making notes efficiently

[ondraonway]

I am one of those who hate to repeat the mistakes but I found out that this is constantly happening to me. I listen the lesson, read some book but forget most as time goes on. I am still strugling to find the efficient way how to record, organize and repeat ideas which I read/listen. I am wondering how others are dealing with this problem.

[skydyr]

Sometimes pain helps. Not in the physical sense, but when you make a mistake and see that it throws the game away, and do it again to the same result, you could eventually condition yourself against it. Of course, this doesn't seem to work for basic blunders and lapses in attention

[Shinkenjoe]

Maybe real pain also helps to memorize, like hitting yourself at an different body area for a different kind of mistake.

[Bill Spight]

Maybe real pain also helps to memorize, like hitting yourself at an different body area for a different kind of mistake.

People do use a rubber band around the wrist for that purpose.

[Unusedname]

In this thread: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=4820

There are examples of good note taking.

This looks like what you want.

[SoDesuNe]

I'm not a big fan of notes when it comes to Go. Unless you want to write something about it and need the reference. In my opinion, if you repeat the same mistakes, you either do not understand the mistake (e.g. why the move is bad) or you lack practice in applying the right move (you actually know the right move but your bad habits get the better of you). I don't know which mistakes you repeat, but here is my advice:

Focus on one thing at a time until you understand it.
Don't overburden yourself with several theory books (which are new to you) at a time, chances are you will not remember the content approbriately or you will confuse the content of the books.

If you start to read a new theory book, you should try to consciously apply the things new to you, meaning, you should play a lot while reading. Don't finish the book in a couple of days, try to get enough games inbetween the different chapters/themes of the book, so that you can actively apply them. You can also review your games with this in mind.
After you finish the book, play quite some games again and don't immediately start a new theory book. Review your games and check if you understood the new theoretical knowledge and if you applied it approbriately. Play yet again more games. You can even read the book again after a month and check if you missed something.
Only then I would recommend starting a new theory book.

This might sound awefully slow but in my opinion you only need to read a handful of (english) theory books to become reasonably strong (Shodan). And at least half of them will not do you any good if your reading (Go-wise) is not yet up to snuff.

[Eerika Norvio]

I don't take notes about go, since I'll probably never re-read them. I pick up some subject, like endgame, certain opening, handling moyos, shape, and continue with that until I am sure I've made some progress. If you have a special area under study and you're conscious about it when you play, you'll have lots of examples in front of you and the experiences of understanding that make knowledge stick. With or without written notes, theory is best when backed up by real game practice.