

Ask HN: What tips or tricks do you use for fast and efficient note taking? - mtrpcic

I often find myself wanting to document various pieces of information during meetings or my commute, but often the information is coming at me faster than I can put it all on paper.  I end up getting flustered and the quality of my printing degrades as I try to scrawl everything down.  What shorthands, tips, tricks, or other note-taking quirks do you use to make your life easier?
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aethertap
I tend to use notes as a self-test rather than for logging what's been said.
For example, as I hear something important, I'll write a small question to the
effect of "what is X?" or even just "X?"

Then (this is the important part) _soon_ after the note-taking session is
done, I go back and answer all my questions from memory, in writing. That lets
me get tons of stuff down on paper later at a slower pace, and it also helps
to cement the stuff in my mind because I'm not distracted by trying to write
it all down while it's happening. Forcing myself to recall it also does a lot
to make it stick.

Usually I can use my questions as cues to go look up the stuff I forget, and
if there's something that I know I'll forget and won't be able to look up,
I'll try to write that down (that's pretty rare though).

~~~
maraglee
Yes! The most valuable information is usually not the pure content but rather
things that deviate from that. So contextual information, relationships
between things, knowing what's important (the gist) and what's unclear.
Especially the last part tends to be what at the end of the day gives new
insights

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KhalPanda
> ...coming at me faster than I can put it all on paper

So don't. :-)

I don't know if 'paper' was a figure-of-speech to mean 'some recorded format',
but if it was, get yourself a cheap Chromebook. I (and I expect most) can type
a lot faster than they can write, so that's step one.

Step two is to just work on making your notes as brief and concise whilst
still being intelligible to _you_. Unless whatever somebody is saying is
extremely densely packed with critical information, there is a lot of filler
you easily can cut out.

For example, if someone read your post to me, all I would write is:

\- Tips for efficient/effective notes?

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sukonik
I personally like AudioNote for class notes, for times when content comes at
me fast. This way you can silently record them while you type for better
recall later.

Another option is just to use an app like Notes+ or Apple's notes app.

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alltakendamned
I like this method of taking notes:
[http://bulletjournal.com/](http://bulletjournal.com/)

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misframer
I do what databases do with WALs :). I write stuff down as I get it, and then
organize later.

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atian
Caffeine. You can continue summarizing as you are but afterwards you'll be
able to recall better.

~~~
sukonik
Caffeine is great!

