Hey! I just finished a semester in school and guess what? A lot of it has slipped my mind already. So this post is a reminder for you to take notes, and take good notes at that. This applies to anything that interests you like hobbies, personal projects, or something random that sparked your interest.

Because I didn’t take any notes for years:

  • I can’t reflect on what I’ve learned.
  • I have no references to connect new topics to old ones.
  • I have no resources that could refresh my memory of what I have already learned.

Let’s just say I deeply regret not taking notes, and this semester I finally changed that bad habit.

I forced myself to take notes this semester, and although it’s not a perfect system it’s definitely a lot better than nothing. This seemingly small change has had a huge payoff for me. For example, I documented all the labs and assignments I took from my Advanced Networking class, and now I have a GitHub repository showcasing all the skills and concepts I learned. I finally have something to share and look back on, and it gives me motivation to keep going.

My note-taking approach was inspired a lot by Tiago Forte’s “Building a Second Brain”. I still have a lot of tweaking to do to make it truly seamless, but I can already see how far this habit will take me.

Peace out until next time 👽🖖.