6 Common Note-Taking Mistakes And What You Can Do To Avoid Them
Note-taking is like cooking pasta. It seems to be so simple at the beginning but mistakes can creep in easily. You’ve cooked the pasta for too long, you didn’t use enough salt, or you didn’t add enough water. If you don’t take care, you risk ending up with an empty plate. A lot like note-taking during a lecture, a meeting, or a study session. If you make mistakes you may end up with completely unusable notes.
We’ve collected six common note-taking mistakes and show you how to avoid them. Find out if you are making any of them to start utilizing your notes to their fullest potential. Let’s dive in with mistake number 1:
1. Writing without listening
We have all experienced this at some point. We tend to write things down without understanding the actual point. Such a practice certainly offers more content but creates far more confusion when we revise. It becomes messier when we get ourselves too busy in jotting things down from presentations without listening to the speaker. Context can be missed and the time you invested in note-taking can go into vain.
How to avoid this common note-taking mistake:
Take your time and listen. Reflect on what has been said, and then try to note down the essence at a normal pace. Try resisting the urge to copy everything. In the end, you‘ll remember far better and you don’t end up with messy notes.
2. Mistaking note-taking for highlighting text
The purpose of taking notes is not equal to highlighting text. It is about creating a relevant summary of the text. Students often underline or highlight text passages they find to be important. While this makes sense for the initial review of a text overdoing it can endanger the learning outcome. Taking short and precise notes requires reflecting on the content, which is the first step to remember it.
How to avoid this common note-taking mistake:
Start off by highlighting the important parts of the text. Then, summarise them in your own words and/or add comments to the side.
3. Noting down everything
To put it simply: Avoid it! It is one of the most frequent mistakes college students make. Often, they tend to note down everything the lecturer says but doing that doesn’t really make an impact.
How to avoid this common note-taking mistake:
Come prepared. If you already know what the lecture will be about or keep the “bigger picture” in mind, it is much easier to focus on the information that really matters. Once you get the context well, the prepared notes will be self-explanatory.
4. Not being topic specific
A common mistake is to write continuously and not clustering the content from the very beginning. Without the specifics, it’ll become difficult to understand the context as certain points may coincide. With a brief format, this can be dealt with just fine, simplifying work and studies.
How to avoid this common note-taking mistake:
An intelligent solution to this common problem is applying a note-taking method like Cornell notes. This note-taking method helps to structure notes properly right from the beginning.
5. Not reviewing the notes
Reviewing is a must if you want to remember. It prevents learning incorrect facts and helps to analyze if you have missed any important ones. Not reviewing the notes may leave you with more confusions and queries about the subject.
How to avoid this common note-taking mistake:
Again, we recommend applying a note-taking system. Using things like the boxing method, or the outline-method simplifies and speeds up the subsequent review.
6. Not taking notes at all
This is the biggest mistake you can make. Sure, it is tempting to trust yourself because “you’ll be able to remember what has been said”. However, you can never be 100% sure if you will. A minor distraction can already make you forget a tiny but important detail which you won’t even notice. Better play it safe and take notes. Note-taking makes any process better even if you’re already successful: Students with good grades will get better grades, and professionals can be even more professional. It also signals any other person that you actually care about what they have to say. Don’t be like Anakin.
How to avoid this common note-taking mistake:
Always bring something to write on and be prepared to take notes. It is that simple. Especially at work, you don’t want to annoy the same person twice if you didn’t get something in the first place.
As you can see, with just a little bit of practice and awareness, it is easy to avoid these common note-taking mistakes. Just remember:
- Be prepared to take notes
- Listen and focus on the essence
- Structure your notes properly
- Always review them
Now, you can cook delicious pasta AND take notes that will help you to be more organized and professional. 🍝
