How 9 of Noted's Readers Think with Notes
Noted's Anniversary Edition: Part 2
We’re a month into Noted’s third year, so it’s time for another edition of our Anniversary Post! As you might remember, when I put out a call for readers to share their note-taking practices, I got such an overwhelming response, I split this post into installments.
Here is Part II—on how readers use their notes as thinking tools.
There are many things that drew me to studying notes—but their connection to how we think and process the world is top of the list. I’ve written before about this feedback loop between the way we think and the way we take notes.
Here’s a tip: if you want to change the way you think, change the way you take notes. (This is why gratitude journals are so effective—they prompt us to shift our focus by noting positive aspects of our lives.)
So join me as I explore how nine of Noted’s readers think with their notes. I hope some of the following methods spark your imagination!
I. Visual Thinkers
I count myself among the visual thinkers. This is why I prefer taking notes by hand. Paper has very few constraints: I write diagonally, arrows swoop across the page, connecting ideas; I have an arsenal of pens, a rainbow of colors to differentiate ideas.
I love seeing the notes of other visual thinkers—it gives me so many ideas. Here are three wonderful examples:
Cole Calfee’s Meeting Doodles
As a mixed-media artist, it makes sense that Cole would doodle during meetings. Of course, we now know that doodling supports sustained focus—something Cole affirms when he explains:
My practice has been extremely useful to me as a way to stay intensely present during conversation with others. I generally am taking notes on ideas said by the person I am talking with, and doodling about things we discuss. I absolutely love it.
Here are a few pages Cole shared with us:
Learn more about Cole at his website.
’s Mind Maps
Minaz Ansari, an architect, academic and urban researcher—and self-proclaimed “compulsive note taker”— also sketches during lectures. Here’s one example:
Minaz analyzes interviews by creating mind-maps—a strategy I plan to borrow as I begin conducting more interviews myself.
While accumulating research, Minaz creates more mind-maps to organize findings:
You can read more of Minaz’s work at
.’s Illustrative Notes
To make our notes useful, we must first understand how our minds work. Lee noticed that while he had accumulated “an archive over-abundant with pocket-sized notebooks, each crammed with page upon page of handwritten notes,” he rarely returned to them. So, he began experimenting. He explains,
Primarily a visual learner I have often felt that I can best recall information if there are accompanying visuals. I find that an illustrative element such as an icon, motif or simple sketch can distinguish between the more textual informational elements and this enables me to delineate one piece of information from another more rapidly.
Here are some examples of Lee’s notes:
Check out more of Lee’s incredible work at his small-press publishing platform: Micro Library Books.
II. Learning with Notes
I’ve been talking with my students about how having a smartphone nearby depletes our cognitive capacity. When we have these conversations, I always think about reading paper books and taking notes by hand—this is the best way for me to learn because it operates without screens—and all those addictive distractions.
Let’s revel for a moment in how three of Noted’s readers take hand-written notes while learning.
’s Music Diary
If you’ve read Terry’s newsletter you know he’s a man of many talents. And he’s picking up one more: playing the alto sax, which he began ten months ago. His teacher recommended a music diary. Terry explains that he’s keeping two:
One uses a Moleskine Notebook which has lines on the left-hand page and ledger lines on the right-hand page. This means that I can make notes about the music on one page and refer to the notes of the music on the corresponding page, as shown in the screenshot called Music Notes. I use this notebook in the saxophone lessons.
I’m also maintaining a music diary for my practice at home. This is where I keep a record of what I’ve been practising, the challenges I’ve come up against, and how I resolved those challenges, as shown in the screenshot called Music Diary. This has been immensely useful as a reference guide for myself.
You can follow Terry’s progress in his Start The Week section of his newsletter.
’s Reading Notes
I’m obsessed with marginalia (writing in the margins of books). So I was very excited to see Sarah Orman’s methods, which are quite similar to my own.
It all began in 1994, when Sarah borrowed a book from a friend. She writes:
In the front of the book, on a blank sheet next to the title page, I found a list of handwritten phrases next to page numbers. The list (still on my shelf) looks like this:
25 it seems impossible not to be trite on such occasions
48 there are all kinds of silences
131 if you must leave a place you have lived in & loved . . .
Sarah quickly adopted her friend’s system and still uses it twenty years later. She explains:
As I am reading, I use the blank space in the front of a book to keep a list of the words, phrases, or paragraphs that stand out to me, and I write brackets or a star in the margins of the pages next to the lines themselves. That way they are easier to come back to later, like when I'm writing and I think of something I want to quote. Over time, I've also started listing words that I had to look up in a dictionary.
Read more of Sarah’s writing on
, which includes her essay, 5 Ways to Read Like a Writer.’s Wordle Strategy
I play Wordle, the New York Times’s addictive game, every day. It’s especially fun if you do it with friends, as Kathy does.
This is how Kathy explains the practice:
A group of friends and myself play Wordle daily. I track their “green” letters on first guesses. It’s a clue in the morning, if they have gone first, and I know one of their letters. Over time, I can sometimes come up with entire start words! Illustrated you will see pages of my notes; the clue letters I have created over time.
I love how Kathy has turned this digital game into a paper-and-pen puzzle. It’s also an opportunity for social connection. She writes:
Wordle connects our little group. Often messages will come through wishing one of us happy birthday, a video of a funny experience of another’s, celebration for the one who got the word in two!
I’ll add that Kathy is a certified master bee keeper—such a cool title!
III. Thinking and Feeling Through Notes
’s Asemic Notes
Not all thinking happens with language. In fact, language often feels hopelessly ill-equipped to account for our human experience.
So, I was thrilled to see Cecil Touchon’s asemic notes (a wordless form of writing).
Here is an example of Cecil’s asemic writing:
Cecil explains:
My notes are a little different than the typical. I am an artist who works in collage, paper, asemic writing, visual musicality, correspondence art, etc. I like to take notes in 'body language' rather than English. I like to make palimpsests from old documents. At the root of my note taking is the idea that we live in the midst of the infinite which I once had an experience of that changed my perspective on everything. Most of what I have to say or want to say is inexpressible in normal language but I still am compelled to express something. I use many different methods in this exploration. I am usually overwriting ephemeral documents of the profane day to day.
Here are a few more enticing examples of Cecil’s notes:
Read more of Cecil’s writing and immerse yourself in his art at
.’s Napkin Thoughts
A fancy notebook can either be a hindrance or a support to creativity. Personally, I find that the more expensive the notebook, the less I want to write. Give me a scrap of paper instead or, as in Rebecca’s case, a humble napkin and a borrowed pen. Sometimes the cheapest materials produce the best notes. This is why I loved Rebecca’s napkin contribution:
Here is Rebecca’s explanation:
Perhaps unorthodox, but my notebook tends to be napkins. It seems that precisely when I have the deepest urge to write, I’ve forgotten all accessories. This means not only the moleskin notebooks I buy often and leave empty, but a writing utensil too. These napkin notes often result from borrowing a pen from a server, taking me back to middle school when I borrowed everything to get by. If there's no pen, I use lipstick. The stuff these napkin notes produce is unpretentious, an explosion, and is thus healing. They translate well to blog form on the screen, adapted as I type, with my eyes closed—a trance of translations. The napkin branding becomes a stamp of my experience. In this case, EJ breakfasts on the way to transcranial magnetic stimulation!
You can read Rebecca’s writing at Away Messages.
’s “Sketchnotes” and “Sketchtivities“
Stephanie advocates for literacy and calls herself a “notebook-hoarding bookologist.” She explains how she created a digital resource filled with sketches:
It’s a collection of one-page sketchnotes and sketchtivities that illustrate coaching pedagogy, ideas, tools, and resources for teacher learning. My notebook started as a notebook, shifted into a binder and ultimately formed the basis for my coaching blog that I maintained for years. It’s an inspiring collection of ideas that helped me not only create professional learning experiences for others, but also acted as a tool for reflection and goal setting, too.
And here are two of my favorite activities from Stephanie’s blog:
Learn more about Stephanie at www.alitlife.com.
I hope this post offered you some new practices to expand the way you think with notes!
Noted is fueled by you. Your ❤️’s and comments inspire me. As always, I’d love to know your thoughts: which of these methods inspired you? What practices would you like to borrow?
Until Next Time,
It's a pleasure to make it here. The rest look like the work of alchemists or gnostics of a Mayan warrior. If aliens find them they'll have much to think about, my napkin notes will prob be toilet paper ;) thank you
What an eclectic selection of notes! It is amazing the different styles people use. Some of these would never work for me as my head couldn't grasp them but that is why they are so wonderful and so personal! I love seeing all of these.