until you get to something that is as short as a
cheatsheet. This is indeed time-consuming but when you do have time it's very
effective, at least it worked pretty well for me.

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abjKT26nO8
I have terminal bound to "<super>+<enter>". From there I run "cat > title.txt"
or "cat >> title.txt" and type whatever I want to save. It's as frictionless
as it can be.

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vcsilva
I've been using Foam for VSCode for taking notes for some time now. After
trying a bunch of different apps this one really struck a chord with me. Just
a simple way to take notes easily with plain markdown files and links.

\- It's helpful to quickly get something out of your brain

\- You can easily link related files together or use VScode search to find
something. No need for a bunch of categories and nested folders.

[0]: [https://foambubble.github.io/foam/](https://foambubble.github.io/foam/)

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lokiju
Since you want to quickly revise topics in a new complicated subject, I'd
suggest simply slowing down and writing really thoughtful notes on the
subject. Use elements of recall to really get a picture of where your
understanding is at, itll help you build the lattice of your knowledge and
that lattice will be strengthened when you review your notes.

I dont think cheatsheets are helpful personally. Unless you are just talking
about syntax.

Also specific methods might be worth a look down the line, but initially I
dont think it makes sense.

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tomerbd
I suggest two systems.

1\. Long term notes - in your website - non blog - just a website, keep them
small, cheatsheet but long term.

2\. Short term notes - where you dump your stuff into - for this you can use
tiddlywiki.

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xupybd
If you need to search a personal wiki can help. I run one in a docker
container. No real organisation just a few good keywords and I can normally
search for the thing I wanted.

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blindpixel
You might want to give Org mode (in emacs) a try. It was actually created to
quickly take notes in a structured way. Emacs can seem intimidating but you
will need very less time to learn the basics, especially if your goal is to
just use org mode for note-taking. Link: orgmode.org

Quick tutorial:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzZ09dAbLEE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzZ09dAbLEE)

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robjan
Let's face it, most notes are actually ephemeral. For me these go on paper or
in a random Sublime text window which I never save to disk.

Everything else goes into Notion.

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rgoulter
Start with whatever feels intuitive to you. Whenever you feel your current
note-taking method isn't good enough, improve on that.

Maybe your notes will suck and you'll never read them, but it will still help
to have written them.

Maybe you'll read your notes and think they suck, and you'll know what you
wish you'd written.

I don't think you can "remember everything in notes" in a one-shot process,
though.

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kd5bjo
It’s very easy to let notetaking overwhelm the real goal— learning. I’ve had
good luck putting my full attention into whatever reading material or exercise
I’m working on.

I don’t take any notes until the end of the session, when I do an informal
debriefing to summarize what I learned, which isn’t necessarily what I set out
to learn.

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bovermyer
Everything that you take notes on, explain it out loud to someone (or
something) as if they know nothing about the subject.

Or, to abuse language horribly, rubber duck like they're five.

This forces you to not only remember, but _understand_ , what you're trying to
learn.

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jesterson
This question comes up quite often and I tend to believe a lot of people focus
more on the tool rather than on goal.

It's the reason plain pencil and sheet of paper may be much more beneficial if
we focus on the goal but not on the path.

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squid_demon
If you want to go nuts you can take a look at the Zettelkasten method:
[https://zettelkasten.de/posts/overview/](https://zettelkasten.de/posts/overview/)

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pnutjam
I recently started using this script in a dedicated directory in my home
folder: /home/user/daily_logs/

\----

#!/bin/bash

## create personal log file for tracking tasks

vi logfile_$(date +%m%d%y_%j)

\---------

This creates a logfile date stamped so I can reference what I was doing that
day.

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brogrammer2018
You can use your prepared detailed cheatsheet notes books for programming
languages from

Link: [https://books.goalkicker.com](https://books.goalkicker.com)

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icedchai
I used to take notes on a pad, old school. Then I realized I never looked at
them again. If it's important, I send myself an email. Or keep a draft around
for a few days.

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BasicObject
[https://orgmode.org/](https://orgmode.org/)

It's just incredible how much can be done with it.

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uptownfunk
Just use a single google doc sheet, everything goes in there and you can
access from almost anywhere.

~~~
justsomeuser
how many pages do you have in that single doc?

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tarrsalah
I have a collection of org files hosted in a private github repository.

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rorykoehler
Cheatsheets and blog posts are what helped me most.

~~~
varbhat
Did you use some physical medium like paper to take notes? Or did you go
software way of taking notes?

~~~
rorykoehler
I haven't used a physical medium to take notes in over a decade. You can't
copy and paste from a paper notebook.

I'd add that I use markdown

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bananamerica
I don’t.

