At some point in high school, I was basically told to “take notes”. Maybe someone later clarified that it meant “write things down”. That, I think, is pretty useless advice.
Here’s the thing: not all situations are the same. Sometimes you’re trying to absorb a lot of complex information. Sometimes you need to remember something. And sometimes you need to document decisions that other people depend on.
I spend a lot of time nerding out on note taking and information management. Here I want to talk about three methods I use when I’m using pen and paper. Each method works well in specific scenarios.
I use different methods for these three situations. Let me walk you through each one.
1. With Lots of Information, use the Cornell Method
Suppose you’re at a conference, a workshop, a lecture, or a training session. Someone’s talking, giving you information. A lot of it, as things go.
You decide you should take notes to not forget the important stuff. You probably want to review what you learned later as well, and not have it drop out of your brain like sand in a sieve. I get it, it makes sense.
Here’s how I do it: I use a variant of the Cornell method on my Dingbats dotted book.
Setting Up Your Page
Here’s how it works: on your next clean page
- Draw a horizontal line about a third from the bottom of the page
- Draw a vertical line about a third from the left margin
This creates three distinct sections on your page.
something like this.
The Note-Taking Process
Ok, it’s time to take notes.
Title and date go on top. Easy.
During the event: Use the big, top-right section to note down anything that feels worth writing. Don’t overthink it—we’re filtering later. Just capture the information as it comes.
Immediately after: While the content is still fresh, use the left column to distill the learnings from your main notes. Think of these as margin notes or key takeaways. You can copy specific sentences that are the key points, or summarize the most important insights. Make sure your summaries are self-standing and don’t require referring back to the larger set of notes.
For the summary: Once you’ve processed the left column, use the bottom section for your executive summary. What’s the condensed version of this page, or maybe a couple of pages? Just a couple of sentences per page, or a short paragraph will do.
The idea is to keep it condensed and easy to parse: write once, read many.
For quick notes use rapid logging
We spoke about how to take notes at information events like workshops, lectures, conferences, etc. When you need to take in information and summarize it, the Cornell method works great.
Sometimes though, you just need to jot a quick reminder, or take some notes while you’re talking with someone.
I use a different technique for that, that comes from bullet journaling. It’s called “rapid logging”.
In this case, when I say “note” I actually mean a single line of text on a page. You can have multiple notes on a single page. They can be related to each other or completely unrelated.
For example, I have a daily page or spread on my notebook for most days. There, I write any random thing, to-do or reminder I need to keep in mind. They can be completely disconnected from each other.
The Structure
Every “note” you want to take is made up, as a rule, by three elements:
- A signifier (optional)
- A bullet
- A short sentence with the actual content
That’s it. Let’s look at each of them. Let’s start from the end, because why not.
The Short Sentence Content
This is the bulk of the note, but here’s the key: keep it to one or two short sentences. If you need more words, take it “offline” and write it down later. Shorter notes are harder to write but much easier to consume later, and you’ll read these notes far more often than you write them.
It is a bit of an art to get the sentence right, so it’s as short as possible but still has all the information it needs to have. Often the idea is to “download” what’s on your mind fully, and that requires no loose strands that need to be kept in mind.
Practice, however, makes perfect (or at least, very good). After some time writing notes this way and, importantly, after you then go back to them consistently to use them, you’ll find your ability to take short notes improve drastically.
The Bullets
Different bullets identify different types of notes, so you can quickly see what action each note requires:
- Interpunct (·) for tasks:
· send report to Jackie - Open bullet (⚬) for events/meetings:
⚬ set up doc review for project - Dash (-) for information:
- Hannah completed the tests - Plus (+) for delegated items that require a follow-up:
+ Robert will provide updates by Thursday EOD
These are the ones I use. I like to keep it simple and actionable, but of course you can make up your own system and bullets.
The Signifiers
In front of the bullet, you can optionally add a signifier to highlight special features:
- Star (*) for important things:
*· file tax return by 31 Jan - Exclamation mark (!) for insights:
!- think about method invocation as sending messages rather than function calls - Question mark (?) for research items:
?- Rust changes programming paradigms significantly - Circled B (Ⓑ) for potential blog topics: Ⓑ- DISC profiling can be done without formal tests
Implementation
Now that you know the syntax, let’s make it work as a thing.
I typically make:
- A blank page in my notebook with today’s date
- A page for any specific activity that has notes, like a book I’m reading or a conversation I’m having.
As I need to take notes, I go to what’s most convenient in that moment.
And that’s it. It’s simple and it works for me.
For events that include other people use meeting notes
Meeting notes are a special case of rapid logging, but with extra considerations.
The point of meeting notes is to make sure all attendees and interested parties are on the same page with regards to what they discussed and decided in the meeting, and who’s taking what action.
Before the Meeting
- Start with titling the page with the date of the meeting and the meeting title.
- If you know the agenda beforehand, fold it in the doc, putting down the expected outline of the meeting.
- In each relevant section, add the points you want to bring up. That way you won’t forget.
- Finally, pull out the list of invited people and write that down. Then, as people show up underline who is present.
I’m not doing this to keep tabs on people, but so that I can make sure I send the notes to the right people, and have the right context if I need to follow up.
This typically takes less than five minutes, and I’ll just do it while waiting for everyone to show up.
During the Meeting
Focus on capturing:
- Critical or interesting information
- Decisions taken
- Action items (with owner and deadline)
- Open questions/follow-up items
No fluff required. This approach lets you actually participate in the meeting, not just transcribe it.
Putting It All Together
Start with one method that matches your most common note-taking situation. Once it becomes natural, add the others, one at a time.
Your notes won’t be perfect as you start. In fact my notes aren’t perfect after years I take them this way. But that’s not the point: the point is to implement a system that captures what matters and makes it reusable later.
Remember: write once, read many. Your future self will thank you for the clarity.