I know the research says this but I did this for a whole grad school semester class and remembered the least. When I try to remember a concept, I recall the place (sometimes down to the rough seating location in class) and the whole thing comes instantly flooding back to me.
Since my memory is nothing close to eidetic - I forget my keys, my car's parked location, all that stuff - I decided that note-taking would help supercharge me, but it debilitated me. I think it's because note-taking is its own skill and without being skilled at it, it took too much of my conscious thought pattern to:
- do the mechanical task of pen to paper
- edit to salient parts to select what goes down
So, I think a lot of the "writing is the best way" stuff comes from people who are akin to my "vim bindings are the best way". People who didn't grow up with vim bindings will find them unreasonable to learn - but I am much faster when I use them everywhere.
So I lean into my method: what I repeat I remember. I had a period where I needed to get a duplicate car title and insurance and everything. I can now write down my VIN by heart.
Since my memory is nothing close to eidetic - I forget my keys, my car's parked location, all that stuff - I decided that note-taking would help supercharge me, but it debilitated me. I think it's because note-taking is its own skill and without being skilled at it, it took too much of my conscious thought pattern to:
- do the mechanical task of pen to paper
- edit to salient parts to select what goes down
So, I think a lot of the "writing is the best way" stuff comes from people who are akin to my "vim bindings are the best way". People who didn't grow up with vim bindings will find them unreasonable to learn - but I am much faster when I use them everywhere.
So I lean into my method: what I repeat I remember. I had a period where I needed to get a duplicate car title and insurance and everything. I can now write down my VIN by heart.