Whether you’re going back to school, college or university, starting a new year can be a time of mixed emotions – excitement at meeting up with old friends, trepidation at making news ones and anticipation over adjusting to a new term-time routine. One thing that can help you through is a notebook, and we have developed nine ways you can use one to your advantage.
Create a system
Your first thought needs to be about how you plan on using your notebook. Are you going to be studying many different subjects or modules, or are you specialising in one area this year? Depending on your needs you should consider if it would work better for you to keep several smaller notebooks – one per subject or topic – or one larger one that can cover everything you do.
Colour code
If you’re using a different notebook per subject, buy ones with different coloured covers to save you time when it comes to retrieving information from the day.
Pocket your notes
You never know when an idea will strike so make sure you are prepared to capture thoughts or information from the day with a convenient pocket notebook.
Divide and conquer
Whether you are using one notebook or several it is likely you will want to create dedicated sections for the various subjects or themes you cover. Look out for a notebook that comes with dividers to make that job even easier.
Diarise your homework
When it comes to homework it’s no fun missing a deadline so to help you keep a tab on what is due it’s worth listing out all assignments in a dedicated diary.
Figure it out
For those learning languages or mastering facts and figures a notebook can help you record grammar and vocab or equations and formulas you are trying your best to memorise.
Neaten up
Taking notes in a lesson or lecture needs to be done quickly and you may find your writing isn’t up to scratch. Rewriting your notes from the day into a casebound notebook not only makes them easier to digest later but helps lodge the facts more firmly in your memory.
Highlight the facts
Colourful highlighter pens help you pick out the most important facts quickly and easily, and brighten up your notes.
Never leave home without one!
While we’re all confident that we’ll remember the things we see and do throughout the day, it’s amazing how much we forget. Students of all ages are all encouraged to write things down so don’t leave home without your notebook.
