Break It Down and Build It Up; Creator Theo Stowell on Note-Taking
A fireside chat on how university student and Medium writer, Theo Stowell, has mastered the art of knowledge management in his first year…
A fireside chat on how university student and Medium writer, Theo Stowell, has mastered the art of knowledge management in his first year studying science.
I reached out to Theo Stowell for a collab because we’re both students, started Medium at a similar time and write about similar things. For both of us, it was the first time we had spoken to someone else about PKM, our thought processes and how we learn. And how lovely and insightful it was to talk to him.
It’s going to sound prehistoric, but I was an undergraduate student like Theo, almost 20 years ago! At that time, lecturers still used projectors and Wi-Fi wasn’t a widespread thing; you had to ‘go and use the computer’. It’s safe to say things have moved on a lot since then.
I wanted to pick Theo’s brain about how the modern undergraduate student navigates taking notes and applying knowledge in their studies. Given the exponential growth of research output and the explosion of note-taking tools in the last few years I was curious to know how Theo had found his first year of university life.
“It’s good learning lots of new things and meeting a lot of new people. I’ve only just come to the end of my second year so there’s still a lot more to get involved with… It’s different because you’re away from home for a long period of time but it’s hard to think about it now because I’m used to it. You get to try a lot of new things and I’ve been really enjoying it.”
As someone who lived away from home since the age of 11, I always forget how challenging it can be for young people to move away from home for the first time. As someone who wants to go into academia, it’s partly why chats like this are important to have. So cosy up by our virtual fire and lets find out what Theo has to say about taking notes and studying.
Just how do students take notes nowadays?
A lot of time has passed since I took notes routinely in lectures; how do students take notes nowadays?
“It’s a lot of people using laptops, a lot of Word documents, your Notions and a few other notes here and there.”
Whilst Word may work for some people, I suspect they could benefit from trying out some other methods such as building up better mindsets and habits around taking notes like Theo has developed.
“At the moment I write flashcards that will help me get the knowledge into my brain to answer questions related to modules.”
One of the biggest changes from when I was a student, is the variety of tools now available for taking notes. For a new student, the choices can be overwhelming. Combining this with the amount of places we can source information from and a healthy note-taking practise may be elusive for for many.
But I suspect navigating information and developing personalised note-taking practises is still not taught in universities to a level at which students can really benefit. I asked Theo whether his university provided any lectures or courses on taking notes.
“There’s a few introductory lectures right at the start of the year that covered basic skills like essay writing and preparing for exams. It was more in terms of actually taking notes and getting to the point of the content on a lecture screen, that you’ve written yourself so you can revise from it. I believe students kind of figure out how to [develop a note-taking system] by themselves. They just taught fundamentals in terms of essays and exams and what to expect rather than the systems behind learning how memory works.”
If a few lectures at the start of term are all students get for 3-4+ years of learning, studying, analysing and critiquing knowledge, I can’t help but think, should they be doing more?
And for Theo, how did his system arise?
It was wonderful to find out he is studying zoology; a close field to my own. Theo is an avid Obsidian user and by the sounds of it, a very organised person. I couldn’t help but be impressed when I also found out he set up a note-taking system before he started university. Although his system changed over his first six months, his commitment to making improvements to how he learns was evident throughout our chat.
“The main reason I got into note-taking theory and personal knowledge management was over last summer when I finished my A-levels. I thought ‘OK, I’m going to university now. Things are going to step up a little bit. I’m going to have to create a system that is good for managing all the knowledge that is going to come at me.’ That’s when I learned about Obsidian and started building a system in there for taking notes. I read a few books.”
We then shared a brief moment highlighting how influential Tiago Forte’s “Building a Second Brain” and Sonke Ahrens’ “How To Take Smart Notes” (affiliate links) were, for both of us, in the process of learning how to create an effective note-taking system.
I was also equally impressed when I asked how much ‘reprocessing’ of notes he does; you know the bit you need to do to make your lecture notes legible and useable for next time…
“In the lectures I have the slideshow up on the screen at the same time as opening Obsidian, and in another pane where I’m writing flash cards that relate to that lecture. At the end of the lecture I export them, where they are contained by module. So it’s not by lecture, it’s more by module and all the lectures from that module go into that one deck that I study. There’s little to do in between lectures. I do the actual revision of a flash card when it’s time to revise.”
Theo’s current lecture note-taking system involves Obsidian ‘in the moment’, then a later export to the flashcard system Anki. Utilising Anki flashcards, Theo embraces active recall through answering questions about what he has been taught during lectures. The end goal for his system is to get knowledge into his brain in small chunks, to be easily recalled during exams.
“I revise and learn all of the content for multiple choice exams in general and also in the summer. It’s a lot of learning content rather than understanding at the moment.”
Many first and some second year university exams utilise multiple choice questioning and Theo’s are no different. Such exams are easily marked for a high number of students, but limit the ability of lateral thinking and knowledge application. They are usually complemented through longer, structured pieces of course work, in Theo’s case, lab reports and short essays.
For these, there is some processing involved.
“I process my notes in a lot of other things, like when I do reading that isn’t related to the course. I then look for underlying ideas and create notes where I think things will be relevant.”
At this stage Theo has directed reading, for example recommended papers and these are built into multiple choice exams. He has a slightly different approach for reading research papers.
“I read the paper, break it down and then important points go into flashcards, so it’s quite similar to the lecture notes. But I’ve got to read something properly to make sure I understand it and it’s more of an enclosed topic; it’s one paper where I have to know all the details and the outcomes. It’s different to lectures where everything interleaves with each other; you can have knowledge across lectures.”
Theo builds future needs into his system
Theo recognises the type of learning required for multiple choice exams is different from the longer form questions and essays which he will encounter in later years. As such he has a very forward-thinking, but structured, approach to his knowledge processes.
“Once I got to university, it was a bit like you try a few things out and see what works and what doesn’t. I started using Obsidian initially and went between a few tools at the start. By November I had everything set up and I stuck to that system ever since…
The system will evolve when it comes to write longer answers to questions, [at the moment] it’s more to do with actually understanding the content.”
This is a key skill, underestimated by students specifically, but by note-takers generally. We should all consider how our notes will serve us in the future and how we should write them in a way future us can understand them without the context in which they were originally written. Future-proofing notes beyond our initial usage is one of the strongest assets our note-taking system can have and Theo has fully integrated this into the system he has created for himself.
Manual note-taking still has its part but with a different purpose
Despite his preference for digital note-taking tools, he hasn’t forgotten the importance of a manual note-taking system alongside it. In a small travellers notebook he records more of the messy stuff; the thoughts, random ideas which occur in the middle of the night and the less defined ideas which all rumble about our brains.
“I bullet point what comes to mind. Every once in a while I’ll look through and then integrate the thoughts and ideas I’ve written down there, and any necessary points into the digital system because that’s where I work from and where everything I create is.”
He also has a larger notebook which is more of a “long form journal” which is where he writes when things get a bit too much. Here, it’s just a date and an off loading of everything, as a way of processing what’s on his mind and really slowing down.
“It’s a means of getting things from my head into something physical. When you’re online, everything is really fast-paced. You can flip from one thing to another and change tasks a lot. But if you take out a piece of paper and pen, there’s no way to flip between things on that. You have to really, really slow down and write your thoughts, your ideas and what’s on your mind, including what you’re happy with and grateful for. It’s very, very slow, as opposed to entering a note quickly in this system, and you’re looking to write a Tweet here, and then you’ve also got an article that you want to publish by the end of the day. It’s an antidote to that kind of thing.”
Amen to that!
Like me, most of the content in his notebook doesn’t make it to the computer, but slowing down our brains to write on paper is an essential part of the cognitive process.
Is it telling we so often build in our emotions and feelings into a physical note-book and less often into digital system?
Navigating the note-taker’s fallacy; time in vs time on
But what about how much time he spends tweaking his system versus actually learning what’s in it?
“There’s definitely a point of overlap between learning about your subject and learning about how you learn your subject. One affects the other for sure, but at the moment, especially because the year is finished, I’m more looking into optimising the systems and how I learn things if I had something to learn. I’m looking more about how I can make things more streamlined. But at the end of the day, it’s all a means to actually learn the content. The end goal is to have this knowledge and the understanding of the subject. I’m looking at the systems that will help me best achieve that rather than just creating the system for the sake of creating the system.”
I think we are all a little guilty of spending too much time crafting the perfect system, but if it’s a healthy habit and it can enhance our learning when the time comes, it’s a positive behaviour.
A little note about his images
Although you wouldn’t know it from his Medium profile, Theo has a real passion for wildlife and film-making. Perhaps the fact he is studying zoology may be a clue here. I was curious why, as a passionate photographer, he doesn’t use his own images in his writing, choosing instead to generate AI images.
The answer is simple; he wants an image directly connected to the words he has put on the page.
“I use AI driven images from the headings of all my articles.”
It wouldn’t be a chat about PKM if we didn’t expand a little, on the discussion we had around the use of AI. We both shared a concern about the rise of AI to do our thinking and organising for us.
“The way that you come up with something new is through your own unique perspective and knowledge, to draw connections between ideas, and it just takes away all creativity, if you let AI do that for you.”
There’s no beating around the bush though; AI makes universities jittery. I can’t help but feel, that after talking to Theo, part of the solution is for universities to embrace the process and systems associated with knowledge, and encourage students to take ownership of their own ideas and unique perspectives.
Breaking it down and building it up
Theo has a real knack for taking a wide range of information and boiling it down into its component parts. Be that through note-taking methods or creating an image from a small selection of text.
And what’s more, with a few interlinking concepts he can then rebuild his flashcard notes into something much bigger. Through his learning of note-taking skills using Obsidian throughout university, he has then applied this to teaching others key Obsidian tips and tricks through Medium and his newsletter ‘Fundamentalised’.
Theo is very driven by the methods he finds to enhance his learning, not only how it relates to what he knows now, but also how it relates to what he may need to know in future. His commitment to his future self is in part what drives his note-taking.
I, for one, will be curious to follow Theo’s progress as he navigates PKM and his degree. He writes regular articles here on Medium about Obsidian, being a student and his learning journey. A good place to start is his recent article which pulls together all his articles about Obsidian to date.
And just in case you want to take your own notes about the chat we had, here’s some TL;DR note-taking messages, inspired by Theo:
- Start creating a note-taking system before you need it; you can always adapt and flex it later to what you need.
- Break down complicated concepts into component parts to facilitate learning.
- Make your notes useful to future you.
- Don’t be afraid to spend time learning about systems.
- Share your learning process; it may help someone else get started on their own PKM journey.
If anyone else is up for a collab, get in touch! I’d love to hear all about your knowledge and information management processes.
Until next time … thanks for sharing Theo!
If you’re curious about how to do great research and how using different tools (physical and digital) can help you do this, I’ve just started a new free newsletter called 🧠 Brain STREAM I’d love to have you on board!