While talking to my sister-in-law the other day I found out I have a very specific way of organising my brain. She told me that she was so mesmerised by my note taking that she wondered how I did it.
I don't mean to toot my own horn, but my notes do look quite fun. So when my sister-in-law shared her excitement about the way I take notes I immediately wanted to show her how to do it.
Now, you might wonder why we get so amped-up by notetaking.
So here’s the thing, do you ever feel like your head is exploding with thoughts (not in a good way)? Like your mind is a browser with too many tabs open and you can’t seem to close any of them?
I do, and it’s the worst. It’s exhausting!
And for me, sketchnotes or visual notes have been life savers. Adding visual elements to my notes - such as faces, speech bubbles, different fonts, shadows and textures - allows me to capture and break down whatever information comes my way and easily make connections between everything. It’s the best.
Sketchnotes don't require special drawing skills, but do require you to pay attention and visually synthesise and summarise ideas by using writing and drawing.
Yet no special skills are required, to many people visual note taking can still seem intimidating because they think they ‘are not creative enough’ (which is valid, but not true! :-).
With that knowledge in mind, I have tried to break down my visual note taking process in simple and digestible chunks to encourage people to give it a go. I show that anyone can do it by implementing just a few visual elements here and there into their existing notes.
So, when you feel ready to amp up your note taking game, look no further. In this video I have also included a visual elements library with a whole bunch of easy-to-draw icons you can use to get started. ♡ Thank you so much for reading my love letter about visual notetaking. I really hope I’ve been able to transfer a bit of my enthusiasm onto you!
X Iris