Building a personal notetaking system for joy, creativity and theory development in the PhD process

In this course you will gain knowledge on basic notetaking strategies for knowledge creation. You get to master effective strategies for capturing and organising your research materials to aid the thinking process in doing research. This will help you make notes and create knowledge in a more joyful, productive and playful way.

You will get:

• Self-assessment of own notetaking strategies
•  Knowledge on effective strategies for capturing, differentiate and organizing notes
• Foundations for designing and implementing own personal notetaking system in research work
• Sparring with colleague PhD students about obstacles, ideas and designs for your notetaking system
• Strategies for futureproofing own notetaking

You will walk away from this course with a new and fresh perspective on notetaking, foundations for designing your own system that works for you and action plans on how to handle the ever-increasing information overflow of articles, ideas and thoughts in your research.

Aim of the course
The aim of the course is to provide PhD students with tools and strategies for designing their own flexible and sustainable notetaking system and workflow that can evolve with the PhD process and beyond. This course provides PhD students with a comprehensive knowledge of how notetaking is a valuable and necessary part of the research process, and how to develop effective notetaking practices to ensure successful completion of the PhD journey while offering routes towards bringing more joy and better writing in the process.

Format
This course will be conducted through a blend of presentations, group work, individual assessments, assignments and reflections, as well as individual participant presentations.

Target group & Prerequisites
This course is particularly relevant for PhD students in the beginning of the PhD, while all PhD students are welcome.

Course Structure & Content

Day 1: Background and foundations (10 am -5 pm)

• Historical background on notetaking and research
• Effective strategies for notetaking and workflow part 1
• Self-assessments and goal setting for notetaking system
• Individual assignments and group work
• Learning in public sessions round 1: PhD students share designs, questions or focus areas for own note-system through short individual presentations

Day 2: Details, workflow and design (9 am- 4 pm)

• Effective strategies for notetaking and workflow part 2
• Tech and tools
• Individual assignments and group work
• Learning in public sessions round 2: PhD students share designs, questions or focus areas for own note-system through short individual presentations

Required materials/preparation
Reading the proposed literature which will be provided upon sign-up. Computer and writing materials as well as access to notes already taken in the PhD process (analog or digital) is necessary to bring for the course assignments.

Evaluation form
An evaluation form will be provided at the end of the course which is mandatory to fill out to get the course certificate.

Course Responsible
Agnes Lausen, PhD, certified ICC coach and founder of Intellectual Craft ApS, Intellectualcraft.com