Advice On: Electronic Note-Taking

As I was sitting down to write this blog post about note taking I quickly realized that there are two types of note taking to cover, Electronic Note taking and Handwritten Note taking. I don't think that one is better than the other, each has a time when it should be used and it really depends on the class. There are pros and cons to both. I have decided to divide the two types into different posts. This week I will be writing about electronic notes.

I often use electronic notes in university. I love the convenience of using my laptop and my notes are always legible.

Here are my pros for electronic notes:

-Readable

-Easily Organized

-Quick (I'm a fairly fast typer)

However, there are several cons to typing up notes.

Here are my cons of electronic notes:

-Expensive (to print off, ink and paper cost a lot of money)

-The internet is distracting (having such easy access to the internet can be so distracting from the lectures)

-Danger of losing notes if something happens to your computer or tablet

-Formatting notes can be difficult

Now that I've covered the pros and cons of typing up notes, here are my tips on electronic note taking.

Use Multi-Level Bullet Lists

I discovered these early on in my first year, they are easy to use and I found that they really help organize the points of the lecture. Here is the Microsoft website which shows how to create a multilevel list.

Turn off the Internet

Temporarily disconnect your laptop from the internet. It will help you focus so much.

Set Up Folders For Storing Things

Folders can help you quickly find your notes and documents. I find it so frustrating when I lose my notes somewhere in my computer. This will help prevent that. Another thing that helps is saving all your files with similar names. For example, I save my files starting with the course code, then the lecture number (GEOG1200-Lecture 5.docx).

Print off notes

Keep up with printing off your notes. Otherwise you'll end up spending an hour printing everything at the end of the semester. Printing off your notes once a week can help with this.

I hope these tips help you out! Let me know if you have any additional advice or any questions.

Happy Thursday!