A note on taking notes

Although I’ve always been a developer with a passion for building apps, I am very picky about the ones I end up using and I always tend to have few of them, eliminating the superfluous ones every time I can.

Before having a working life, for example, I remember never using a calendar. We often learn things out of necessity, and as I started working I was forced to use it and got quickly hooked; fast forward to today, and even personal focus time slots are scheduled there as well.

However, not every tool has been as essential or easy to adopt as the calendar for me, especially when it comes to taking notes, which is ironic given that it’s the name of this website’s section

Yes, I had to take notes in my life from time to time, mostly during my university years, but it never worked for me. Now I know why. Check the following three points to help you find an effective way to start using notes:

Handwriting

Some people still take notes manually. This is especially messy for those of us working in tech.
Handwritten notes are hard to read and inaccessible; you can’t search through them easily. If you write fast, then you’ll read slow because of the messy handwriting and when you start writing structured information about topics, you’ll never know how many pages you need upfront. Imagine also writing down URLs manually 🥶

Choosing a note-taking app can be challenging as well and I don’t have a one-size-fits-all recommendation, but even if building the habit of opening an app and writing with your keyboard might be hard, just go digital.
Test out a few until you find one that suits your workflow.
But remember not to get caught up in all the smart features it might have: 90% of your improvements will come from building a solid process, not from mastering a ton of shortcuts or from building a connected graphs of written notes that looks cool.

Skill issues

Writing notes in the middle of something doesn’t come naturally, it’s a skill.

It’s like communicating with your future self, so yes, you can take shortcuts when jotting things down, but only if you’ll be able to retrieve the information later. More than once, I’ve written down a phone number, an email, or a word that became impossible to trace. So, ensure that the context of your notes matches the mindset you’ll have when reviewing them later.

The environment

The environment in which you take notes might require you to learn a mental process that is specific to the environment.

For example, taking useful, structured and well written notes during live lectures still remains very difficult to me. I’m lucky that everything I learn and do today is carried out in books, articles, recorded videos and meetings where I can speak, reinforce things, write down arguments that can be used to build up answers that ultimately produce a constructive discussion that leads towards an objective.

I write notes while debugging. I noticed it to be incredibly helpful not only for reasoning, but also to build a post-mortem description of the problem that, among many things, facilitates the understanding of the implemented solution (you can see I did this here).

Are you being given steps to start a complex project? Write down the commands with brief explanations.
Do you have to give a speech? Write it down so you can improve it and then rehearse it.
Same goes for links and any other resources around a topic you’ve been learning at work that you need to store and reuse later.

In summary the key message I want to convey, alongside the practical examples and advices, is about creating a system that enhances your learning and productivity.
Now, I’d love to hear from you! Do you already have a note-taking strategy that you swear by? Reach me out on X @giacomocerquone