"Vista's Little Voice": How to quickly take notes on lectures
Hey, do you need to write notes every now and then? If the answer is yes, do you know how to take notes effectively?
I used to work as a reporter, and now I work as a professional lecturer (opens in a new tab), columnist (opens in a new tab) travels around the world as a consultant, and is the founder of the “I love writing notes (opens in a new tab)” community, so not only do I enjoy writing notes, but I also have the opportunity to observe the notes of many friends.
In today’s program, let me share with you the tips on how to quickly take notes during lectures!
We often have the opportunity to participate in some lectures, or live broadcasts, which are very popular now, and I believe you must be familiar with them. When we attend some great events, you may want to jot down the highlights, so many of you may want to record or take photos, or even take a few notes.
However, although it is convenient to record or take photos, we may not have the opportunity to re-watch and re-listen to these contents, perhaps because everyone is too busy. This is actually a pity, because just recording the content is not enough, we need to review and think about it from time to time.
Therefore, a better approach is to immediately write down the relevant key points while listening to the lecture or participating in the live broadcast, or only transcribe the parts that you find profound, confusing, or interesting.
Usually I will prepare a small notebook to record the parts that interest me or feel important. Of course, if you’re used to taking notes on your phone or computer, that’s great too! The key to writing notes is not to record all the important points in detail, but to be able to understand the speaker’s thinking.
Just like the well-known Japanese book critic Eiji Doi in “First-class people read, where do they draw the line?” : Deep Thinking Techniques for Elite Reading (opens in a new tab)” mentioned in the book that you should draw lines on your own “content you don’t agree with or don’t understand (opens in a new tab)” is correct. In other words, in addition to strengthening the “known” through reading, we also need to absorb the “unknown” part.
──This is true for reading, why not also for listening?
If reading is to draw a line for a new future from numerous words, then I think the key point of listening is to find the antenna that can connect and dialogue with the speaker.
Therefore, when I listen to lectures or interviews, I focus on absorbing the “unknown”, “interesting” or “incomprehensible” parts, and grasp the overall situation by sorting out the context of the speaker or interviewee’s speech. In addition, since we usually cannot take too careful notes when listening to lectures, we only need to write down the key points, difficult points or practical points; of course, it would be better if it can be supplemented by actual cases.
There are many note-taking methods in the market, such as Cornell note-taking method (opens in a new tab), bullet journaling, etc. If you are interested, you can also refer to it.
In addition, I would also like to recommend you to refer to the two articles (opens in a new tab) written by my friend Xu Youru. She has compiled her own learning methods on how to take notes during lectures, which I think is great. Especially the Exercises (opens in a new tab) compiled by her are of great reference value! It is recommended that friends who are interested in learning to write notes can give it a try!
Many people take notes and spend a lot of time choosing stationery, or they care about the format, the beauty of the handwriting, etc. In fact, these are not the most important parts. After all, the original intention of writing lecture notes or experience articles is for self-learning and growth.
Therefore, I would suggest that you start writing first, while observing the note-taking modes and methods that you think are good, and then gradually adjust and revise them, and then slowly establish your own note-taking thinking and style.
Of course, I sincerely welcome you to join the “I love writing notes (opens in a new tab)” community to communicate and learn with everyone. As long as you persevere, I believe you will find the joy of writing notes and an effective recording method!
Well, let’s do it together!
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Further reading
- “The Little Voice of Vista”: How to choose digital note-taking software
- Podcast note-taking: 6 steps to build a content flywheel with Podwise + Anytype
- “Vista’s Little Voice”: Have you started writing your “Achievements List”
Next step
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Vista Cheng speaks and runs workshops on AI workflows, writing and content systems for companies, schools and public agencies.
