Logan Leger — Technologist

You can view part one of the series on computer organization by clicking here.

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Introduction

Over the course of the next two weeks, I’ll be posting a series of three articles on how to get and stay organized for school. I’ll be covering how I use my computer to stay organized, how I take notes in class with paper and pencil, and how I stay productive in my dorm room. I’m not productivity maven—see Merlin Mann of 43folders or any of David Allen’s work, including the GTD system—, but I am organized and I do get a lot of work done. I hope these tips help you as they’ve helped me.

Today is the second post in the series and I’m going to be covering how I take notes in classes in which it is infeasible to do so on the computer—e.g. math and science. I’ll show you examples and attempt to explain my methodology. To be thorough, I’ve used examples from my current and previous semesters. This includes an example of annotating handouts and an example of annotating books.

I had this librarian at my elementary school that I adored and respected. She was a fascinating and very intelligent woman, so I took whatever she said with such weight. She told me that being organized leads to increased productivity. This later proved itself to my young brain when I saw disorganized classmates. The sight of papers haphazardly shoved into a notebook or thrown into a book sack really disgusted me. I might not have the best handwriting—my dad always told me I was to be a doctor because my handwriting was abysmal—, but I take painstaking measures to have organized notes. As I progressed in age, I subscribed to the minimalist aesthetic, so my layout very much adheres to this now.

Medium

Before I begin, let me say one thing about medium. I currently take notes in a spiral-bound, multi-subject notebook. Previously, I had taken notes in binders. I switched this semester to experiment with something different. Plus, they’re a lot smaller and easier to carry around. A couple of weeks ago, I asked the Twittersphere what they used. Most people used notebooks. (You can still vote by clicking here.) I inquired as to what “others” could be and these responded with “legal pads” mostly. I use these as well, which is discussed below. For pens, I recommend the Pilot G-2 .05; for pencils, I recommend the Pentel Quicker-Clicker 0.5.

Math

Calculus II

I took Calculus II last semester. It was a very good and enjoyable class. For anyone at LSU, I highly recommend Professor George Cochran. He is an excellent, articulate teacher who is very enthusiastic about his teaching. This was an Honors College class, so it was small. Plus, he’s the world champion 9-wicket croquetter!

For my note taking, I would begin each day with a subject (underlined) in the header of the paper. I also put the date (in mm/dd notation) in the upper-right-hand corner. Subheadings are written on a line by themselves and underlined. Whenever I number, I do so in outline form with Roman numerals—i.e., I. A., etc. One unique thing about my notes is that I break underlines whenever the letter falls below the baseline—e.g. a P, G or Q. I also tend to use a lot of curly brackets to group inset contiguous blocks.

I have a unique system of minor subheadings. I place these in the margins and underline them. For Calculus II, I developed a specific set of three-letter acronyms I used in the class: Thm is theorem; Pff is proof; Ex is examples. For example, Thm (underlined) would be on the same line as the theorem; on the next line, I would write Pff (again, underlined) and then continue with the proof.

The image of my notes can provide further detail.

Differential Equations and Linear Algebra

I’m currently enrolled in this class. Aside from a change in medium, my strategies in Calculus II apply here as well. I use the same system of headings and subheadings and underlinings. The only difference is in my organization. Things changed a bit because I switched to a notebook and my new, less awesome professor teaches differently. Each day is begun on a new page in the same way I did in Calculus II, usually a section number accompanies the heading. I also put the homework in the same format as my computer notes.

Pages of notes per day vary, but usually is about one page front-and-back. When he goes over homework questions the next day, I usually place this at the end of the page from the previous day. This makes sense because the placement corresponds with the material it covers. I denote the new day by placing the day in the margin in the same notation as above. If there is no room, I simply continue onto the next page and start the new day after that—accompanied by some liberal whitespace.

The picture has more detail.

I do my homework in another subject of my aforementioned multi-subject notebook. I do it in order and label it with the same section as it comes from.

Science

Chemistry

I took this class last semester. It was the best chemistry class I’ve had to date. I highly recommend Professor John Hopkins. Not only is he a great teacher, but he also gives great life lessons. Pay attention to him and you’ll learn a lot. This was also an Honors College class, so it was small, relative to other freshman Chemistry classes. It really surprised me, because there were about 75+ people in the class and each day attendance was about 90-95%. That’s pretty incredible, all things considered.

One of the great things about this class was that he didn’t required a textbook. Instead, he copied the notes, which he typed, and taught directly from those. For obvious reasons, I organized this class into a binder. This is an example of annotating handouts.

Physics

I am currently enrolled in this class. It is also an amazing class. I highly recommend Dr. Phil Adams for the same reasons. He is very clear and thorough in his explanations. Although this isn’t an Honors College class, it is very good.

This class is in another subject of my multi-subject notebook. I use the same methodologies as above. In this class, it’s important to write down things he says as well, so I take extreme measures to filter the information and transcribe what is important. I also pay careful attention to the diagrams he draws for each problem. Again, notice the Roman numerals and curly brackets. We use a couple of tables in our problem solving. Those are well organized as well.

The homework for this class is online, so I do all of that homework on a legal pad that I carry around for handing in class work and other miscellaneous scribbling. I apply the same methodologies as above, but I pay less attention to it since I won’t be revisiting it.

The picture provides more detail.

Annotating Books

I have to annotate all the books I am reading in my Ethics class. This picture is of Plato’s The Republic. Notice the organization and curly brackets. I also use three different colored pens (the G-2s I mentioned earlier): blue for before class reading; red for in-class teacher’s notes; black for after class reading.

Conclusion

This is how I stay organized with my note taking. There is one more post to come, and it’s on how I stay productive in my dorm. Stay tuned for it.

How about you? How do you take notes in class? Do you have any suggestions or do you use similar methods?

You can view part two of the series on taking notes in class with paper and pencil by clicking here.

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Introduction

Over the course of the next two weeks, I’ll be posting a series of three articles on how to get and stay organized for school. I’ll be covering how I use my computer to stay organized, how I take notes in class with paper and pencil, and how I stay productive in my dorm room. I’m not productivity maven—see Merlin Mann of 43folders or any of David Allen’s work, including the GTD system—, but I am organized and I do get a lot of work done. I hope these tips help you as they’ve helped me.

Today is the first of the series and so I’ll be covering how I use my computer to stay organized for school. There are two areas I’d like to cover: in class and out of class.

In Class

For some classes, taking notes on the computer is preferable—and even encouraged; for others, it’s nearly impossible—e.g. science and math. I use my computer in about half of my classes to take notes. My note taking strategies are the same in all of my classes, but I’ll use my Ethics notes as an example since the professor encourages taking notes on the computer. (Question: Just how ethical can a 7:30am class be?)

Pre-class

I usually arrive to class a couple of minutes early. Before lecture begins, I prepare to focus by minimizing external distractions. I do this by getting my social media fix before class starts. I’ll check my email, Facebook and Twitter accounts just before class starts. I’ll also usually head over to the LSU Ultimate forums, my blog and weed through my RSS feed. Since I’m constantly connected (aka addicted), checking these things off before I get into class helps me get my mind off of them and focus.

Immediately before the professor begins lecturing, I prepare myself to begin class by completely removing myself from the electronic world. I disable my WiFi and Bluetooth. This keeps me from switching to Facebook in between slides. I also fire up Pages, which I’ve just recently begun using over Word to take notes in. If my teacher has disseminated their slides (via Moodle), I’ll bring that up in the background as well. I then hide the dock and pull up Think, which is a neat little application that helps focus on one application. It basically overlays a black background, allowing only selected applications to be focused. This keeps me locked into note taking.

During Class

I’ve tried nearly ever note taking application on the Mac. I’ve tried Circus Pony’s award-winning NoteBook; I’ve tried Yojimbo, xPad, and Word; I’ve even tried using my beloved TextMate. I’ve only come across two solutions that have worked for me.

I used Word 2008 for my last year in high school. It served me decently, although it’s a very sluggish program and way too complex for my needs. I did really like the notebook layout feature with tabs. To organize my notes in Word, I would create a notebook for each class, breaking them up into tests and using the tabs for days. This actually worked out very well.

This year, I decided to switch to Apple Pages. I use Pages to write everything else, so there were no transitioning issues. It’s very snappy and I love the minimal, easy, functioning interface. It doesn’t have the neat notebook layout feature, but I still organize everything well. In lieu of tabs, I open up the page thumbnails drawer, which allows me to quickly thumb through the notes. Below is a picture of how I set up my notes.

As you can see, my organization is quite minimal. This goes back to my love for the minimal aesthete. I post the page numbers in the upper right hand corner for easy reference and I use a page break to separate days. The font I use here is Helvetica Neue. I begin each day by creating a heading with the date. Immediately preceding, I write any assigned homework. I space between the heading and the homework and the homework and the outline. I use the Harvard List Style, which is built-in. What Word has over Pages here is the easier outlining. For example, if I want to back up an order, I can just hit the delete key in Word. In Pages, it’ll just delete that level. If there’s a way around this, please let me know. What I do instead is keep the inspector open on the lists panel to click the demote button (tab still works for promotion). Update: I should’ve read the help file first. To do demote a livel, just hit Shift-Tab; it works the same way that the delete key does in Word. Also, a note on my outlining: To create a new paragraph under an element, hit Shift-Enter. I also created a character style for emphasis. I used the Baskerville typeface and set it to italics. It looks nice and adds some cool distinction for emphasis. You can create a character style by opening the paragraph drawer and then holding down the plus button at the bottom of the drawer. Now, highlight a line with your desired style and click “Create New Character Style from Selection…” Be sure it’s a character style so it’ll be inline (paragraph styles are block, just like in web design).

Sometimes staying focused during class is difficult. For those long, early morning humanities classes, it’s especially difficult. Besides bringing a cup of coffee with me to class, I have a few methods for keeping my mind alert and engaged. Mind wandering is fairly natural, so if it happens in class I don’t worry too much about it. Because I use Think to help my focus on my note taking, I don’t quit any applications. So if I start wandering, I’ll switch over to TextMate and finish some code or to Safari to read a couple lines of a preloaded CNN article. This usually alleviates my boredom and I can return back to the real world within a few minutes. I’m not too worried about missing notes, because most of my teachers post their slides and because I can still magically type without paying attention. This might be terrible advice, but it works for me so take it for what it’s worth.

Outside of Class

Outside of class, I use a few tools to keep me organized.

To-do List or GTD App

I’ve recently become infatuated with The Hit List. It’s the first application that I’ve found to fit my needs. (Aside: I’m currently using the beta and have yet to purchase a full license. I’m slightly apprehensive about paying $50.00 for the app, so I’m hoping that PotionFactory decides to create a student license for poor college kids.) I’ve also tried Things, Anxiety and iCal for to-do listing. You might also want to explore some GTD apps. It’s all about what you feel comfortable in. All of these have some level of freeness, so try them out and see what you like. Richard Felix of ShiftedFrequency, for example, told me that THL didn’t work for him but he “lives in Things.” The opposite is true for me. Experiment! Regardless what you choose, having some sort of to-do list app is imperative to staying on task and organized—especially if you’re involved with as many projects as I am. It’s important to note that I don’t only use these applications for keeping to-do lists for work and other miscellaneous actionable items, but also for keeping my homework. Everything that needs to be done is put into The Hit List. Now, I’m just waiting on the iPhone version!

iCal

Having a calendar to stay organized is also equally important. For me, I balance full-time school, part-time work, work on Noteflood and NewAperio, and play ultimate for LSU. To keep all of this balanced—including family and other personal things—and keep me sane, I put everything into iCal. This allows me to stay organized. It’s also great because it syncs to my iPhone so I always have my calendar handy. This is also very important to staying organized.

Conclusion

This is how I stay organized for school using my computer. There are two more posts coming in this series on how I take notes using pen and paper and how I stay productive in my dorm. Stay tuned for those.

How about you? What do you do to stay organized for school using the computer? Do you have any suggestions or do you use similar methods?