Brain Compatible Note Taking
This brief on note taking strategies introduces some unconventional approaches to note taking. However, these strategies have a solid foundation in brain research and help to maximize your brain’s natural ability to learn and remember.
Purpose
The objective of this material is to give you a glimpse into the reasons why traditional note taking strategies don’t work well and bring you two different, unconventional ways to take notes at school or work.
These new strategies will allow you greater flexibility in capturing key points to trigger memory. And�they allow you to concentrate more on the information being given than on trying to capture it.
Meet Your Brain
Those of you who are up on your biology know that your brain is mostly water, weighs between 44 and 49 ounces, allows your body to function without having to think (subconsciously) and wouldn’t look very appetizing on a plate.
Conventional approaches to learning have separated mind from body and emotion. New brain research indicates that the mind, body and emotions are solidly connected and intertwined to the point where how you feel about a subject or event can have a profound effect on whether or not you learn and/or retain anything.
How The Brain Works
Every brain cell has a main body, an axon and dendrites. Axons grow as a result of stimulation (challenge). Axons then reach out to the dendrites on other cells and can connect chemically to share or transfer information.
When you learn something or an event takes place, the information goes into your brain, is sorted, broken apart and sent out into the brain for storage. It becomes a memory. Funny thing is…it is not necessarily all stored together. So, when you want to access the memory or information (something triggers the brain to recall), the brain attempts to reassemble the memory using as much data as it can immediately retrieve. What it can’t retrieve, it fills in, based on past knowledge or experiences
How could this affect your ability to recall information for a test or speech? It would definitely be an advantage if your brain could retrieve the maximum amount of information, wouldn’t it?
Have you ever…
Have you ever been to a class or lecture where information is just constantly downloaded? It just piles on and piles on? Do you remember what went on in those sessions?
We are always told to pay attention, however, our attention span is loosely based on our age. That is, on average we have an attention span in minutes approximately equal to our age up to a 20-minute maximum. A 15-year-old has an average attention span of 15 minutes. We max out at 20. Once our attention span is expended, our brains need time to process information. We need time to think about what has been said and file it away. Hopefully, where our brains can readily retrieve it.
If you take a shovel full of mud and throw it against a wall, what happens? Some of it sticks. What if you keep throwing mud against the wall? The mud starts to slide off. If you throw enough mud, it will all slide off! This is what happens with information when your brain is overloaded with it. Connectivity is lost and even though the information has been taken in by the brain, it is so busy just “shoveling” things into every nook and cranny, it will be difficult or impossible to retrieve because there is no connectivity, no “filing system.”
Why Less is More
So, what can we do when we are in a situation of being drowned in information…but it is important to us? From a note taking perspective, the key is to think of less actually being more.
Remember that your brain can fill in the blanks when retrieving information based on past knowledge or experiences. If you can capture the basic concepts and ideas, your brain can help you with the rest. But before we talk about what to do, let’s explore what you do now.
Traditional Note Taking
How were you taught to take notes? Use an outline format? Write down key points?
Or do you just try to write down everything? Do you start out neatly and structured, then find yourself struggling to write down everything the speaker is saying. Do your notes end up looking something like a map made by a very confused traveler? Are little arrows going from here to there, words just hanging in the margin, someone’s name scribbled at the bottom?
Why doesn’t this work? Too much information, too fast. Linear structure methodology.
Speaker goes back, doesn’t provide information in a linear path. Trying to paragraph/structure/use sentences. It’s too rigid.
Terms Defined
Before we start looking at non-traditional note taking, we must clarify a few terms:
Topic – The topic is the subject of the seminar, class, meeting or lecture.
Key point – Key point is like a roman numeral I in an outline. One of the key ideas under the main topic.
Sub point – A point of information related to the key point that supports it or clarifies it.
Reference – A reference is any other person, place or information source with supporting or interesting information regarding the topic.
Diagonal Approach
Try the diagonal approach or the leaning tree. Next time you are listening to a lecture or discussion, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on a blank sheet of paper. The direction of the diagonal is your choice. This diagonal becomes your baseline of information. At the top or bottom of the diagonal, write the topic.
Every time the speaker says something you believe is a key point, draw a line out from the main diagonal (a branch) and write the key point on it. If the speaker:
�· makes a reference to a key point such as a referral to a source (reference),
�· makes a suggestion for where to find more information (reference), or
�· says something is of particular importance or imperative (sub points), or
�· you just think something sounded important, draw a line off the key point line (branch) and write down a word or two to help you remember.
You are building a knowledge tree that has a root and trunk (topic) with main branches (key points) and extended branches (sub points and references).
Using this approach:
�· you will find you need fewer words to understand the information.
�· your page will be less cluttered and more organized.
�· it is easier to insert things if the speaker goes back to a topic or says something that relates back to something covered previously.
Self-Convincer
Grab a magazine, take a quick look at the cover, turn to page 27, glance at the page, then close the magazine and turn it over. Do you remember what was on the cover? What was the topic of page 27? Does anything stand out in your mind? How do you think you were able to recall any of that information?
Pictures and structure allow the brain to create reference points that enhance recall. Using the diagonal approach helps your brain recall information. You may find that after using this approach to note taking, when you try to remember something from your notes you will see a picture in your “minds eye.” This picture will help your brain focus on particular key points-and you may even remember where they were located on the page.
Mind Mapping Approach
Pictures are even better than structure alone because they are immediately understandable. Words are abstracts that have to be interpreted by the brain. Words are simply representations for thoughts and ideas. Pictures are more universally understood-faster. This is one of the facts behind why mind mapping works.
Mind mapping is about using pictures and color to create mental pictures that enhance memory and recall. Mind mapping can be used alone as a note taking strategy or to enhance diagonal note taking. If you are an artist, like to draw or are a very visual person, mind mapping will probably be something you get very comfortable with, very quickly. For others, adding some color and simple visuals to the diagonal approach will work better.
The rules for creating mind maps? There are none. Use pictures, use words, use lines, use squiggles, use geometric shapes, use different colors, as long as they have meaning for you. The objective of the map is simply to allow your brain to recapture the information using triggers that are not necessarily words. Stick figures work well to represent people or groups. The smiling or frowning face can represent positives or negatives. Arrows can indicate direction or connectivity.
Meaning
If you watch young children in a classroom, they will doodle while the teacher is talking. Their doodles represent ideas and concepts that they are getting or have gotten from listening to the teacher. Granted, you might not be able to understand the representations, but to each of them they make sense. Our minds are all different because we are all made up of different experiences. What is immediately understandable to one person may not be to another.
I only say this to help you understand that your mind map or diagonal notes may be very different from those of another person given the same subject. There is nothing wrong with different, as long as it makes sense to you.
Conclusion
Do you see yourself with a notebook full of diagonal and/or mind mapping notes? Won’t this approach make studying and finding information easier? Have you gotten some ideas?
As with everything new we learn there is a learning curve while we are practicing and getting comfortable with the new idea. The great thing is that note taking can be whatever works for you and should be�because, after all, whose brain has to do the remembering?
When you take notes, take out your highlighters, colored pencils and your “visual mind.” Work with your brain instead of against it and amazing things can happen.
