Note-taking
Note-taking is at the core of scientific work. Whether it is to put on paper what is heard during a conference or seminar, or to write new ideas from a collaboration meeting, having notes at the end is a must.
Warning
Notes are not minutes.
Notes are personal, usually brief and focused on key points, ideas, or actions. They are written to help to remember what was discussed and / or to share with colleagues.
Minutes are official records of what was discussed, decided, and agreed upon during a meeting or conference. They are usually taken by a designated person, and meant to be a permanent and definitive record of the meeting. They typically include a summary of the meeting’s agenda, attendees, the list of actions or decisions taken. As an official document, they might be shared between the participants and corrected or modified before being validated in their final version.
Your notes should, as much as possible, reply to the 5W and 1H questions [1]: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.
On paper
Taking notes on paper feels like an easy and straight forward task. But to better exploit the notes afterward, specific organization of the page can be used. One of them is the Cornell method [2]. The Cornell page organization reserved specific areas of the page for a summary, conclusions, and questions that may come after the meeting has finished.
A benefit of handwritten notes is that it is very easy to includes schematics, graphs, drawings in notes. However, handwritten notes, even when scanned and stored on a computer, can not be searched, unless some post-processing has been done.
As an example, Figure 69 shows a scanned page of notes taken about this section.
Figure 69 Handwritten notes about this section. The same content, in computer taken format, is shown in Listing 11.
On a computer
Since many works are done with a computer, using it for note-taking is something that will happen often. The benefit of computer notes, is that the files can be searched, organized afterward. On the other hand, inclusion of graphics, schematics, … maybe tricky.
When taking notes on a computer, one should always think about sorting, searching and finding content. File name should be explicit, include date, be in a proper folder, … The use of an appropriate format helps. Markdown is an obvious choice (a combination of nested bullet list and highlights is a good start for note-taking).
Tip
Syntax for Mermaid diagrams can be a good basis for certain note-taking (mind map, tasks sequence, …)
In your note files, include a header (or front matter block), to be able to remember the file content and context later.
As an example, the markdown file in Listing 11 would represent notes taken about this section.
---
- date: 2024-06-27
- topic: Meeting about note-taking
- author: Myself
---
- `/!\` Notes are not minutes
- Notes: personal, to remember and discuss with others.
- Minutes: official record, more structured, may need to be revised/corrected before final version.
- **on paper**:
- use [Cornell method](https://medium.goodnotes.com/study-with-ease-the-best-way-to-take-notes-2749a3e8297b)
- Good when including schematics, graphs, math formulas, ...
- Not computer searchable
- **on computer**:
- file name should be explicit
- appropriate format (like `.md`)
- include header (date, context, ...)
- good for searching, bad for visual elements (no images, bad at math).
<!-- end of file -->
Tip
Special characters like check marks, warning, … easy to represent with emoji can be written in plain text like ./ (for checkmark), [ ] and [x] (git flavored markdown style) for a checkbox, or /!\ for a warning sign.
These substitutions are recommended in plain text files, so they can be read without special rendering (in particular in terminals).
Tip
Adding an end of file comment at the end of a file (not just notes actually, any file) is a great way to ensures that the file is not truncated.
Footnotes