In my A Level years, I wrote the important formulae and diagrams in an A5 notebook. Instead of looking for the length of projection formula on my H2 Mathematics Chapter 1 notes, I would have copied it into my notebook and referred to it. That saved a minute off every check.

I did the same for every science subject, albeit to a less obsessive extent. I neglected to do the following for the essay-based subjects. Guess which ones I didn’t do well in?

Even though I had done the above in my belief that it was an effective learning technique, I realised later on the true value was in the time savings. I had invested time to create shortcuts in checking my materials, from which I saved significant amounts of time.

This is not a replacement for learning.

The earlier you start capturing notes that you may refer to later, the more time you save later in having to refer to them, or otherwise rediscover them.

Organisation is paramount. For modules in school, they can be cleanly divided into chapters, but in a more realistic setting, labelling them by projects (as with the Getting Things Done methodology) or building links between them (as with the Zettelkasten method) is applicable.

An example of poor organisation would be only leaving notes scribbled in the margins. If you can’t access the notes when you need it, what is the point of it?

If you can’t find your notes, did you really take notes?