It’s easy to get lost among your teacher lecturing, students conversing, and you trying frantically to jot down every single word from the professor. Check out these note organization hacks to keep your notes neat and pristine.
If you want to stay on top of things and have your notes all ready and organized, then this post is for you!
Say goodbye to cluttered and messy notes and say hello to neater and better notes.
Note organization is equally as important as your notes because you will be prompted to look over your notes, review your notes, and find your notes quicker.
These strategies will help you organize your notes better and improve your grades.
This post is all about note organization methods.
Note Organization Ideas
1. Outlining
This is a good habit to follow before taking notes in class.
Just grab a notebook or a binder of lined paper. You can also do it digitally on your laptop or iPad.
Instead of just writing notes in class, you can prepare beforehand to get the most out of your classes.
Make a legend where you can identify key concepts, specific vocab, or important questions that you can backtrack.
An example is underlining vocab, circling and concepts, and boxing questions.
You can set up your notes in a specific format like the left side for topic names, the right side for notes, and some space on the bottom for a summary.
Play around with how you format your notes and pick the way that works the best for you!
2. Mind Map
If you are learning a new concept or topic, a great strategy is to use mind maps.
Start with your main idea in the middle and branch out the subcategories and details around.
My favorite brainstorming note organization for writing essays is using a mind map.
I find it so convenient to jot down a topic/main idea before attacking it.
You can break apart the components and just brain-dump anything you want on that paper.
Then, I like to select a few ideas or supporting evidence that I like to include and work on those topics.
I recommend doing a mind map for essays in the best times you feel the most inspirational or productive.
For me, that’s either 8 in the morning (I know so early) or 11 pm at night.
There’s just something that keeps my brain awake in the wee hours of the morning or the silence of the night.
That also might be the reason I love cleaning my room at 1 in the morning, but that’s a story for next time.
3. Bullet Points
Use, use, use bullet points!
It saves your eyes and brain so much when you are reading your notes.
Instead of glaring at a wall of text that is stuck together, bullet points help you process your notes in a chunked manner.
Find your own method that works best for you.
If you are unsure, you can always start taking notes and breaking them up into bullet points for each separate idea.
Then you can group them up based on which concepts match with which set of bullet points.
I like to use dashes as bullet points since I write faster than making bullet points.
You can look for what ways work better for you and implement them into your notes.
The key idea is to organize your notes so it is not cluttered and difficult to read.
Make it easier for your eyes to read, so you are more likely to review your notes.
Interested in more posts like note organization tips? Check out 11 Genius Study Tips for Exams.
4. Question & Answer Method
This method I recommend this for math and science subjects.
If your classes include a ton of concepts and material to remember then the question-and-answer method note taking is perfect for you.
Basically, you draw a line right in the middle of your page/iPad/note-taking device and jot down all your notes on the left side.
You should then come up with questions that the teacher or professor may ask and write them on the right side.
This is where your answer part comes in.
You will analyze all the questions that you came up with based on the notes you took.
Then, try to solve those questions and jot them down on a separate page or device.
This is a great way to study if your teacher or professor does not provide you study guides.
Most of the time, you will already be so prepared that you don’t have to worry at all about exams.
If you are worried about not coming up with the right questions, you can check the topic you are studying and come up with ideas there.
Or, you can go to office hours and chat with your professor or teacher to learn more about the material/topic.
5. The Five W’s
This is one of my favorite methods to take notes for history classes.
You only need to know the who, what, when, where, and why of any type of event in history.
This method helps chunk and section your notes so they are each about a specific part.
Some examples that you may want to ask for any event in history may be:
- Who was involved?
- When did this happen?
- Where did this happen?
- Why did this happen?
- What happened?
You can dive even further into each section by analyzing the people involved and who were the prominent figures.
Another part you can further check out is the when.
What were the specific dates? Were there any important big days or events that happened within the main event?
You can also dive deeper into the where. Where was the main problem/event that took place? Was there only one main location or did it happen in a multitude of areas?
You can look into the why also. Why did something happen? Look for the cause or events leading up to the escalation.
And finally what happened? You want to know what the event was.
Were there any activities that led to this event and what was the end result?
Some tip to see if you have everything is to go through each of the five w’s.
Did you answer all the questions or are some still incomplete?
Don’t stop until you finish and have all the questions answered.
You can also branch off from the questions you answered to even more questions to answer.
6. Self-Reflection/Summary
Include a summary at the end.
Also, reflecting on how you approach a subject or topic makes you more engaged with the material at hand.
This is extremely helpful to summarize your overall notes and refresh your memory of the day’s learning.
I recommend doing a summary or reflection right after the class or as soon as possible.
This ensures that you don’t forget anything crucial.
Writing a summary forces you to recall what happened and recheck how your notes were.
If you can provide a brief summary that you understand what went on in that day’s class, then you are already a huge step ahead.
The act of you thinking, reviewing, and writing that short summary is actually helping you study and recall the material that you learned that day.
If you keep it as a habit, then it will be faster and faster for you to do.
Soon you will unconsciously write a reflection without even realizing that you had to do it.
7. Color Code
Include colors in your notes.
However, don’t go overboard!
Try to limit yourself to three colors.
Have you noticed that I love using threes for notes?
That’s because anything more than three will be difficult to remember and too messy on your notes.
I like to use several colors or highlighters to highlight key points and main things to remember.
If you match the subject with a specific color, then it will let your brain associate the two and two together.
The more your school supplies match, the stronger your association with those subjects are.
You want to make as many associations and provide as much meaning as you can to your notes.
This way it will be easier for you to remember your notes and connect them.
It will also be faster for you to pull out which notebook you need based on the color.
Interested in more tips like note organization and studying? Check out 13 Genius Study Tips for Kinesthetic Learners.
8. Using Systems
One of my favorite ways of organizing my notes is with a combination of arrows, bullet points, and dashes.
You can come up with your own system and practice it to get better.
I like to use arrows for the main idea or key points when I am doing my notes.
Next are bullet points that are indented for supporting claims or interesting things.
Finally, there is another indent where I use dashes for details or elaboration on the bullets.
If there is another claim, I can just unindent and write my note there.
-> The main idea or key points
- Supporting claims or interesting notes
– Elaboration on the supporting claim
You can play around with different symbols and use whichever combination works best for you.
Try to play around with bullet points, arrows, dashes, stars, different shapes, and any symbols that you can come up with.
Be aware to limit yourself to around three symbols as too many can be hard to remember and difficult to read.
A tip is to indent each time you want to elaborate on the previous main idea.
9. Visualization
This is extremely helpful and great for those of you who take a long to understand concepts.
You can take your notes and try to break them apart so it’s not all together.
Try to include images or short doodles that can enhance your notes and memory.
You don’t have to draw right as you are taking notes, you can add them in afterward.
Adding images can improve your memory and help you remember your notes better.
This is because the more meaning and connections that you can engage with your notes, the better it will be for your learning.
You don’t need to be an expert artist or make detailed images for your notes.
They can be as casual and free as you want.
The most important part is that YOU understand the image and it CONNECTS or PROVIDES meaning to your notes.
Try to implement these tips in your notes and organize them better!
These strategies will be helpful as long as they suit YOU.
Remember to connect your systems and adjust them based on which subject you are taking notes for.
This post was all about note organization.
