A Guide to Effective Note Making Techniques

Note-making styles refer to structured (or semi-structured) ways of capturing, organizing, and processing information from lectures, books, videos, or your own thoughts. The goal is usually better understanding, retention, and later review — not just verbatim copying.

Here are some of the most widely used and effective note-making styles (with brief pros/cons):

Outline Method
Hierarchical structure using bullets, numbers, and indentation (main topic → subpoints → details).

• Pros: Very logical and easy to follow hierarchy; great for structured lectures.
• Cons: Less flexible if the speaker jumps around.

Cornell Method
Divide the page into sections: narrow left column for cues/questions/key terms, large right area for main notes, bottom for summary.

• Pros: Forces active recall and summarization; excellent for exam prep.
• Cons: Requires pre-planning the page layout.

Mapping / Mind Mapping Method
Visual diagram with central idea in the middle, branching out to related concepts (often with colors, icons, arrows).

• Pros: Great for visual learners and seeing connections/relationships.
• Cons: Can become messy with very linear or dense content.

Charting / Table Method
Columns for categories (e.g., Date/Event/Cause/Effect for history, or Term/Definition/Example for vocab).

• Pros: Perfect for comparisons, timelines, or data-heavy topics.
• Cons: Not ideal for narrative or flowing explanations.

Sentence / List Method
Write every new idea as a separate numbered or bulleted sentence.

• Pros: Fast for rapid lectures; captures everything.
• Cons: Often becomes long walls of text that are hard to review.

Boxing Method (digital-friendly)
Group related ideas into visual "boxes" on the page (often used in apps like GoodNotes or Notability).

• Pros: Very clean for visual separation of topics.
• Cons: Takes more time to draw boxes.

Flow-based / Fluid Notes
Freer writing style — arrows, doodles, marginal notes, underlines, no strict structure.

• Pros: Matches natural thinking flow; good for creative or complex ideas.
• Cons: Can be chaotic to review later.

Many people mix styles (e.g., Cornell + mind-map branches in the main section) depending on the subject.

"Excessive reversed repetition" in note-making

This phrase appears in a few study-skills books (most notably Study Hacks 101 by Zak Khan and similar titles), where it is presented as a common mistake to avoid.

What it means:

After taking initial notes in one direction/order (e.g., following the lecture sequence), many students then rewrite the exact same notes again — but this time in reverse order (from bottom to top, or last point to first point), or they excessively re-copy/re-organize the same content multiple times in slightly different sequences without adding new value.

Why it's considered harmful ("excessive")?

• It creates the illusion of productivity ("I'm doing something!") but wastes huge amounts of time.
• It leads to bloated, redundant notes — you end up with multiple near-identical versions.
• Real learning suffers because you're mostly copying instead of processing, questioning, condensing, or connecting ideas.
• It often stems from anxiety ("I need to make my notes perfect / complete / better organized") rather than actual memory or understanding needs.

Better alternatives to reversed repetition:

• Use the "reduce" step (like in Cornell or the 5 Rs of notetaking): immediately after class, condense the full notes into key points, questions, or a 1-paragraph summary.
• Do active recall instead of re-copying: cover the notes and try to say/write them from memory.
• Use progressive summarization: highlight key parts → extract main ideas → create flashcards or one-page cheat sheets.
• If you really like rewriting for reinforcement → do it purposefully once (e.g., turn linear notes into a mind map), not repeatedly or backwards just for the sake of it.
• Accept that good notes are ugly but useful during creation — polish only for final review sheets.

In short: good note-making prioritizes processing over perfection, and active engagement over passive re-copying. Excessive reversed repetition is basically over-polishing the same diamond repeatedly instead of cutting new ones.

Which note-making style do you currently use most, or which subject/context are you trying to improve notes for? That can help narrow down the best approach.