Why even take notes?

Depending on the industry that you work in, or study in, note taking can be a very effective habit to get into. How you take notes can look a little different depending on the type of person you are but why you take notes can usually be boiled down to a few reasons. The most obvious reason is to use as a reference, whether that be to help you remember the latest concept you learned in class or just to document part of your progress at work or on a project. A not so obvious reason why you might want to take notes is because note taking can help you create cognitive connections in the subject of your notes. Basically, taking notes can actually help you gain a deeper understanding of the subject of interest.

Why Markdown

To be upfront, Markdown appeals most commonly to the techies, those in IT or computing roles. This isn’t to say that it’s only for us nerds but if you haven’t heard about Markdown before and you are not in a technology domain don’t be alarmed. First let us say that it is relatively easy to learn. Markdown was designed to be easy to write, easy to pick up, easy to look at, point is it should be everything but a pain.

Basically it’s a quick formatting language that let’s you add typical HTML components in an abbreviated language to your notes in order to improve the presentation and structure of your notes. It allows you to quickly add headings, embedded links, bullets, lists, tables, basically anything you might want to make your notes easier to write and easier to read. If you want to find out more about Markdown here is a great guide to get started. Markdown has been steadily gaining popularity and is commonplace in a ton of applications.

Rules of Thumb

Find a good theme

Most markdown editors will allow you to download and create your own custom themes. We would recommend finding one that pleases you aesthetically but we would highly recommend one that has a different color for every heading. This sounds like a small touch but one that might make a big difference, especially if you are just getting started with Markdown.

Review your notes

The whole purpose of your notes are to have a future reference but even before you do any future analysis you will really benefit from getting into the habit of reviewing them shortly after writing. This will also help you with some of the concepts to follow.

Focus on ease of use

This might go without saying but you really want to use the features that markdown has to offer that enable you to organize and index quickly. You want your notes to be high speed, low drag so as you start to learn what works for you, you’re going to want to lean into the structure that Markdown provides. Use quotes when you need quotes, and code blocks when writing code, and make sure that your headings follow a structure that makes sense so that topics cascade into subtopics accordingly. This might sound a little obvious but when notes follow an appropriate structure it becomes a lot easier to come back to them and quickly index yourself to find the information that you need.

Let your notes be dynamic and living

Depending on what you are taking notes of and when in the process you might be taking them, you might want to focus on different elements at different times. In example, if you are actively taking notes during a meeting, or presentation, or interview, basically an event where you want to be present and engaged then don’t worry as much about adding all of the structure as you capture your notes. Just get your notes down, you can do all bullet points or apply a couple of high level headings and then when the event is over come back and add more or less structure as you see fit. Remember you want to be able to index quickly and easily so focus on creating a structure that enables you to do that.

Advanced features

This is a feature that’s benefit is not so obvious but one that should not be overlooked nonetheless. When you start to work with longer notes and/or just longer URL’s this feature comes in real handy. Although most markdown editors allow you to view your notes in an editing view as well as a reading view that hides all of the formatting characters and symbols, it can still be a pain to work with lengthy URLs while you’re writing. Reference style links allow you to keep the URLs for your hyperlinks at the bottom of your file so they don’t get in the way as you’re editing. Again this tends to be less of an issue with modern URLs and shorter notes but you will likely find yourself needing this feature sooner than later. Here’s a good guide to learn more.

Leveraging Templates

More than likely your editor of choice will allow you to create templates for your notes. We recommend creating templates for any recurring meetings, routine processes, or just otherwise repetitive notes that you find yourself taking. Some of the more popular Markdown editors today will even allow you to create dynamic templates by using JavaScript and we can not overstate how this can positively impact your productivity especially if you take a lot of notes. If you want a quick example you can check out our tuturial below:

Plugins

Hot take but if your Markdown editor doesn’t allow you to develop and use custom plugins then you need another Markdown editor. Our suggestions for those in the Apple ecosystems are Drafts and/or Obsidian but we’re sure there are more out there that offer this feature. When talking about an efficient and productive note taking system, all of the strategies mentioned in this article will help you get there but plugins are the pinnacle of ultimate customization that will take your system to the next level. In a nutshell plugins are user developed code that you can download and enable in your application to accomplish pretty much any unique task that you could think of. Custom formatting tools, export tools, interface overhauls, integrations to other apps and API’s, automations, all of these things and more are possible with plugins.

In Review

You might want to take good notes because you want to level up your productivity and effectiveness at work, or because you are a student, or simply because you want to document your own personal projects. Regardless of the why you take notes, how you take notes can either make it an easy, efficient, and enjoyable process for you or it can make it so that you dread taking notes, don’t reap much benefit, and worst come to worst you give up on note taking all together. Know that note taking can look very different depending on the type of person you are, some people prefer completely analog methods or other systems like mind mapping and if that is the case then this system might not work for you but note taking as a practice will more than likely still benefit you greatly. Try these strategies out if you are new to digital note taking or new to Markdown and see how they work for you!