Why bother taking notes?
Good note taking is key to succeeding in many professional settings but it is essential in IT and as I am learning in Web Development too. It is impossible to remember everything and having a good set of notes to fall back on makes the process smoother and less repetitive. They say that Google is a developers best friend which is honestly one of the most valid observations I have ever heard. Googling is great but hunting around for the same info time after time gets old quick...
I know I saw this someplace, Wait it must have been on w3 schools, Nope I guess it was Mozilla, I love this site but I wish it had a dark mode, This site is awesome but the layout is super confusing every time I look for something
As a Network Technician in a large data center I utilize my notes daily, but it wasn't always this way. To be honest learning new things and maintaining a proper notebook is a real pain. Let me share what has worked for me. I am a hands on tech with no real background in proper notetaking outside of some basic English classes 20+ years ago.
This info is not earth shattering, I am writing this to call you out on not having notes, at least good ones that is.
Pen and Paper or Digital?
This is a no brainer, you gotta go digital. There are many great applications for this that all have their own pros and cons. These are a few that I use:
Microsoft OneNote https://www.onenote.com/
Notion https://www.notion.so/
Coda https://coda.io/
ClickUp https://www.clickup.com/
If I had to recommend one to get started with and you are willing to be thrown into the deep end I would try out Clickup. I say deep end because it is not exactly for note taking. It is a super powerful organizational suite that offers something called ClickUp docs, which is awesome for notes. It syncs flawless between devices, has a desktop app and to put it simply it just works. There are several YouTube videos that explain the whole platform and are well worth checking out. You can insert code blocks and write in markdown, just I am doing here! Oh by the way ClickUp basic is free check it out and prepare to be amazed and a little intimidated ... https://clickup.com/features/docs
If you want something simpler that is also super reliable and focuses just on notes, Microsoft OneNote is a great option. Out of the box it is intuitive to use and their search function is probably the best out of these options. You can parse quicky between note books and sections with a super powerful global search.
Coda and Notion are similar on the surface. I am partial to Coda only because I have used it way more that notion and I like the Coda Packs that integrate easily with Google; notion has these things also, like I said just me choosing one...
So I have to type in everything manually?
Nope, not even close. Enter the screen snip tool. On windows it is [Start Key (on keyboard) + Shift + S], on Mac [Shift + Command + 5] that combination of keys is something you need to remember. Snip and paste in your favorite note taking application.
Pause a video, snip. See a great block of code on the Mozilla docs, snip. Type out something you need to remember in VS Code that was genius, snip. Snipping is where it all starts!
Now there is more to note taking than just snipping, and remember if it something you are going to publish don't forget to get the source info to give proper credit where credit is due! You can make a heading (that will eventually be on a table of contents), highlight code, drop it in a code block and some programs even allow syntax highlighting. This is from my javascript notebook in ClickUp.
Links oh links. Yep links are key, go ahead and embed or paste in the link to that favorite YouTube video that explains passed by value vs. passed by reference in JavaScript. Yea sure this is the last time you need to watch it because you got it this time, but just in case drop a link in your notes.
So that is it?
Yup! Copy paste text, screen snips, links and then just type out the rest. You will naturally develop the way you like to break things up. For example you could have a main page about JavaScript, then sub pages about array operations, DOM selectors, and event listeners. Divide these pages up with headings so you can jump to the area quickly, alternatively you can use the global search feature of many of these applications. Find what you need, hopefully it is in a nice code block that you copy and paste right into VScode!
In conclusion, if you find yourself googling the same thing more than once or researching new material try taking some notes.
Honestly it takes time to do this right but it is well worth it in the end.
Currently I am attending a coding bootcamp, I have two excellent instructors and a well written curriculum that are always linking to external references, these end up in my notes for when I need them at 3am....
Give it a try next time you are learning something new and be prepared to be proud of yourself!
Top comments (1)
I've gotten to the point to where I'm making voice files to go along with my notes because it takes way too long to pick up the project again after it put it down even for a couple days.