8 tips

1. Organize your notes in folders/notebooks
Folders, which in some note-organization programs is called notebooks, help your when you need to revisit and sort through your notes. How you choose to use folders/notebooks is up to you. The important thing is being consistent. If in doubt about the organization, your can start by having a broader structure with folder such as “Studies”, “Quick Notes”, “Personal” and “Work”. See in example in this course under bullet 1.3.

2. Make an inbox/short-term parking for your quick notes.
For when you have a note you just need to write down, but haven’t had the time to figure out where to place it. An “Inbox notebook” is a form of short-term parking spot, where you can place quick notes that you can get back to later, to place them in the notebook specific to the subject.

3. Make shortcuts to other notes in your note-organization program
Most note programs give you the option to link to other folders, notebooks or externally. It can create an overview of connections between different notes and help you find other notes later.

4. Use tags
Tags, as known from Instagram, Twitter, etc. are a method to easily create an overview and make an index of subjects.
Create a system of tags that makes it easier for you to retrieve material from different subject areas.

5. Dictation
Most phones nowadays have the option of dictation. Use dictation to save notes on the go and make sure to sort them in the relevant folders afterwards.

6. Embed pictures, PDFs, links, etc.
Use other media than text when relevant: e.g. images, audio files, links to web pages/documents, PDF files, PowerPoints, etc. It can give you a better overview of your notes and combine your own notes with the course material from your lectures.

7. OCR
If your note-organization program has built in optical character recognition (OCR), you will be able to search “inside” images and PDFs.

8. Tidy up
However you organize your notes, remember to tidy up:

Delete old and out-of-date notes
Check that your tags are matching
Regularly sort through the notes in your inbox/ short-term parking