I find myself always jotting down notes. I used to always doodle in the margins of my notebooks when I was in school. Often when recalling what I had written, I would remember the corresponding doodle. Back then my doodles where often made fun of whoever was speaking and usually focused on some trait or thing they would say. The first time I had to turn in my notebook for teacher review – well that was a little awkward.
Example of my notes
I still find myself taking notes – it seems when I write something down I increase my odds of remembering the information. More often then not, my notes end up with doodles. Sometimes the doodles don’t have anything to do with the words, sometimes they illustrate the idea or connect the words. Creating these notes help keep me engaged, and help me retain information – in this world information overload. I usually create these notes on the back of paper or on odd size paper. I have a little scanner at my desk and I’ll feed my notes into my computer before I toss them. I use Evernote to store all my notes. It has some pretty cool features: translates scans into searchable words (if it can) and it’s accessible from my iphone, computer or anywhere on the web. You can also easily create and share notes. Check it out – there’s a free version.
Over the last few years I keep see these great animated videos that attempt to share an idea. They come from http://www.thersa.org/. I am a huge fan of RSA animations. I also love their name the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce – I want to start a royal society for something.
One of my favorites from RSA:
Why am I suddenly inspired to write about how I take notes? This morning I stumbled on this project from Ogilvy.
Recommendation Engines: Going Beyond the Social Graph
While digging around I was able to pick up some great information this year’s SXSW conference. It was intriguing and fun to read these notes – I can only imagine what it was like to create them. I am going to work on fine tuning my visual note taking skills – less characters making fun of the speaker – more illustrating concepts.
Stay tuned for more on this.
