7-4 Discussion: Successfully Managing Information
As students and career-path professionals, we encounter a large amount of information. Some information we simply need to know, and other information we need to retain and act on for future use. This is true in all aspects of our lives: school, work, home, and so on. Note taking is one tool that we use to manage the information (written or verbal) we must process. This tool is not specific to academia alone: Professionals use it on a daily basis as well. Just consider the vast amount of information you receive via email each day alone. Paul LeBlanc addressed this dilemma when discussing the concept of busy versus productive:
Each day, there will be information you receive/review that requires some sort of action or follow-up. Note taking is an effective way to manage information of all types (school, work, personal, verbal, written, etc.) and keep yourself on the path of productivity and success.
Taking into account the reading and the project materials this week, along with the content above, work to address the following in your initial post:
1. Share a time outside of school when you took notes on something so you could use/act on them at a later time. This might come from a multitude of things, like a home project, shopping for a computer, instructions on how to cook a recipe or make something, meeting with a contractor for work in the home, items your children needed when going to school, projects at work, learning a new technology, information about client needs, notes on a presentation, and so on. How important were your notes in helping you complete your task later? Explain.
2. As you review the instructions for Final Project II this week (both the guidelines and rubric document and the project template), what pieces of information stand out as being important? What strategy from the reading this week resonated with you that you could apply to help organize your notes on this important project?
3. Finally, what type of information might you encounter in your specific degree program or career that would benefit from the strategies reviewed this week?
