Sketching notes for reading

Just when I thought I couldn’t be a slower reader, I’ve added a notebook to my reading habit.

I don’t know about you but when I read it often goes in one eye and out the other. My recall, or potentially my memory-making abilities when reading seems very poor. I’m not sure these notes will help me overall - it’s not like I have the pressure of a future exam or quiz to force me to take all the important parts of a text into my brain; but I do find that taking note of the things that interest me do encourage the information to stick a bit better - even if it’s the notes I recall, not the everything in the book itself.

Over the Christmas break I read Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. It was chock-full of really interesting stories and bits of information that would sure to be handy but flipped if I can remember anything of them now the book is finished. If I had taken note of those tid-bits as I came across them I think I would have a better show for my time.

Let’s see how I go from here. I am currently reading Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car and am taking notes along the way.

You can draw: people

If you can draw squares and circles, you can add figures to your sketchnotes.

People are a quick and easy way to add variety, interest, and information to your notes. Drawing the posture and facial expression of your presenter, or their reaction to the quarterly results they're presenting, or even your reaction or feeling about the information you're listening to.

Maybe by adding figures the makeup of a team is easier and faster to explain than a paragraph of text.

Add info to the box-bodies to help explain concepts.

Check out the video below to learn how to draw box people. When you practice your little people, bear in mind that:

• draw them small
• keep them in-line with your text so they have context and meaning
• don't sweat the details, just get those figures drawn and move on

Yes: you can draw

I was talking to some work colleagues the other day. They were complementing me on my work-sketchnotes. I'm currently seconded to a web project for most of this year. When I started the project, I decided that a) I would dedicate one notebook to all my analogue notes so I knew where they all were and b) I'd make them sketchnotes.

Sketchnotes, if you don't know, is a style of taking notes that incorporates text, drawings, icons and visual hierarchy to capture information and make it easier to relate to at a later date, while trying for visual attractiveness too.

Nearly everyone can sketchnote, if they want to.

The most often used comment to why people don't or won't try to sketch their notes is that people believe they can't draw. This is an excuse I've never been able to hurdle. My counter-argument that:

• if you can hold a pen/digital stylus, and have some paper/tablet; you can sketchnote.
• If you can draw a square, a circle, the alphabet; you can sketchnote.
• If you can take typical notes in a lecture, or when you brainstorm, or in a meeting; you can sketchnote. 

To which nearly everyone then says "Oh no, I really can't sketchnotes. I can't *draw*!"

At a talk I listened to many years ago - and sketchnoted, actually - from Scott McCloud who gave talk at Webstock 2011 entitled "Visual Communication: writing with pictures". He challenged those who protested their abilities to draw an elephant. He said, sit down, draw an elephant. When you're done, get up and show your drawing to another person and if they say "That's a terrible elephant!" then you have succeeded. You drew an elephant and someone recognised that as an elephant. The quality of the drawing is irrelevant.

Or irrel-aphant.

Visual Communication (2011) by Scott McCloud 

There are some hints and tips and pre-loaded skills that can make sketchnoting easier, such as learning a few decorative alphabet styles; simple icons to represent commonly used words; thinking about how to layout information; listening out for typical talk structures such as when a speaker says "There are three ways to do [whatever]" and prepare for that.

I thought maybe I'd collate a few examples of these pre-loaded skills so if you'd like to start bringing visual note-taking into your life, we can make it as painless and enjoyable as possible.

What do you think? Good idea?

Sketchnote flip-thru