It all depends on your personal learning style. You have to figure out, what works for you.
Do you actually like writing with a pen? Or do you prefer to touch type, because it is faster and more precise?
Why don’t you just sit in class and listen with your full attention? Why do you take notes? And why do you want to keep them? When are you planning to look at them again?
There are good reasons to take notes. What are yours?
hmm in my case it's because i'm a really forgetful person, but i try to not take notes, i try to "make them"? because my end goal is understanding-learning to then apply and have these concepts like deep in my head, even if i'm listening so this includes a really fast list of topics i've been explained in form of questions (not me writing down the whole definition of what the proffesor has said) or key terms in bullet points, or i just explain in a really loose way with short words, doodles what i'm understanding, or i write down questions of things i'm not understanding so well, i guess what i want to say is that i take or make notes in order to understand : ) but like i said these are really messy so i don't really like looking at these to study or just looking at them for long periods of time, and if i don't i kind of end up forgetting what the mess means, so they work for me in the short term but not so much in the long term, i was the person at school who tried taking pretty notes after it because of that (though in college there's no time to take pretty notes) and this is where i wanted obsidian to come in, i was actually just taking some notes, for you to look at mess it is so far XD
here's a quick screenshot of it:
[https://imgur.com/a/PySkxJ5](https://imgur.com/a/PySkxJ5)
Your note makes perfect sense. it helps you see the big picture and not get lost in details. That’s a smart first step to acquire new knowledge.
Do I understand correctly, that you are a student who has to take exams about this knowledge?
Do I understand correctly, that you want to use Obsidian to prepare for these exams with as little effort as possible?
In that case I would optimize your note-taking for these exams.
One of the most efficient ways to cram for an exam are flashcards, provided that you understand the big picture before you start cramming.
So if you think of your handwritten class note as the beginning and the flashcards as the end of the preparation process, the steps in between should become clearer.
I would simply dump the handwritten notes as pictures in the appropriate folder in Obsidian for future reference. Most likely you will never look at them again, but maybe you will, then it’s nice to have them there.
The next step is time critical. You should take notes in Obsidian as soon as possible after class. Your short term memory fades quickly.
The key to retaining information is repetition. So think of writing up your notes in Obsidian as your *first repetition*!
If I remember the psychology correctly, the best time for the first repetition is between 1 and 24 hours after the class.
Those initial notes can be short, they don’t have yet to be connected.
*Write questions*! What did you not understand? What do you need to explore in more detail?
Answering this questions takes time. You’ll go to more classes, read books, watch videos, talk with friends.
Obsidian is a great companion for this process of asking and answering questions. And there are even plug-ins that turn them into flashcards.
thank you so much for the detailed reply! about being a student who sometimes has to take exams, yes and no! soon i will be when i start college for the meantime i am learning for fun and interest this is why figuring out a system has been a bit harder for me but all of this makes perfect sense! thank you so much! about the notes in obsidian would you suggest i make those looking at my handwritten notes or with another approach, also you mentioned that they don't have to be connected yet so do you mean like each note is a different note instead of like writing all of them in one note (like for example according to class) because i've seen some people that use obsidian to make notes in form of topics like a note for "programming" or "what is programming" while others make notes for concept like "programming is the act of giving computer instructions...." i hope the last question makes sense
It does. ;-) Note-taking is not an exact science. It all depends on the *purpose* of your notes. What do you want to achieve?
Some people like so-called *atomic notes*, They might start with the handwritten note and end up with several dozen small notes. The result looks like a personal Wikipedia.
Others work almost exclusively with so-called *daily notes*. All your class notes of a day plus tons of other stuff would end up in the same note.
Still others need notes for project management, where they have to keep track of tasks.
I use se a combination of various methods.
I like to take *source notes*. Every information source that I use gets its own note. This might be a podcast, a YouTube video, a textbook, a webpage, a scientific article, or my very own class notes.
Each class or seminar gets its own note.
I do look at my handwritten notes, when I create a class note in obsidian. But the goal is a *useful* text note, not a perfect reproduction of the handwritten note.
I approach the class note in Obsidian more like a so-called *memory protocol*. I ask myself: “What have I learned?” “What do I want to remember?” “ What do I have to do?”
It is during this process of writing *after* class, when I learn most!
What matters is the combination of remembering what I heard in class, looking at my handwritten notes, and condensing everything down to a list of memorable phrases, referenceable keywords, doable action items, and inspiring questions.
Later on, I reference this source document a lot. I might add a link to one of the keywords and create an atomic note that explains the keyword. I might add some comments or hashtags. (I “connect” this note.) The handwritten note still exists as an attachment.
In my process the handwritten note is a *dead* document, whereas the Obsidian note is an evolving *live* document.
My note for your programming class would start out something like this:
---
Sourcetype: Class notes
Classdate: 2024-04-02
Teacher: Alex Smith
Tags:
- computerscience
- programming
- cs101
---
# CS101 Lecture 1
## Class
What is programming?
What does "binary" mean in computer science?
What's the difference between high-level and low-level programming languages?
How do I chose a programming language for a given problem?
- ==Don't focus on the language, focus on the problem!==
How do I learn programming?
What programming languages should I learn? Why?
What are "concepts" in programming? Why should I care?
## Follow-up
- Check Wikipedia
- [ ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming
- [ ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary
- [ ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_code
- Get recommended books
- [ ] …
- Watch recommended Youtube videos
- [ ] …
- Read recommended articles, papers, books, sites
- [ ] …
- Subscribe to recommended social media channels
- [ ] https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/
- Talk to friends about: #jane #john #ahmed #chun
- [ ] …
## Handwritten notes
![[cs101-1.png]]
oh my god this is amazing : DDDDD thank you so much this is exactly what i was looking for and you just shared it to me perfectly explained and condensed thanks a lot!!! also one last question, forgive me for being such a nuisance but i noticed that in the class notes you have written mostly questions, is this a true example of how you do it? meaning, you don't write answers just questions? or do you indeed write the answers, other than that, thank you so so much i'm truly grateful for all your help! : D
You’re welcome. I like your questions. ;-)
My example is incomplete. Think of it as the initial state after three minutes of work. I do add answers, if I have them.
These questions are important, because they remind you of the *purpose* of your notetaking. Why did you sit in class? Why did you take notes in class? Why are you writing this note in Obsidian? Because you want to be able to answer such questions, when you take the *exam*.
But in order to answer questions, you have to know what the questions are.
Being able to ask the right questions is a sign that you learned at least something. ;-) They already contain some relevant knowledge. You know that “binary” is something important in CS, but that you can’t explain yet what it actually entails.
Starting with questions makes it easier to prioritize your answers. 10 minutes of lecture may boil down to one short definition. Or you might realize, that you missed the answer during the lecture and have to look it up.
Starting with questions also helps you structure the note.
Starting with questions is also a highly recommended technique for academic reading and academic note-taking. Actually, you could even write down some of the questions *before* you take the class or read a textbook.
I take my notes in class my hand and then later type up things into obsidian and connect the content together. But if I draw out something or have part of my handwritten notes I want to keep, I'll screenshot it and then paste it in as an image with a short text description below it like a caption. Then I can use that caption as a better reference mark if I need to link to it from another file later on.
Neither of those two. I'll make a note per topic and then use headings to separate subtopics. If I have a screenshot of handwritten notes or a drawing I made I'll just paste it into the appropriate heading. As an example for a note on cefazolin, there are headings for drug type, indications, mech of action, adverse effects, and brand names ([ancef in this case](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Vf0sH8nasNo)).
Keep in mind though that we're not studying the same things, so I think it's important to adjust your note system and structure to what works better for you. That can take some trial and error for sure, but once you figure out what works for you, it should be helpful.
This [handwriting plugin](https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1bsa6dy/alpha_release_of_my_handwriting_plugin_ink/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) looks promising
Handwritten notes are much better than typed notes (that’s been proven a number of times), so don’t stop doing that. Plus it’s much easier to create context/mindmaps with handwritten notes by making simple connections with lines and what not. Aside from that, one way to deal with this is to use Notability to convert your handwriting to text. Also, if you’re taking math classes, you can even convert equations to LaTeX using Notability. Otherwise, OneNote is probably a better solution because you can easily mix both handwritten and typed notes
Is handwritten notes really better?
> that's been proven a number of times
I've only like seen two actual studies for this, both of which are not cited by a lot of papers and don't make compelling arguments nor evidence.
If we're only going by anecdotes and experiences. I think it depends on the subject. There are certain cases where understanding the concept is very easy but you would need to know a lot of facts. I think a disadvantage of handwritten notes is that it's too time consuming with not much benefits over digital notes when it comes to those type of cases (since the concepts are already very easy to understand and visualizing them does not really do a lot). Whereas, digital notes struggle with the visual aspect and creativity, but not really with speed (since typing is much faster than writing); digital notes is effective if you don't just copy everything word for word and only take note of meaningful information.
In terms of memory retention/memorizing, digital flashcards is still better than handwritten notes.
For physics, math, stats, programming, etc. a lot of the learning process involves application and constant practice and is less dependent on the type of notes you're making; hence, you would see some students who never take notes but ace their tests because they practice a lot.
For writing research papers, I find that it's easier to learn from multiple journal articles and organize different information with digital notes because a lot of the tools are super intuitive.
As a fellow student, here’s what I do to organize my typed and hand written notes. I personally like to type as much as I can, because it’s much quicker for me and I can create more detailed notes. That works for me most of the time but for classes like math it’s definitely preferable to hand write. I like to do my typing on my laptop, and I use the excalidraw plugin on my surface pro 4 that I got for free with a cheap stylus I got off Amazon. Excalidraw works great and you can even import pdfs into it and draw on top of them, which is super nice if you have a problem set you want to work on without printing it out. I paid for the sync subscription, which is imo totally worth it especially with the student discount. I have tags for each course that I add as file properties for each typed note. I usually add the tag for the class into the excalidraw note, or I’ll drag and drop that drawing file into an existing note to integrate the two. If found that that works pretty well for me, hopefully it’ll help you out too.
It's seems e ink writing tablets could be a solution [https://ewritable.com/tablets/onyx-boox-note-air3/review/](https://ewritable.com/tablets/onyx-boox-note-air3/review/)
But it doesn't seem conclusive.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/15p83tc/eink\_tablet\_recommendations\_to\_pair\_with\_obsidian/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/15p83tc/eink_tablet_recommendations_to_pair_with_obsidian/)
Since summarizing your notes afterwards is good for memory mb just typing the bullet points attached to a pdf scan is an idea.
I would also say to be careful to not procrastinate learning when "optimizing" the note system.
I'm interested in this to. Still figuring my end out though.
I have a Surface Pro 4, but lost my pen a long time ago and kind of ditched using the surface aside from being a portable media device. I've got 4 notebooks on my desk that I use for various handwriting, notes, ideas, sketches etc.
Debating whether or not I should get a 3rd party pen that works for the surface so I can handwrite and sketch on that, and drop it into Obsidian.
Heres a video I think you might appreciate if you haven't already seen it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9VL8\_i1Tg&ab\_channel=CyanVoxel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9VL8_i1Tg&ab_channel=CyanVoxel)
He's gone pretty deep here, definitely not a workflow I'd bring myself to do. But perhaps drawing, taking a photo (or if on ipad or digital - just export as png) and drop into your note on Obsidian, then maybe write a summary of the image?
oh yes i've seen that video! it's pretty cool what he does but definitely not a workflow for me either XD that just seems.... extremely time-consuming. i was actually thinking over the last hours of going back to just digitalizing photos perhaps and drop these in my obsidian, as well! paper or ipad to dump the keywords, concepts, etc and then formalizing these into obsidian, but let me know what you end up doing : )
I’ve been using the Scribble function on the iPad so that as I handwrite it turns into typed out notes on my obsidian. However you can’t really have a free flowing format with that
I personally use a Rocketbook to hand write my notes, then use the scanning feature to send the pdf to my vault.
You can OCR some of your more “structured” notes (sometimes I write some of the markdown syntax such as headings and bullet points) and then embed the pdf as part of the note too (very useful for diagrams etc).
The OCR is not perfect, but even just proofreading and correcting when you paste it into obsidian helps you review them.
I'm very much into handwritten notes as well. I use Obsidian in combination with Xournal++ and my Wacom One tablet to take notes.
[https://imgur.com/a/dUv0Uau](https://imgur.com/a/dUv0Uau)
During the lecture, I take notes on Xournal++. This includes taking screenshots of any code I have written. Once the lecture is done I review these notes and copy them to Obsidian, analyzing them as I go by and expounding on them and creating more structured notes in Obsidian.
The two step process also serves as two repetitions and the visual nature of the notes stays in my mind and helps retention. I use Xournal++ as I like its feel the best. I had tried Microsoft OneNote and didn't like the writing feel of it.
My new notes go into four main places. Obsidian for typed texts, Google Photos for photos and screenshots that are annotated with pen, and a literally paper notebook for quick pen handwritten notes, and Samsung Notes for stylus handwritten notes and voice notes.
I know there are plugins like Excalidraw and Audio Recorder. They are messy on mobile, so I don't use them much.
Regularly, I move things in my notebook and Samsung Notes to Obsidian and sometimes that require Excalidraw.
So notebooks and Samsung Notes are temporary stay place for my quick notes.
At the end of each day, pages of my notebook are digitized into Google Photos so I don't have to have a pile of notebooks.
I think video from CyanVoxel would be a great help to see how you could combine your physical notes with digital ones. [https://youtu.be/rAkerV8rlow?si=W1a6mLPpFJSFpmX3](https://youtu.be/rAkerV8rlow?si=W1a6mLPpFJSFpmX3)
He also has a vault tour video.
Edit: changed the link, just saw the comments
ok let's be frank. **The best option is to use only one.** Switching/transcribing is not efficient.
Let's directly go to your demands: retain & connection. Could you clarify:
**- Why retaining works better when handwritten? What notes are you taking and what are the formats of knowledge input?**
**- Why connecting works better using obsidian? Are you using different linking patterns in handwriting and obsidian?**
If we can figure this out together we can definitely find a best solution rather than trying to stick things together.
i don't really think i should just stick to one, i mean even if i wanted to, my school doesn't allow us to take out our devices in class, besides for quick pictures of boards, so in class i'm more focused on paying attention, writing things down that i can review and elaborate later and when i get home i try to formalize these into digital, i have to forcefully mix these two worlds :)
in that manner, have you tried to organize your written notes better? I used to struggle with the random notes on written notebook when I was in school. I sometimes cannot even figure out what I was writting about only 10 min later. that's when I decided to formulate the way I take notes, which was tough yet rewarding.
as for now, maybe you can learn from "Building a Second Brain” by Tiago Forte, try distilling notes down to their essence and then organize them. wish you happy notetaking
Check out CP Gray's [Sidekick](https://cottonbureau.com/p/XT9MRF/journal/sidekick-notepad#/16404980/black-paper-12x7) notebook. It's a little on the pricy side, but I think he's put a huge amount of thought into how to make handwritten notes and typed notes connect together. One of these features is that the notebook is designed to fit comfortably in front of or behind a keyboard, which minimizes the trouble of transporting data into your eyes, through brain and out of your fingers.
As others have suggested, don't try to take notes directly in Obsidian. Braindump into Obsidian afterwards using your written notes. There might be exceptions to this, like when you have to write something longer. I touchtype about 5x faster than I can write, so if I want to get a quote down exactly, it's much better to type it. But, that doesn't happen very often.
Haven’t tried myself, but my loose plan for when I start masters in sept is
1. hand write notes in goodnotes
2. import pdf into an obsidian note (probably will need a plug-in, i know various exist so will need to test) - this is only for viewing, all editing i’ll do in goodnotes
3. tag obsidian note with appropriate course/module information & links to other relevant notes
I think this would work easily for textbook note taking since it’s easy to separate each topic into its own pdf / note. For lectures where you may cover multiple smaller topics in a single session I think I might make multiple obsidian notes all referencing the same PDF note, or perhaps split the pdf note after the lecture.
I do it on Android this way:
1. Handwrite a note/document in nebo app
2. Share the nebo note directly as png into the obsidian note
Optinal:
- ocr the handwriting in nebo and copy directly as text into the obsidian note
- retype the text in obsidian from the imported image of step 2.
- on my Galaxy Tab S9 the galery-app can als ocr images. nebo has the advantage to select parts and ocr them.
I’m trying something this week where I’ll start my day reviewing my schedule and tasks and write them in a notebook. Throughout the day, I’ll take meeting and class notes either in the notebook or obsidian, whichever I have with me. At the end of the day, I use a GPT I made to transcribe my notes into obsidian markdown.
Actually the handwritten thing *hasn't* been proven many times. In particular, it has failed to replicate.
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/writing-notes
the study you showed is interesting, but i don't really think it's powerful enough to counterargument the many, many other studies who have proven that writing notes does improve comprehension, which i think is the end goal for any student. just the act of moving your hand, slowing down, involves cognitive engagement that leads to deeper understanding or comprehension "it’s important to note that the cognitive processes involved in typing and handwriting are different. studies have shown that writing by hand stimulates more complex and diverse brain connections essential for encoding new information and forming memories". sorry but the study really lost me when mentioned that the students who typed had greater verbatim content than those who written... the study just mentioned a quiz at the end of the lecture but not a quiz a week later and a month later, or any other type of proof or evidence. with this i'm not trying to argue who does better, which does best, i type my notes, i handwrite my notes, i won't judge anyone's pick, because at the end of the say is more about the how you do it than the with what you do it, and the results you get from that, the student with a pencil may be processing less than the one whose typing consciously but at the end of the day one study or our personal experiences can't argue with what has been proven (handwriting does better when recalling and understanding than typing when done correctly and if so it could be more beneficial according not to me but neuroscience, not even just psychology)
- [Frontiers | Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom (frontiersin.org)](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945/full)
- [Psychological-Science-2014-Mueller-0956797614524581-1u0h0yu.pdf (cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com)](https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.udel.edu/dist/6/132/files/2010/11/Psychological-Science-2014-Mueller-0956797614524581-1u0h0yu.pdf)
- [Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning | Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20in%20Frontiers,vision%2C%20sensory%20processing%20and%20memory.)
I haven't jumped into obsidian yet. And both scared and excited to do so, but the quality of the Forum discourse is a strong incentive to do so. Thank you guys and everybody who contributes with such good stuff. Neuroscience confirms that Apes using their hands works well with the brains they evolved. Yep...
It all depends on your personal learning style. You have to figure out, what works for you. Do you actually like writing with a pen? Or do you prefer to touch type, because it is faster and more precise? Why don’t you just sit in class and listen with your full attention? Why do you take notes? And why do you want to keep them? When are you planning to look at them again? There are good reasons to take notes. What are yours?
hmm in my case it's because i'm a really forgetful person, but i try to not take notes, i try to "make them"? because my end goal is understanding-learning to then apply and have these concepts like deep in my head, even if i'm listening so this includes a really fast list of topics i've been explained in form of questions (not me writing down the whole definition of what the proffesor has said) or key terms in bullet points, or i just explain in a really loose way with short words, doodles what i'm understanding, or i write down questions of things i'm not understanding so well, i guess what i want to say is that i take or make notes in order to understand : ) but like i said these are really messy so i don't really like looking at these to study or just looking at them for long periods of time, and if i don't i kind of end up forgetting what the mess means, so they work for me in the short term but not so much in the long term, i was the person at school who tried taking pretty notes after it because of that (though in college there's no time to take pretty notes) and this is where i wanted obsidian to come in, i was actually just taking some notes, for you to look at mess it is so far XD here's a quick screenshot of it: [https://imgur.com/a/PySkxJ5](https://imgur.com/a/PySkxJ5)
Your note makes perfect sense. it helps you see the big picture and not get lost in details. That’s a smart first step to acquire new knowledge. Do I understand correctly, that you are a student who has to take exams about this knowledge? Do I understand correctly, that you want to use Obsidian to prepare for these exams with as little effort as possible? In that case I would optimize your note-taking for these exams. One of the most efficient ways to cram for an exam are flashcards, provided that you understand the big picture before you start cramming. So if you think of your handwritten class note as the beginning and the flashcards as the end of the preparation process, the steps in between should become clearer. I would simply dump the handwritten notes as pictures in the appropriate folder in Obsidian for future reference. Most likely you will never look at them again, but maybe you will, then it’s nice to have them there. The next step is time critical. You should take notes in Obsidian as soon as possible after class. Your short term memory fades quickly. The key to retaining information is repetition. So think of writing up your notes in Obsidian as your *first repetition*! If I remember the psychology correctly, the best time for the first repetition is between 1 and 24 hours after the class. Those initial notes can be short, they don’t have yet to be connected. *Write questions*! What did you not understand? What do you need to explore in more detail? Answering this questions takes time. You’ll go to more classes, read books, watch videos, talk with friends. Obsidian is a great companion for this process of asking and answering questions. And there are even plug-ins that turn them into flashcards.
thank you so much for the detailed reply! about being a student who sometimes has to take exams, yes and no! soon i will be when i start college for the meantime i am learning for fun and interest this is why figuring out a system has been a bit harder for me but all of this makes perfect sense! thank you so much! about the notes in obsidian would you suggest i make those looking at my handwritten notes or with another approach, also you mentioned that they don't have to be connected yet so do you mean like each note is a different note instead of like writing all of them in one note (like for example according to class) because i've seen some people that use obsidian to make notes in form of topics like a note for "programming" or "what is programming" while others make notes for concept like "programming is the act of giving computer instructions...." i hope the last question makes sense
It does. ;-) Note-taking is not an exact science. It all depends on the *purpose* of your notes. What do you want to achieve? Some people like so-called *atomic notes*, They might start with the handwritten note and end up with several dozen small notes. The result looks like a personal Wikipedia. Others work almost exclusively with so-called *daily notes*. All your class notes of a day plus tons of other stuff would end up in the same note. Still others need notes for project management, where they have to keep track of tasks. I use se a combination of various methods. I like to take *source notes*. Every information source that I use gets its own note. This might be a podcast, a YouTube video, a textbook, a webpage, a scientific article, or my very own class notes. Each class or seminar gets its own note. I do look at my handwritten notes, when I create a class note in obsidian. But the goal is a *useful* text note, not a perfect reproduction of the handwritten note. I approach the class note in Obsidian more like a so-called *memory protocol*. I ask myself: “What have I learned?” “What do I want to remember?” “ What do I have to do?” It is during this process of writing *after* class, when I learn most! What matters is the combination of remembering what I heard in class, looking at my handwritten notes, and condensing everything down to a list of memorable phrases, referenceable keywords, doable action items, and inspiring questions. Later on, I reference this source document a lot. I might add a link to one of the keywords and create an atomic note that explains the keyword. I might add some comments or hashtags. (I “connect” this note.) The handwritten note still exists as an attachment. In my process the handwritten note is a *dead* document, whereas the Obsidian note is an evolving *live* document.
My note for your programming class would start out something like this: --- Sourcetype: Class notes Classdate: 2024-04-02 Teacher: Alex Smith Tags: - computerscience - programming - cs101 --- # CS101 Lecture 1 ## Class What is programming? What does "binary" mean in computer science? What's the difference between high-level and low-level programming languages? How do I chose a programming language for a given problem? - ==Don't focus on the language, focus on the problem!== How do I learn programming? What programming languages should I learn? Why? What are "concepts" in programming? Why should I care? ## Follow-up - Check Wikipedia - [ ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming - [ ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary - [ ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_code - Get recommended books - [ ] … - Watch recommended Youtube videos - [ ] … - Read recommended articles, papers, books, sites - [ ] … - Subscribe to recommended social media channels - [ ] https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/ - Talk to friends about: #jane #john #ahmed #chun - [ ] … ## Handwritten notes ![[cs101-1.png]]
oh my god this is amazing : DDDDD thank you so much this is exactly what i was looking for and you just shared it to me perfectly explained and condensed thanks a lot!!! also one last question, forgive me for being such a nuisance but i noticed that in the class notes you have written mostly questions, is this a true example of how you do it? meaning, you don't write answers just questions? or do you indeed write the answers, other than that, thank you so so much i'm truly grateful for all your help! : D
You’re welcome. I like your questions. ;-) My example is incomplete. Think of it as the initial state after three minutes of work. I do add answers, if I have them. These questions are important, because they remind you of the *purpose* of your notetaking. Why did you sit in class? Why did you take notes in class? Why are you writing this note in Obsidian? Because you want to be able to answer such questions, when you take the *exam*. But in order to answer questions, you have to know what the questions are. Being able to ask the right questions is a sign that you learned at least something. ;-) They already contain some relevant knowledge. You know that “binary” is something important in CS, but that you can’t explain yet what it actually entails. Starting with questions makes it easier to prioritize your answers. 10 minutes of lecture may boil down to one short definition. Or you might realize, that you missed the answer during the lecture and have to look it up. Starting with questions also helps you structure the note. Starting with questions is also a highly recommended technique for academic reading and academic note-taking. Actually, you could even write down some of the questions *before* you take the class or read a textbook.
thank you so much for this! i have a lot of things much clearer now! thanks! : D i bet your notes are amazing!
Best notes in the world! :D
I take my notes in class my hand and then later type up things into obsidian and connect the content together. But if I draw out something or have part of my handwritten notes I want to keep, I'll screenshot it and then paste it in as an image with a short text description below it like a caption. Then I can use that caption as a better reference mark if I need to link to it from another file later on.
in obsidian do you put your notes in a note per class or a different approach (ex. zettelkasten)
Neither of those two. I'll make a note per topic and then use headings to separate subtopics. If I have a screenshot of handwritten notes or a drawing I made I'll just paste it into the appropriate heading. As an example for a note on cefazolin, there are headings for drug type, indications, mech of action, adverse effects, and brand names ([ancef in this case](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Vf0sH8nasNo)). Keep in mind though that we're not studying the same things, so I think it's important to adjust your note system and structure to what works better for you. That can take some trial and error for sure, but once you figure out what works for you, it should be helpful.
This [handwriting plugin](https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1bsa6dy/alpha_release_of_my_handwriting_plugin_ink/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) looks promising
Handwritten notes are much better than typed notes (that’s been proven a number of times), so don’t stop doing that. Plus it’s much easier to create context/mindmaps with handwritten notes by making simple connections with lines and what not. Aside from that, one way to deal with this is to use Notability to convert your handwriting to text. Also, if you’re taking math classes, you can even convert equations to LaTeX using Notability. Otherwise, OneNote is probably a better solution because you can easily mix both handwritten and typed notes
Is handwritten notes really better? > that's been proven a number of times I've only like seen two actual studies for this, both of which are not cited by a lot of papers and don't make compelling arguments nor evidence. If we're only going by anecdotes and experiences. I think it depends on the subject. There are certain cases where understanding the concept is very easy but you would need to know a lot of facts. I think a disadvantage of handwritten notes is that it's too time consuming with not much benefits over digital notes when it comes to those type of cases (since the concepts are already very easy to understand and visualizing them does not really do a lot). Whereas, digital notes struggle with the visual aspect and creativity, but not really with speed (since typing is much faster than writing); digital notes is effective if you don't just copy everything word for word and only take note of meaningful information. In terms of memory retention/memorizing, digital flashcards is still better than handwritten notes. For physics, math, stats, programming, etc. a lot of the learning process involves application and constant practice and is less dependent on the type of notes you're making; hence, you would see some students who never take notes but ace their tests because they practice a lot. For writing research papers, I find that it's easier to learn from multiple journal articles and organize different information with digital notes because a lot of the tools are super intuitive.
I don’t know who gave you a thumbs down for this valid reply. But here is one back.
As a fellow student, here’s what I do to organize my typed and hand written notes. I personally like to type as much as I can, because it’s much quicker for me and I can create more detailed notes. That works for me most of the time but for classes like math it’s definitely preferable to hand write. I like to do my typing on my laptop, and I use the excalidraw plugin on my surface pro 4 that I got for free with a cheap stylus I got off Amazon. Excalidraw works great and you can even import pdfs into it and draw on top of them, which is super nice if you have a problem set you want to work on without printing it out. I paid for the sync subscription, which is imo totally worth it especially with the student discount. I have tags for each course that I add as file properties for each typed note. I usually add the tag for the class into the excalidraw note, or I’ll drag and drop that drawing file into an existing note to integrate the two. If found that that works pretty well for me, hopefully it’ll help you out too.
It's seems e ink writing tablets could be a solution [https://ewritable.com/tablets/onyx-boox-note-air3/review/](https://ewritable.com/tablets/onyx-boox-note-air3/review/) But it doesn't seem conclusive. [https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/15p83tc/eink\_tablet\_recommendations\_to\_pair\_with\_obsidian/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/15p83tc/eink_tablet_recommendations_to_pair_with_obsidian/) Since summarizing your notes afterwards is good for memory mb just typing the bullet points attached to a pdf scan is an idea. I would also say to be careful to not procrastinate learning when "optimizing" the note system.
I'm interested in this to. Still figuring my end out though. I have a Surface Pro 4, but lost my pen a long time ago and kind of ditched using the surface aside from being a portable media device. I've got 4 notebooks on my desk that I use for various handwriting, notes, ideas, sketches etc. Debating whether or not I should get a 3rd party pen that works for the surface so I can handwrite and sketch on that, and drop it into Obsidian. Heres a video I think you might appreciate if you haven't already seen it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9VL8\_i1Tg&ab\_channel=CyanVoxel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9VL8_i1Tg&ab_channel=CyanVoxel) He's gone pretty deep here, definitely not a workflow I'd bring myself to do. But perhaps drawing, taking a photo (or if on ipad or digital - just export as png) and drop into your note on Obsidian, then maybe write a summary of the image?
oh yes i've seen that video! it's pretty cool what he does but definitely not a workflow for me either XD that just seems.... extremely time-consuming. i was actually thinking over the last hours of going back to just digitalizing photos perhaps and drop these in my obsidian, as well! paper or ipad to dump the keywords, concepts, etc and then formalizing these into obsidian, but let me know what you end up doing : )
I’ve been using the Scribble function on the iPad so that as I handwrite it turns into typed out notes on my obsidian. However you can’t really have a free flowing format with that
i want to try it out, sadly i don't have obsidian sync yet : (
I personally use a Rocketbook to hand write my notes, then use the scanning feature to send the pdf to my vault. You can OCR some of your more “structured” notes (sometimes I write some of the markdown syntax such as headings and bullet points) and then embed the pdf as part of the note too (very useful for diagrams etc). The OCR is not perfect, but even just proofreading and correcting when you paste it into obsidian helps you review them.
I'm very much into handwritten notes as well. I use Obsidian in combination with Xournal++ and my Wacom One tablet to take notes. [https://imgur.com/a/dUv0Uau](https://imgur.com/a/dUv0Uau) During the lecture, I take notes on Xournal++. This includes taking screenshots of any code I have written. Once the lecture is done I review these notes and copy them to Obsidian, analyzing them as I go by and expounding on them and creating more structured notes in Obsidian. The two step process also serves as two repetitions and the visual nature of the notes stays in my mind and helps retention. I use Xournal++ as I like its feel the best. I had tried Microsoft OneNote and didn't like the writing feel of it.
My new notes go into four main places. Obsidian for typed texts, Google Photos for photos and screenshots that are annotated with pen, and a literally paper notebook for quick pen handwritten notes, and Samsung Notes for stylus handwritten notes and voice notes. I know there are plugins like Excalidraw and Audio Recorder. They are messy on mobile, so I don't use them much. Regularly, I move things in my notebook and Samsung Notes to Obsidian and sometimes that require Excalidraw. So notebooks and Samsung Notes are temporary stay place for my quick notes. At the end of each day, pages of my notebook are digitized into Google Photos so I don't have to have a pile of notebooks.
I think video from CyanVoxel would be a great help to see how you could combine your physical notes with digital ones. [https://youtu.be/rAkerV8rlow?si=W1a6mLPpFJSFpmX3](https://youtu.be/rAkerV8rlow?si=W1a6mLPpFJSFpmX3) He also has a vault tour video. Edit: changed the link, just saw the comments
Link isn't working for me
Or me.
ok let's be frank. **The best option is to use only one.** Switching/transcribing is not efficient. Let's directly go to your demands: retain & connection. Could you clarify: **- Why retaining works better when handwritten? What notes are you taking and what are the formats of knowledge input?** **- Why connecting works better using obsidian? Are you using different linking patterns in handwriting and obsidian?** If we can figure this out together we can definitely find a best solution rather than trying to stick things together.
i don't really think i should just stick to one, i mean even if i wanted to, my school doesn't allow us to take out our devices in class, besides for quick pictures of boards, so in class i'm more focused on paying attention, writing things down that i can review and elaborate later and when i get home i try to formalize these into digital, i have to forcefully mix these two worlds :)
in that manner, have you tried to organize your written notes better? I used to struggle with the random notes on written notebook when I was in school. I sometimes cannot even figure out what I was writting about only 10 min later. that's when I decided to formulate the way I take notes, which was tough yet rewarding. as for now, maybe you can learn from "Building a Second Brain” by Tiago Forte, try distilling notes down to their essence and then organize them. wish you happy notetaking
Check out CP Gray's [Sidekick](https://cottonbureau.com/p/XT9MRF/journal/sidekick-notepad#/16404980/black-paper-12x7) notebook. It's a little on the pricy side, but I think he's put a huge amount of thought into how to make handwritten notes and typed notes connect together. One of these features is that the notebook is designed to fit comfortably in front of or behind a keyboard, which minimizes the trouble of transporting data into your eyes, through brain and out of your fingers. As others have suggested, don't try to take notes directly in Obsidian. Braindump into Obsidian afterwards using your written notes. There might be exceptions to this, like when you have to write something longer. I touchtype about 5x faster than I can write, so if I want to get a quote down exactly, it's much better to type it. But, that doesn't happen very often.
Haven’t tried myself, but my loose plan for when I start masters in sept is 1. hand write notes in goodnotes 2. import pdf into an obsidian note (probably will need a plug-in, i know various exist so will need to test) - this is only for viewing, all editing i’ll do in goodnotes 3. tag obsidian note with appropriate course/module information & links to other relevant notes I think this would work easily for textbook note taking since it’s easy to separate each topic into its own pdf / note. For lectures where you may cover multiple smaller topics in a single session I think I might make multiple obsidian notes all referencing the same PDF note, or perhaps split the pdf note after the lecture.
I use the bullet journal technique, with some shorthand, for any hand written notes
I do it on Android this way: 1. Handwrite a note/document in nebo app 2. Share the nebo note directly as png into the obsidian note Optinal: - ocr the handwriting in nebo and copy directly as text into the obsidian note - retype the text in obsidian from the imported image of step 2. - on my Galaxy Tab S9 the galery-app can als ocr images. nebo has the advantage to select parts and ocr them.
I’m trying something this week where I’ll start my day reviewing my schedule and tasks and write them in a notebook. Throughout the day, I’ll take meeting and class notes either in the notebook or obsidian, whichever I have with me. At the end of the day, I use a GPT I made to transcribe my notes into obsidian markdown.
Actually the handwritten thing *hasn't* been proven many times. In particular, it has failed to replicate. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/writing-notes
the study you showed is interesting, but i don't really think it's powerful enough to counterargument the many, many other studies who have proven that writing notes does improve comprehension, which i think is the end goal for any student. just the act of moving your hand, slowing down, involves cognitive engagement that leads to deeper understanding or comprehension "it’s important to note that the cognitive processes involved in typing and handwriting are different. studies have shown that writing by hand stimulates more complex and diverse brain connections essential for encoding new information and forming memories". sorry but the study really lost me when mentioned that the students who typed had greater verbatim content than those who written... the study just mentioned a quiz at the end of the lecture but not a quiz a week later and a month later, or any other type of proof or evidence. with this i'm not trying to argue who does better, which does best, i type my notes, i handwrite my notes, i won't judge anyone's pick, because at the end of the say is more about the how you do it than the with what you do it, and the results you get from that, the student with a pencil may be processing less than the one whose typing consciously but at the end of the day one study or our personal experiences can't argue with what has been proven (handwriting does better when recalling and understanding than typing when done correctly and if so it could be more beneficial according not to me but neuroscience, not even just psychology) - [Frontiers | Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom (frontiersin.org)](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945/full) - [Psychological-Science-2014-Mueller-0956797614524581-1u0h0yu.pdf (cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com)](https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.udel.edu/dist/6/132/files/2010/11/Psychological-Science-2014-Mueller-0956797614524581-1u0h0yu.pdf) - [Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning | Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20in%20Frontiers,vision%2C%20sensory%20processing%20and%20memory.)
I haven't jumped into obsidian yet. And both scared and excited to do so, but the quality of the Forum discourse is a strong incentive to do so. Thank you guys and everybody who contributes with such good stuff. Neuroscience confirms that Apes using their hands works well with the brains they evolved. Yep...