When it comes to visual notetaking, sometimes the hardest part is putting pen to paper. Our brains are so used to working overtime to fit complex concepts between thin blue lines, that a blank page scares us. We have ideas in our head, but we don’t know how to represent them visually on paper. We’re not all artists, and we’re terrified to stain the space with our own personal touch. But instead of thinking between the lines, it’s time to think beyond them.
The Search for the Perfect Notebook
School never did it for me. Maybe it was the teachers, maybe it was a discipline problem, but I always struggled to stay tuned-in during class. I remember taking tests on visual, auditory, and tactile learning, but teaching styles never changed and I always went back to doodling in class. I spent high school teaching myself out of textbooks and cramming for exams, so the fact that I graduated and made it to Northwestern University is nothing short of a miracle. I arrived at college as a fiercely independent learner, and one of the first things I bought was a sketchbook. Not for drawing of course, but for taking notes in class.
