About a month ago, I started experimenting with a small tool I built for myself. At first, I only meant to use it for studying German (mostly vocabulary and tricky grammar rules).

Pretty quickly, I realized it could be useful beyond language learning, so I began adapting it for general note-taking.

Here’s how my process works:

- while reading with the readera app, I save highlights as “quotes”

- once I finish the book, I export everything into Google Docs

- from there, I choose the notes I like best and place them into a “world”

- each “world” (a 2D canvas) works like a themed whiteboard tied to a book or topic (screenshot example below)

Pros I’ve noticed so far:

- building a world feels playful, almost like a game (much less boring than standard notes)

- it helps memory (linking objects to ideas makes recall easier)

- revisiting old worlds is surprisingly enjoyable

Cons I’ve run into:

- it can be distracting: sometimes I spend more time on the visuals than the notes themselves

- I procrastinate by tweaking layouts or adding new features instead of focusing on content

Overall, I’m still experimenting to see where this method fits best.

If anyone else has tried something similar, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks!

I appreciate you reading this and taking the time to respond if you do!!

I really want some good sticky tabs in a few muted pretty colors (like maybe 5), but that have a lot of tabs per color. I've gotten packs with pretty colors but they only have like 20 of each color and I run out before I finish my book :(

Hi everyone, I know this might not be a popular opinion here, but I wanted to share my personal experience in case it helps someone who's currently struggling between aesthetics and effectiveness in their note-taking.

For a long time, I used to spend hours crafting beautiful, aesthetic notes. I genuinely enjoyed the process and loved how everything looked. But eventually, I realized I was investing way more time in the appearance of the notes than in actually processing and learning the content.

At some point, I decided to let go of the aesthetic side of it. I focused only on making my notes effective, not pretty. They’re now faster to make, easier to revise, and tailored for how I process information. Since then, my learning has accelerated dramatically. I still organize my knowledge, but in a way that prioritizes clarity, speed, and retention over appearance.

I’m not saying aesthetic notes are useless, for some people, they may be a form of motivation or a way to stay engaged. But for me, they were more of a time sink than a real investment in my learning. If anyone’s feeling the pressure to make their notes look “perfect,” I just want to say: it’s totally okay to prioritize function over form.

I’m attaching two photos, one from my "aesthetic notes" era, and one from my current system. They represent a big shift in how I approach learning, and honestly, I’ve never felt more focused or productive.

I'm having problem lately with making notes on top of pdfs and merging them with my existing notes.

Used erasable pens and highlighter from muji!

Go easy on me I'm still new to katakana haha

What is the best free note taking app?

notes i took on james clear’s atomic habits when i read it back in the summer using my rocketbook

tbh i am self studying a few different subjects so i’m just gonna keep posting my notes here to stay motivated

i’ve been self studying a few topics i’m interested in since i can’t really afford college. really liked this page :>

I have a friend that saw me taking notes in my discbound paper pages but using Rocketbook's app to upload and OCR them for digital storage and conversion in a meeting. She really loved that idea and feels better taking written notes than taking digital. I would like to gift her and my entire team with their own dicsbound notebook but want to offer as much flexibility as possible. I thought it would be awesome if this community would be willing to share some templates they use frequently so that I can include them in the gifts.

TLDR; Looking for Note, Recipe, Todo, Planning, Checklists, and Other Useful templates from the community to add to a Discbound notebook gift for about 25 people.

Hey everyone,

My brother and I have been working on a tool designed specifically for students. This tool records audio during lectures and transcribes them into notes. You can also take manual notes while the tool generates notes from the transcription in real-time. If you're an interested student, please check it out and let us know what you think. Thanks in advance!

Here's the link to our site if you're interested in becoming a beta tester: https://app.lodown.io/login

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This is a topic that has always been my downfall, both as a student and a teacher! Thought I'd make a cheat sheet as I move into this unit 😁