Over the years, we failed to recognize that note-taking is a valuable life skill; it is not limited to the use of school or college-going students.
Whether you are a student, educator, doctor, writer, entrepreneur, etc., you will require a note for better performance today or the other day. Also, the more you take notes, the better you will accomplish your goals.
Effective note-taking not only helps you remember information but also helps you understand it. Once you have prepared notes, they serve as a record of your reflections and provide source materials as needed.
This post highlights the importance of note-taking and brings to you a few top note-taking applications and extensions.
Notes improve your understanding
It is too simple to look through a page or listen to your teacher quickly. However, grabbing information is not sufficient. We need to use the information: we need to take notes. It gives a glimpse of the overall learning and a better understanding of the concept in real-time.
Taking notes helps turn an inactive activity—reading or listening—into an active process. Additionally, as you prepare notes, you get to sort, select and combine new information with your existing knowledge.
Note-taking also forces you to build a conceptual mental representation of the ideas you are grappling with. This is the process that helps you understand the topic you are working on.
Notes help you remember
When you take notes, you no longer need to reread an entire lesson. A quick look-through is more than enough to grasp the important points; right after making them or reading after a week or month, you are far more likely to remember the concepts you initially encountered.
For simple and efficient note-taking, you may follow the Leitner System.
All you got to do is:
Take three boxes: In the first box, place note cards that you consult once a day; in the second box, place the notes cards that you consult once a week, and in the third ones that you consult once a month. Once you are familiar with a card, you move it to the next box. When unfamiliar, you bring the flashcard to a more frequently consulted box.
This system prioritizes notes that you have difficulty recalling and de-values notes that you are familiar with.
Notes are a deposit of your mind
Prepared notes can be your reference library, a tool for external memory.
Thus, when you need to recall things you met with some time ago, you can review the main ideas by looking at your notes. This is why good complete notes are so helpful; they are a catalogue of the best ideas you have encountered and what you have thought about them.
To be precise, taking good notes in class is an important part of academic success in school/universities. Actively taking notes in class can help learners focus and better understand key concepts. Also, good note-taking will enhance students' active listening, understanding and retention.
While after class, good notes will help learners' review and study class material to understand it better and prepare appropriately for exams. Furthermore, efficient and concise notes can save energy, time, and confusion that may result from trying to make sense of overwhelming, insufficient or wordy notes.
Best note-taking tools, especially when you attend online classes, are as follows: (*Not in specific order)
AudioNote
As the name implies, AudioNote, allows students to record lectures and type or draw notes in real-time. AudioNote automatically syncs the recorded audio to a student's notes and creates a lecture with matching notes. Students can easily access audio by clicking the notes they have taken.
Price: AudioNote 2 for Android, AudioNote Lite for iOS and Android are free (with in-app purchases.)While AudioNote for Android charges $5.99
Compatible with: iOS and Android
Evernote
With Evernote, students can take notes across more than one devices. Students can create and organize notebooks for different subjects using lists, text, images, sounds and other media. The application's interface is simple and user-friendly. Evernote offers many options to customize the app's appearance through highlighting, fonts and colour-coding, and share notes created by them.
Price: The application comes for free but charges $7.99/month for the premium version.
Compatible with: iOS, Android
Notability
Next on the list, Notability is a fun tool that allows learners, especially kids, to get creative with their notes. They are permitted to draw and type notes or record audio notes. Notability also has features to capture sound and images from the classroom and add media like photos. Students can use a wide range of note-taking and sketching tools to capture every detail. Even they can add and annotate PDFs in Notability. Notability is one of the perfect note-making places where students can create and organize work, school, and life's information! Using a variety of tools. All the notes created can be shared via email or through services like Google Drive and Dropbox.
Price: Notability costs $9.99 for the premium version
Compatible with: iOS
Inspiration Maps
Inspiration Maps is a mind-mapping tool. By the mind mapping process, we mean a way of representing ideas visually. Students can put each piece of information in a bubble in this app rather than compiling a list of important points and connecting it to similar events with lines. It looks more like an Inspiration Maps. Students can create several kinds of mind maps in inspirations maps, including diagrams, brainstorms, and outlines. Furthermore, Inspiration Maps also has built-in templates for taking notes in various subjects, like English, history and science. It also has a similar version dedicated to younger kids: Kidspiration Maps.
Price: Inspiration minds' premium version comes at the price of $9.99
Compatible with: iOS
MindMeister
Another mind-mapping app, MindMeister, allows the student to customize the colour and look of their maps. The application has quite a few great options for letting different users work together on the same mind map. With MindMeister, students can assign dates and priorities to different ideas and notes.
Price: Available for free, MindMeister charges for in-app purchases.
Compatible with: iOS, Android
Microsoft OneNote
With OneNote, students can capture, organize and share notes. Also, they can save their notes in a folder and sort and search within seconds. The app works across multiple devices and allows students to share notes with others. It offers free add-on facilities with several assistive technology tools, like text-to-speech.
Price: It is available for free
Compatible with: iOS, Android
MarginNote
MarginNote allows students to import digital text and then take notes in the margins of that text. After making their notes, they can use the app's tools to create notes for a summary, mind maps and flashcards. MarginNote can help high-schoolers and college students who are tackling more complex texts like books and articles.
Price: MarginNote is charge-free. However, the app demands an amount for in-app purchases.
Compatible with: iOS
LiquidText
LquidText is an award-winning app. Students can import and manipulate digital text through its innovative approach of using gestures like pinching and swiping. They can pick a piece of text from one page and move it to another page for comparison. Alternatively, scroll through different sections of a book at the same time. They can also take notes and pull out key passages and terms.
Price: The app is available for free but charges for in-app purchases.
Available for: iPad
Extensions
Sticky Notes
Sticky Notes is a simple tool that caters to all your basic note-taking needs. This extension adds a button right next to your address bar and allows you to easily call it up whenever you want to jot down something quickly. Although users can select the desired font type and size, they do not choose to make beautiful notes.
Compatible with: iPhones, iPads and Android
Papier
With Papier, you can take notes by opening a new tab. This tool is pretty easy to use as everything that you jot down will be one long note. However, if you want a simple note-taking tool, then Papier is perfect for you.
Paper provides a quite few text formatting options to enhance notes outlook. Also, the extension allows you to switch to a black background with white writing instead of the traditional black text on a white (greyish) background if your eyes get tired while making notes.
Compatible with: iPhones, iPads and Android
Google Keep
You may get confused with Google Keep and chrome extension, but they are not the same. Google Keep is a real Chrome app, not a chrome extension. With a pretty slick design, it lets you take notes, set reminders or make checklists. Additionally, allow you to colour your notes differently, based on priority, and add images as well.
Compatible with: iPhones, iPads and Android
