Doodling TO Visual Note-Taking

Always have been a doodler (please seeSeminar 1 blog) and a class in my second semester that got me interested in looking at visual note-taking. I doodled to focus on what was being said without being distracted but this book helped me to look at creating value from what I was capturing.

Instead of writing words and drawing random doodles as I listened, I MOVED TO integrating what I wrote and drew as I Listened.

These visuals also helped me immensely in summarising when I went back to my notes. They were richer and was I was able to derive meaning beyond the obvious.

I still am really horrible at drawing even basic figures, and it was hard to get over how bad I am. Despite knowing it is a skill that I have to build, I resist. I still need to make a huge conscious effort to not slip into random doodling and do visual note-taking. I practice whenever I get a chance. And I am sticking to it. Every time I take visual notes I see more and more value to it.

And as I read more about it in this book and others, it seems to be a proven tool to ground our attention and focus it on what is being said.

Research done with medical students (who need to retain and comprehend copious amounts of information) find visual note-taking very effective.

It has become an integral part of my listening practice (especially for my Capstone), almost everything I have experimented with includes some form of visual note-taking, I rely heavily on it to build my post experiments reflection and summary.