Organising hand written + typed notes

[5mixer]

Hey everyone!

Not sure if this is the right place to post. So I'm a bit of a mess when it comes to note taking, I take a lot of notes (particularly for my bio 3/4) on paper and typed, and they end up in a complete mess. For my typed notes, I typically use OneNote and have different sections for each subject, but the mix of homework todo's and notes has turned that pretty messy (do many of you use onenote? It seems pretty popular at my school). For my written notes they are actually better organised, I put A4 note sheets in plastic pockets (labelling plastic pockets with a marker is super useful by the way) and put the plastic pockets in my subject binder. What I've done for biology this year has worked okay, but next year all of my subjects will be 3/4's and I think I'll make far more notes, so I want to get it right now.

Anyhow, I've been working on a website for note taking (called noterist, I want to launch it into a note taking website half way between quizlet and onenote) and was just interested in hearing your thoughts on organising (not so much making) your notes. Something I've been doing (particularly with this website I'm making) is using my phone to take pictures of my notes so I can access them with my typed notes. Thoughts?

[Bri MT]

Have you considered using a section just for to-dos seperate from your regular notes?

What specifically are you having trouble with?  What do you use your notes for?   

[5mixer]

Hey Miniturtle 

The issue isn't so much that I'm struggling to separate my todo's from my notes, I'm more just looking into how other people structure their notes and keep track of them. I use my notes to literally take notes from my textbook, edrolo videos, etc. They're just a personal knowledge base for each subject.

As I am making a note taking program however, my interest is beyond just myself, I'm curious to see what other people find works for them. Things like tagging pages, makings contents pages for books, colour coding things with highlighter, ideas like that I guess. I suppose my question is a little ambiguous, I was hoping for just a general discussion.

[Bri MT]

I tend to colour code (green for headings, blue for definitions etc.) and organise my content sequentially in order of either the study design or how my teacher taught it in class.

I like using a multicolumn contents page, which includes not only page numbers but also a number representing my understanding of the content and the date I last reviewed it.

Hope this helps  

[5mixer]

Thanks miniturtle, you've given me some useful ideas I hadn't considered. I really like the idea of including your understanding and review date on your contents page.

I've heard suggestions to review your notes throughout the year all the time but rarely do, keeping track of the date might really help with that.

If you don't mind, I might integrate review date storage into my note taking site. Colour coding is also a good idea, I do it a little but tend to forget to have a key (everything important is just highlighted). Thanks for your input again!

Would there be any interest in people following my note taking site here? I'm thinking of setting up an external blog to track my progress on it, but if people are interested in it here I could make a thread (perhaps in the creative projects section?), just because I'd love as much feedback as possible. As a mod miniturtle, if that would count as advertising or anything, just let me know.

[Bri MT]

Thanks miniturtle, you've given me some useful ideas I hadn't considered. I really like the idea of including your understanding and review date on your contents page.

I've heard suggestions to review your notes throughout the year all the time but rarely do, keeping track of the date might really help with that.

If you don't mind, I might integrate review date storage into my note taking site. Colour coding is also a good idea, I do it a little but tend to forget to have a key (everything important is just highlighted). Thanks for your input again!

Would there be any interest in people following my note taking site here? I'm thinking of setting up an external blog to track my progress on it, but if people are interested in it here I could make a thread (perhaps in the creative projects section?), just because I'd love as much feedback as possible. As a mod miniturtle, if that would count as advertising or anything, just let me know.

Good luck with your site! Feedback is definitely crucial for a project like this, so best of luck with that in particular

At the moment I can't see any concern about advertising, but if issues come up the team will let you know

[5mixer]

Thanks miniturtle! Yeah, I've heard the importance of feedback from lot's of people. It's a bit daunting showing your work though!

I finally got around to making a post showing it. I put it in the creative corner section, and it feels somewhat out of place there, but I want to keep updating it as a log and posting it in another section might feel a bit spammy. It's here if you're interested, I put some screenshots in