Note-taking is a very important part of being a student, as your notes usually have the ability to make or break your performance in a class. However, you need to not only take notes, but also know how to take efficient and effective notes for them to work at all and not just be a waste of your time. While note-taking is an important skill to practice, it can also be a fun one. You just need to find out how to make note-taking both educational and entertaining.

I don’t want to hype myself up too much, but I like to think I have become a master at this duality of note-taking. As someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), I tend to create steps and order how I do a lot of tasks, and note-taking is no different. For anyone looking to embrace note-taking as not only a study tool but also a hobby, as well as enhance their skills, I’m about to reveal all of my secrets to good and enjoyable note-taking.

The very first thing I do when I start a semester is buy a notebook for each class. I assign the class a color (based purely on vibes) and I buy a notebook in that color. The notebook is normally a Mead Five Star Graphing notebook (yes, graphing; college-ruled notebooks have way fewer lines on each page, thus requiring the usage of more paper than necessary). 

I then pick one pen and one dual-sided marker and highlighter that are in that chosen color and elect them as my writing utensils for that class for the remainder of the semester. My preferred pen is the 0.7 Sharpie Gel series (obviously the rainbow colored pack) and I exclusively use Zebra Mildliner double-ended highlighters.

For example, this year I am taking Social Psychology. I assigned it the color green, and thus chose the green highlighter I have, as well as the pen that most closely matched the color scheme I wanted. 

Following the choosing of my assigned color and ensuring I have all the necessary supplies, I move onto the arguably most important step in all of note-taking: making a table of contents. I know that tables of contents can be really annoying to keep up with, but trust me, it is a game-changer. 

For example, in my Forensic Psychology class, we had to do a 30-minute,open-note quiz. I was able to not only complete the quiz in 15 minutes (half of the allotted time), but also get an A because I had a table of contents to reference. For each question, I would use the table of contents to find the page number with the lecture that involved the subject of the question, and from there, I skimmed through the notes I had on the lecture to find the answer to the question. Without a table of contents, it easily could’ve taken me two to three extra minutes just to find the relevant lecture notes. 

I also have a section in my notebook for each chapter and/or lecture in the class, where all of my notes on that specific subject can be found (sometimes textbooks provide better information, and sometimes lectures are more in-depth; which one you choose to take notes on is at your discretion). 

I have subheadings for each of the major topics under the overarching subject, which are designated by outlining the arrows on the margins of the Mead notebooks. These subheadings assist in making life easier when trying to find a specific piece of information. 

Under the subheadings, I have word definitions, historical examples of studies (for my psychology classes) and any other information I feel will be relevant for either the class exams or my future in the field.

Using organization is not only helpful in accessing the information, but also makes note-taking more fun to do, as it becomes more of an art than it normally would be if you were just scribbling down whatever you wanted all willy-nilly.

Now, you may still be skeptical of note-taking in general, but specifically my method, because it does take some time to do. You may even ask, “Will I ever even use these notes again?”

This is where I clarify: I only use this method if I will also be keeping the notes for future use outside of just my class, or if I happen to have a ton of extra time to spend enjoying it exclusively as a hobby (I never do). For any class that does not fall under these categories, I either take notes on a piece of paper for each class period in a much less organized way (if the class is electronic-free) or I type out notes on my computer so as to not waste paper. 

An additional suggestion I would make following this caveat is to buy a large binder and, at the end of the semester, tear out the pages you wrote notes on as well as the table of contents, and put them all in the binder. This way, you can continue to have these notes organized for future reference, and they don’t just end up as not only a waste of paper, but also a waste of your time.

Hopefully, these suggestions were helpful, and maybe some of you can even start to employ some of my specific strategies into your own note-taking methods to make them more efficient and enjoyable. However, it is also important to remember that as long as your notes are helping you succeed, whatever note-taking method you’re using is a good one.