WEBVTT 00:00:17.970 --> 00:00:18.840 JESSICA ELDREDGE: Hello everyone. 00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:21.330 Thank you so much for coming. 00:00:21.330 --> 00:00:22.240 My name is Jessica Eldredge. 00:00:22.240 --> 00:00:23.820 I'm a front-end developer at Shopify, 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:26.020 and today I want to talk to you about taking notes. 00:00:26.020 --> 00:00:28.699 More specifically, I want to talk about taking 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:33.460 awesome notes by practicing sketchnoting. 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:35.160 How many of you guys have heard of sketchnotes 00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:39.829 before? Oh, great. So exciting. 00:00:39.829 --> 00:00:41.079 Is anyone sketchnoting right 00:00:41.079 --> 00:00:45.210 now? I love you guys. Please share afterwards. We're 00:00:45.210 --> 00:00:47.530 gonna Tweet all the photos. 00:00:47.530 --> 00:00:50.360 So if you haven't heard of sketchnoting, let me 00:00:50.360 --> 00:00:53.659 explain. I like to describe it as visual notetaking. 00:00:53.659 --> 00:00:56.500 It's the practice of combining hand-drawn elements and text 00:00:56.500 --> 00:01:00.500 to create visually-compelling notes. Are you familiar with mind 00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:04.009 maps? Show of hands? Anybody done that before? Yes? 00:01:04.009 --> 00:01:07.110 Who's used a whiteboard when designing software before? All 00:01:07.110 --> 00:01:10.049 right. See? You guys got this. You're already familiar 00:01:10.049 --> 00:01:12.140 with the concept of sketchnoting. 00:01:12.140 --> 00:01:16.479 Basically, it's the difference between notes like this and 00:01:16.479 --> 00:01:21.490 notes like this. I first started sketchnoting because of 00:01:21.490 --> 00:01:24.210 a man named Mike Rohde. He's a designer who 00:01:24.210 --> 00:01:27.440 lives in the midwest, and he coined the term 00:01:27.440 --> 00:01:29.330 sketchnoting. I was preparing to go to South by 00:01:29.330 --> 00:01:31.790 Southwest one year, and I was searching the internet 00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:33.250 for photos, trying to get an idea of what 00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:36.060 I was getting myself into, and I stumbled across 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:37.070 his notes. 00:01:37.070 --> 00:01:38.790 And he's been doing this for a long time. 00:01:38.790 --> 00:01:42.050 At least since 2008. And, you know, he does 00:01:42.050 --> 00:01:45.290 it when travels, when he goes to conferences, meetings. 00:01:45.290 --> 00:01:47.570 And I just went into this rabbithole of looking 00:01:47.570 --> 00:01:50.690 at his wonderful notes and I thought, you know, 00:01:50.690 --> 00:01:52.170 I think I can do this. Or I at 00:01:52.170 --> 00:01:53.620 least want to give it a try. And so 00:01:53.620 --> 00:01:56.640 I started practicing. I did it at that South 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:59.479 by that I attended and local meetups and, and 00:01:59.479 --> 00:02:02.909 meetings at work and I totally fell in love. 00:02:02.909 --> 00:02:04.630 So I was going back through the archives, preparing 00:02:04.630 --> 00:02:07.250 for this talk, trying to find some of my 00:02:07.250 --> 00:02:10.639 first sketchnotes, and these are my very first sketchnotes. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:13.400 And it's probably kind of hard to read, but 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:16.420 the first speaker I saw was actually DHH. I 00:02:16.420 --> 00:02:18.340 had no idea who he was back then. I 00:02:18.340 --> 00:02:21.480 was like, what is this? Thirty-seven signals? I don't 00:02:21.480 --> 00:02:21.810 know. 00:02:21.810 --> 00:02:25.140 My sketchnotes have changed a lot since then. Get 00:02:25.140 --> 00:02:26.830 ready for some eye candy. 00:02:26.830 --> 00:02:28.349 These are some notes by Paul Soupiset. He's one 00:02:28.349 --> 00:02:32.440 of my favorites. I really love his handwriting. Veronica 00:02:32.440 --> 00:02:35.190 Erb likes to incorporate illustrations into her notes. She's 00:02:35.190 --> 00:02:39.830 got a really playful style. Sacha Chua. She's from 00:02:39.830 --> 00:02:43.000 Toronto. She goes to a lot of technical talks. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:44.440 Captures a lot of content in her notes. And 00:02:44.440 --> 00:02:48.090 she actually uses a tablet PC and a stylus. 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:49.970 I like that there's a lot of dense content 00:02:49.970 --> 00:02:51.000 here, but you can still kind of tell what's 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.290 going on, cause she's highlighted the key points. 00:02:54.290 --> 00:02:56.840 You can also use an iPad. There's various apps 00:02:56.840 --> 00:02:58.660 on the iPad. You use a stylus to take 00:02:58.660 --> 00:03:02.650 notes, like Daniel Kirsch. Super condensed, simplified. I love 00:03:02.650 --> 00:03:05.010 the pops of color. You can still get the 00:03:05.010 --> 00:03:06.770 point across. 00:03:06.770 --> 00:03:07.890 So there's a couple different ways that you can 00:03:07.890 --> 00:03:11.950 take notes. There's live and there's later. Live sketchnoting 00:03:11.950 --> 00:03:14.300 involves taking the notes at the same time that 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:16.020 the presentation is happening. You're doing it in the 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:18.730 moment. Later sketchnoting is kind of where you might 00:03:18.730 --> 00:03:20.620 be able to jot down some bullet points, maybe 00:03:20.620 --> 00:03:23.220 using your computer, maybe on another piece of paper, 00:03:23.220 --> 00:03:25.310 and you go back to your sketchbook later and 00:03:25.310 --> 00:03:26.980 draw them out. 00:03:26.980 --> 00:03:29.160 I prefer to do live sketchnoting, because I'm a 00:03:29.160 --> 00:03:30.989 developer. I like to keep things DRY. I don't 00:03:30.989 --> 00:03:33.930 want to repeat myself. When the talk is done, 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:36.020 my notes are done. I can immediately share them 00:03:36.020 --> 00:03:37.430 and I can move on and enjoy the next 00:03:37.430 --> 00:03:39.739 talk. So for the rest of this talk, the 00:03:39.739 --> 00:03:41.620 techniques I'm gonna talk about mostly refer to live 00:03:41.620 --> 00:03:44.430 sketchnoting. 00:03:44.430 --> 00:03:47.660 So why do we want to sketchnote? Firstly, I 00:03:47.660 --> 00:03:52.050 think there's inspiration in analog processes. Taking yourselves out 00:03:52.050 --> 00:03:53.900 of your computer. We're all developers, we spend a 00:03:53.900 --> 00:03:56.569 lot of time on our gadgets and our devices. 00:03:56.569 --> 00:03:58.580 But spending some time with just good old pen 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:01.680 and paper allows for a change of perspective. You 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:03.459 get outside of your comfort zone and you start 00:04:03.459 --> 00:04:05.629 seeing things in a different way. 00:04:05.629 --> 00:04:08.560 Hopefully, while slowing down, you can clarify some ideas 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:09.920 that you already have and maybe come up with 00:04:09.920 --> 00:04:13.360 some new ones. Some famous sketchers that didn't do 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:16.970 it for a living include DaVinci, Kurt Vonnegut, Darwin, 00:04:16.970 --> 00:04:19.440 and Freud. All of those people are amazing. We 00:04:19.440 --> 00:04:21.589 know what they've done. They used sketching to help 00:04:21.589 --> 00:04:25.080 clarify their ideas. 00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:27.030 Sketchnoting also allows you to focus. How many of 00:04:27.030 --> 00:04:29.129 you guys have been in a meeting with your 00:04:29.129 --> 00:04:31.930 computer and you just check email real quick or 00:04:31.930 --> 00:04:33.800 maybe somebody IMs you cause there's a bug on 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:36.740 production and you gotta fix it like right now? 00:04:36.740 --> 00:04:40.970 Basically, the computer is a rabbit hole of distractions. 00:04:40.970 --> 00:04:43.100 So, when I sketchnote, I try to put things 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:44.510 away. I keep my phone out in case I 00:04:44.510 --> 00:04:46.000 need to look up words that I'm not familiar 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:48.410 with, but all I have is my sketchbook and 00:04:48.410 --> 00:04:50.780 my pen and I'm listening to the content. You 00:04:50.780 --> 00:04:52.630 know, once you're on the computer, there's just way 00:04:52.630 --> 00:04:54.610 too much stuff that can come up and I 00:04:54.610 --> 00:04:58.650 really like stepping away from that. 00:04:58.650 --> 00:05:00.970 Sketchnoting also helps to improve your memory. There's this 00:05:00.970 --> 00:05:03.210 concept called the Duel Coding Theory which is proposed 00:05:03.210 --> 00:05:07.210 by Allen Pyvo. It's saying that we process information 00:05:07.210 --> 00:05:09.979 in two different ways. Using verbal and visual information. 00:05:09.979 --> 00:05:11.910 And if you utilize both of them, you have 00:05:11.910 --> 00:05:15.120 a better chance of remembering the content later. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:18.350 So, sketchnoting, you can use visual elements and you're 00:05:18.350 --> 00:05:20.610 using your handwriting and later you'll hopefully have an 00:05:20.610 --> 00:05:22.660 even better chance of remembering the content that you're 00:05:22.660 --> 00:05:25.530 trying to capture. 00:05:25.530 --> 00:05:27.250 So all of that stuff I just told you 00:05:27.250 --> 00:05:28.860 is what you're gonna tell your boss to prove 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:31.190 that you're not doodling in the meetings. The real 00:05:31.190 --> 00:05:34.070 reason to sketchnote is that it's just fun. I 00:05:34.070 --> 00:05:36.410 love talking about it. People love looking at notes. 00:05:36.410 --> 00:05:38.430 I like looking at my notes. I think it's 00:05:38.430 --> 00:05:41.870 a really great practice, and really I just don't 00:05:41.870 --> 00:05:43.660 need an excuse. I try to find out a 00:05:43.660 --> 00:05:45.870 way that I can do it whenever I can. 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:50.509 So let's get to the good stuff. Like you're, 00:05:50.509 --> 00:05:52.430 maybe you're thinking, Jess, I can't draw. I hear 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:54.180 this all the time, and it's the reason why 00:05:54.180 --> 00:05:56.110 I'm giving my talk today. And I'm gonna debunk 00:05:56.110 --> 00:05:59.800 this in one slide. So what do you see 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:04.110 up here? We've got some shapes. If you can 00:06:04.110 --> 00:06:07.419 draw any of these shapes, then you can sketchnote. 00:06:07.419 --> 00:06:09.680 If you can't draw these shapes, please come find 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:13.680 me. We will pair. I am willing to take 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:15.389 the time to practice with you and we can 00:06:15.389 --> 00:06:18.240 get this done. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:21.900 Using these shapes, and practicing, is how you're gonna 00:06:21.900 --> 00:06:25.880 sketchnote. You use lines, arrows, to connect ideas. Use 00:06:25.880 --> 00:06:29.479 the boxes and the clouds to add emphasis. Those 00:06:29.479 --> 00:06:31.740 shapes also form the basis, if you want to 00:06:31.740 --> 00:06:34.320 like, go and do some illustrations or icons, these 00:06:34.320 --> 00:06:36.690 are all the fundamental building blocks that you need. 00:06:36.690 --> 00:06:39.820 You're also gonna need some other tools. This is 00:06:39.820 --> 00:06:42.430 what I like to call my sketchnoting config file. 00:06:42.430 --> 00:06:45.680 I prefer to use a plain sketchbook. I use 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:50.490 moleskin. Something with heavy paper. I'm a very hamfisted 00:06:50.490 --> 00:06:52.770 drawer and, you know, I write really heavy, so 00:06:52.770 --> 00:06:54.210 I don't want it to bleed. 00:06:54.210 --> 00:06:56.470 I use a uniball pen for most of the 00:06:56.470 --> 00:06:59.160 writing. It's very smooth. Something like a roller ball. 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:01.490 I know people that like gel pens. There's a 00:07:01.490 --> 00:07:02.949 couple of other art pens in there that I 00:07:02.949 --> 00:07:05.009 use for bolder notes. And I've been using a 00:07:05.009 --> 00:07:07.560 FaverCastle artist's pen for shading. 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:10.000 So, kind of pick what works for you. A 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:11.470 lot of people like to start out with grid 00:07:11.470 --> 00:07:13.000 paper, too, because if you feel like you can't 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:14.970 write in straight line, then the grid lines kind 00:07:14.970 --> 00:07:17.460 of help you keep everything in place. 00:07:17.460 --> 00:07:20.770 And, obviously, like I talked earlier about some of 00:07:20.770 --> 00:07:22.780 the electronic devices that you can use. So if, 00:07:22.780 --> 00:07:23.850 you know, it makes you feel better to use 00:07:23.850 --> 00:07:28.310 an iPad, then, you know, absolutely go for it. 00:07:28.310 --> 00:07:29.759 So here are some sketchnotes of mine where you 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:32.229 can see some of those building blocks being used. 00:07:32.229 --> 00:07:34.789 We've got a cloud and some arrows and lines 00:07:34.789 --> 00:07:40.160 and boxes. That's pretty much all you need. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:41.810 So here's the good part, right. How do you 00:07:41.810 --> 00:07:44.770 actually do this? And for this I'm gonna turn 00:07:44.770 --> 00:07:47.090 to one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, who 00:07:47.090 --> 00:07:50.229 wrote in "Sometimes," "Instructions for living a life: Pay 00:07:50.229 --> 00:07:54.020 attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." 00:07:54.020 --> 00:07:56.000 When I was reading this poem again really recently, 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:00.910 I thought, these are really good advice for sketchnoting, 00:08:00.910 --> 00:08:04.340 as well. So how do we pay attention? 00:08:04.340 --> 00:08:05.660 The very first thing I want to tell people 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:07.759 about sketchnoting is that it's not about drawing, it's 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:11.190 about listening. It requires active listening to really focus 00:08:11.190 --> 00:08:14.470 on what the speaker's talking about. Sketchnoting helps you 00:08:14.470 --> 00:08:17.849 focus on the important parts of a presentation. 00:08:17.849 --> 00:08:21.340 Listening is different than thinking. Sometimes a speaker might 00:08:21.340 --> 00:08:24.210 be talking about something controversial, maybe other ideas come 00:08:24.210 --> 00:08:26.530 up in your head while they're, while they're speaking. 00:08:26.530 --> 00:08:29.099 You don't want to let your emotional reactions get 00:08:29.099 --> 00:08:31.460 in the way of capturing content. 00:08:31.460 --> 00:08:33.690 So if you disagree or maybe, I mean, you 00:08:33.690 --> 00:08:35.370 might think of something else, or, you know, oh 00:08:35.370 --> 00:08:37.880 I wish he'd said this, like. Eh. You don't 00:08:37.880 --> 00:08:39.179 want to let that get in the way. You 00:08:39.179 --> 00:08:40.679 really want to focus on what the speaker is 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:43.860 saying, and then let the emotion come later. 00:08:43.860 --> 00:08:45.579 I also advise to follow the speaker and not 00:08:45.579 --> 00:08:48.130 the slides. We live in an age where most 00:08:48.130 --> 00:08:50.029 speakers are gracious enough to share their slides on 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:52.230 the internet with us later, so you can kind 00:08:52.230 --> 00:08:54.279 of get that content if you need to later, 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:56.269 most of the time. The good stuff's not gonna 00:08:56.269 --> 00:08:58.369 be on the slides, though. The good stuff is 00:08:58.369 --> 00:09:00.399 gonna be with the speaker. You have one moment 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:02.199 to be in the presentation with them and to 00:09:02.199 --> 00:09:04.470 really hear what they're saying. 00:09:04.470 --> 00:09:06.369 If you know a speakers' style, it's a little 00:09:06.369 --> 00:09:09.360 bit easier to plan your notes. I've been going 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:10.959 to enough tech conferences that I kind of get 00:09:10.959 --> 00:09:13.889 an idea ahead of time. DHH is gonna be 00:09:13.889 --> 00:09:18.540 super colorful and crazy and controversial. Aaron Patterson loves 00:09:18.540 --> 00:09:20.689 to tell a story, there's like, cool jokes in 00:09:20.689 --> 00:09:26.149 there. Glenn Vanderberg. Great storyteller. Very linear format. So, 00:09:26.149 --> 00:09:28.129 as you practice, you'll kind of get an idea 00:09:28.129 --> 00:09:29.129 for that. 00:09:29.129 --> 00:09:31.720 I would follow the speaker's body language. Their speech 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:34.410 patterns. Maybe they like to take dramatic pauses. It's 00:09:34.410 --> 00:09:36.300 a time for you to slow down, also, and 00:09:36.300 --> 00:09:39.629 pay attention to what they're saying. 00:09:39.629 --> 00:09:41.420 So how do you listen for key points? This 00:09:41.420 --> 00:09:44.720 is pretty hard. It's, you know, requires some multi-tasking. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:48.819 Firstly, I would avoid summarizing everything. I think when 00:09:48.819 --> 00:09:51.709 you first start sketching, it's really tempting to try 00:09:51.709 --> 00:09:53.939 to get everything on paper. You don't want to 00:09:53.939 --> 00:09:57.360 miss stuff. But you kinda gotta let that go. 00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:59.529 The talk title is the first clue to what 00:09:59.529 --> 00:10:01.639 the important content is gonna be. But it's not 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:06.290 always, you know, accurate. Sometimes the speaker's gonna be 00:10:06.290 --> 00:10:08.189 really cool and nice and tell you ahead of 00:10:08.189 --> 00:10:10.209 time what they're gonna cover. You know, the opening 00:10:10.209 --> 00:10:11.850 slide, and say, I've got three things that I'm 00:10:11.850 --> 00:10:15.269 gonna go over today. But you're not always gonna 00:10:15.269 --> 00:10:17.059 be able to rely on that. 00:10:17.059 --> 00:10:19.399 So one thing I like to tell people is, 00:10:19.399 --> 00:10:20.489 if you had your phone out and you weren't 00:10:20.489 --> 00:10:23.720 taking sketchnotes right now, what would you Tweet about? 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:25.869 So anything that you listen to that you're like, 00:10:25.869 --> 00:10:27.459 man, that's really awesome, that's what you want to 00:10:27.459 --> 00:10:28.559 get down in your sketchnotes. 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:32.709 So we're in a technical conference. I'm talking to 00:10:32.709 --> 00:10:35.089 developers who want to do this. There's gonna be 00:10:35.089 --> 00:10:37.869 a lot of demos and live coding, and my 00:10:37.869 --> 00:10:41.809 advice to you is don't sketch it. I tried 00:10:41.809 --> 00:10:45.129 to do it once. It's really hard. I tried 00:10:45.129 --> 00:10:50.199 to actually, you know, sketch code samples. It's, it's 00:10:50.199 --> 00:10:53.119 really hard. It's also gonna look kind of boring 00:10:53.119 --> 00:10:55.970 cause it's code. 00:10:55.970 --> 00:10:57.639 If you do want to sketchnote during a demo, 00:10:57.639 --> 00:11:00.069 though, I think there's still some tips you can, 00:11:00.069 --> 00:11:02.110 you can follow. You want to listen for gems 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:04.709 of advice. Usually there's a reason why somebody's demoing. 00:11:04.709 --> 00:11:06.420 They want to show you that something's better than 00:11:06.420 --> 00:11:08.540 something else or, you know, kind of go through 00:11:08.540 --> 00:11:12.779 a problem-solving exercise. Maybe there's code libraries, gems, plugins, 00:11:12.779 --> 00:11:14.660 that are mentioned during a talk that you've never 00:11:14.660 --> 00:11:16.220 heard of before. I usually like to jot those 00:11:16.220 --> 00:11:18.730 down to go look up later. 00:11:18.730 --> 00:11:20.819 A lot of times, pros and cons. You know, 00:11:20.819 --> 00:11:22.499 obviously, if somebody's showing off something that they did, 00:11:22.499 --> 00:11:24.509 they might say this is better than this other 00:11:24.509 --> 00:11:25.959 way. Those are things that you might want to 00:11:25.959 --> 00:11:29.589 capture as well. 00:11:29.589 --> 00:11:32.279 It's virtually impossible to write as fast as somebody 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:35.619 can speak. So sometimes you need a back-up plan. 00:11:35.619 --> 00:11:38.309 I like to carry around some scratch paper. I 00:11:38.309 --> 00:11:40.009 advise using post-its to just kind of like jot 00:11:40.009 --> 00:11:42.529 down ideas real quick, in case you can't keep 00:11:42.529 --> 00:11:46.119 up with the speaker's speech. There's usually also lulls 00:11:46.119 --> 00:11:48.850 between the main ideas. People pausing between all of 00:11:48.850 --> 00:11:51.009 their main points. That's also a good time to 00:11:51.009 --> 00:11:52.889 kind of go back and fill in, if you 00:11:52.889 --> 00:11:55.149 missed something earlier. 00:11:55.149 --> 00:11:56.980 You can also use post-its to hold on to 00:11:56.980 --> 00:11:59.019 a note or an idea while you're waiting for 00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:02.379 the connection. Sometimes they'll bring up the problem and 00:12:02.379 --> 00:12:04.119 talk about the solution later, and you want to 00:12:04.119 --> 00:12:05.709 just, like, hold onto that thought. 00:12:05.709 --> 00:12:09.540 Also, sometimes, I mean, you might not want to 00:12:09.540 --> 00:12:11.600 commit an idea right away. Like, maybe something better 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:13.299 is gonna come up next, so you can use 00:12:13.299 --> 00:12:15.189 the post-it to sort of be a placeholder and 00:12:15.189 --> 00:12:18.339 a backup plan in case that following idea doesn't 00:12:18.339 --> 00:12:20.549 pan out for you. 00:12:20.549 --> 00:12:25.339 It's also important to be astonished. You might want 00:12:25.339 --> 00:12:27.179 to share your notes with the world and show 00:12:27.179 --> 00:12:29.179 them to other people, but ultimately your notes are 00:12:29.179 --> 00:12:31.220 for you. You want to capture what stands out 00:12:31.220 --> 00:12:32.670 to you in the moment and not worry about 00:12:32.670 --> 00:12:35.529 what anybody else thinks. 00:12:35.529 --> 00:12:37.660 Also feel free to fill-in gaps and add your 00:12:37.660 --> 00:12:40.499 own sort of notes on the side. I used 00:12:40.499 --> 00:12:43.329 to be really worried about capturing what a speaker 00:12:43.329 --> 00:12:46.220 said extremely accurately and I didn't want to misrepresent 00:12:46.220 --> 00:12:48.249 what they said in a talk, and I learned 00:12:48.249 --> 00:12:50.569 to sort of let that go, because I need 00:12:50.569 --> 00:12:52.939 to remember what they were saying. I need to 00:12:52.939 --> 00:12:54.949 interpret what they were saying. So sometimes, you know, 00:12:54.949 --> 00:12:57.379 I'll write something off to the side just to, 00:12:57.379 --> 00:12:59.709 you know, add in and enhance what they're saying 00:12:59.709 --> 00:13:01.609 so I can remember later. 00:13:01.609 --> 00:13:04.019 It's, it's all about listening to what's being said 00:13:04.019 --> 00:13:05.839 and interpreting it in your own way, cause you 00:13:05.839 --> 00:13:09.109 want to remember what happened in the presentation. It's 00:13:09.109 --> 00:13:10.850 really interesting to see that a bunch of people 00:13:10.850 --> 00:13:12.399 can attend the same talk and come out of 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:15.040 it with different things. 00:13:15.040 --> 00:13:16.970 These are some sketchnotes by Carolyn Sewell at Brooklyn 00:13:16.970 --> 00:13:20.279 Beta. She went to a talk by Tim O'Reilly. 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:21.769 I went to that same talk and these are 00:13:21.769 --> 00:13:26.619 my notes. So vastly different styles. 00:13:26.619 --> 00:13:29.569 Other fun things to capture include jokes and quotes 00:13:29.569 --> 00:13:33.339 and f-bombs. If the speaker's funny, capturing a joke 00:13:33.339 --> 00:13:35.319 is a great way to enhance your notes. Like, 00:13:35.319 --> 00:13:37.779 I mean, it's what everybody remembers. It's gonna make 00:13:37.779 --> 00:13:39.279 you laugh when you go back and look at 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:43.779 your notes later. Cuss words usually used for emphasis, 00:13:43.779 --> 00:13:46.660 which means that it's something important. If you want 00:13:46.660 --> 00:13:49.029 great colorful notes, I advise going back and looking 00:13:49.029 --> 00:13:52.540 all of DHH's talks in the past. 00:13:52.540 --> 00:13:55.160 I also listen for quotable moments. Any time a 00:13:55.160 --> 00:13:58.290 speaker makes a dramatic pause. Maybe they've repeated a 00:13:58.290 --> 00:14:01.579 phrase over and over again. Listening for metaphors and 00:14:01.579 --> 00:14:03.509 similes - that's a great chance for you to 00:14:03.509 --> 00:14:06.160 kind of visualize something. The speaker's doing it for 00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:08.189 you. They're giving you a hint. This is like 00:14:08.189 --> 00:14:10.179 this. And if you can come up with an 00:14:10.179 --> 00:14:12.220 image that captures that, that's a good way to 00:14:12.220 --> 00:14:14.799 enhance your notes as well. 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:16.749 So, speaking of f-bombs, these are some notes by 00:14:16.749 --> 00:14:19.559 Erin Hawkins. This talk looks like it was really 00:14:19.559 --> 00:14:23.439 fun to go to. 00:14:23.439 --> 00:14:25.139 Another thing you can do is create your own 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:28.019 visual language. And that means kind of coming up 00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:29.799 with a style or some sort of cue that 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:33.040 helps you remember certain things in, in a talk. 00:14:33.040 --> 00:14:36.139 So what's an example of a visual language? Maybe 00:14:36.139 --> 00:14:38.119 if you're trying to take direct quotes from a 00:14:38.119 --> 00:14:41.019 speaker you can use quote marks. Speech bubbles for 00:14:41.019 --> 00:14:44.230 direct quotes. Question bubbles for maybe something, a question 00:14:44.230 --> 00:14:45.939 you asked yourself and you want to look up 00:14:45.939 --> 00:14:49.730 later. Like, an eye in a circle for info 00:14:49.730 --> 00:14:53.579 or tips. I read on a blog somewhere that 00:14:53.579 --> 00:14:56.839 this girl likes to put titles of books inside 00:14:56.839 --> 00:14:58.699 a picture of a book, so she knows when 00:14:58.699 --> 00:15:00.279 she scans through her notes if she wants to 00:15:00.279 --> 00:15:02.239 go buy a book later, she can find it 00:15:02.239 --> 00:15:05.059 very quickly. 00:15:05.059 --> 00:15:08.980 So here's some examples of Eva-Lotta Lamm's notes, and 00:15:08.980 --> 00:15:14.139 she's using little highlighted quotes everywhere. It's an easy 00:15:14.139 --> 00:15:19.069 way to pick out the speaker's direct, direct quotations. 00:15:19.069 --> 00:15:21.269 And sometimes, you're gonna listen to a talk, and 00:15:21.269 --> 00:15:23.609 the content's still not gonna stick, is not gonna 00:15:23.609 --> 00:15:25.600 stick. And there's always a backup plan for that 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:28.429 too. I went to this keynote. It was way 00:15:28.429 --> 00:15:31.189 over my head. You know. Sometimes you just gotta 00:15:31.189 --> 00:15:32.279 be in the moment and you can't get it 00:15:32.279 --> 00:15:33.569 on paper. 00:15:33.569 --> 00:15:37.509 So, the last step is to tell people about 00:15:37.509 --> 00:15:40.319 it. I really think it's important to share your 00:15:40.319 --> 00:15:42.859 notes. I think it's a great way to continue 00:15:42.859 --> 00:15:46.889 the dialogue after a conversation. I use Twitter as 00:15:46.889 --> 00:15:49.790 the, as the main avenue for my notes. I 00:15:49.790 --> 00:15:52.049 always use the conference hash tag and at mention 00:15:52.049 --> 00:15:53.350 the speaker. 00:15:53.350 --> 00:15:56.220 You can also upload to places like Flicker or 00:15:56.220 --> 00:15:59.779 Instagram or Dribble. There's a blog called sketchnote army 00:15:59.779 --> 00:16:02.399 which is run by Mike Rhody. He takes submissions. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:03.869 You can just Tweet at him. You can email 00:16:03.869 --> 00:16:06.129 him. But he's also got a comittee of people 00:16:06.129 --> 00:16:09.569 that go around the internet looking for sketchnotes, whether 00:16:09.569 --> 00:16:11.329 it's on Flicker or Twitter, and then he features 00:16:11.329 --> 00:16:14.049 them on his blog. And, and it's really a 00:16:14.049 --> 00:16:17.629 nice way to, you know, share with people, but 00:16:17.629 --> 00:16:19.549 also, like, thank the speaker. 00:16:19.549 --> 00:16:21.249 Speaking of thanking the speaker, they're gonna be really 00:16:21.249 --> 00:16:23.299 grateful if you share your notes. I didn't actually 00:16:23.299 --> 00:16:26.160 realize that this was a thing until about last 00:16:26.160 --> 00:16:28.449 year when I was, like, really getting going with 00:16:28.449 --> 00:16:30.660 this. And people were Tweeting back at me, like, 00:16:30.660 --> 00:16:33.449 thank you so much, this is amazing. And it's, 00:16:33.449 --> 00:16:34.959 it's kind of weird that I didn't think that 00:16:34.959 --> 00:16:38.519 it was something that other people would care about. 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:41.160 But it's nice to have an artifact of your 00:16:41.160 --> 00:16:44.119 talk when you leave. It's also nice that people 00:16:44.119 --> 00:16:46.259 are talking about your talk after you leave. You 00:16:46.259 --> 00:16:48.589 kind of want that, so sketchnotes are a good 00:16:48.589 --> 00:16:51.319 way to, I think, thank the speaker and prove 00:16:51.319 --> 00:16:53.350 that you were there and you really listened and, 00:16:53.350 --> 00:16:55.329 like, captured the information. 00:16:55.329 --> 00:16:57.379 A lot of times in your sketchnotes, you'll realize 00:16:57.379 --> 00:16:59.579 that you capture information that the speaker didn't even 00:16:59.579 --> 00:17:01.259 intend. They didn't think it was that important and 00:17:01.259 --> 00:17:03.749 then, you know, here you're getting feedback from people 00:17:03.749 --> 00:17:07.609 saying, no, this was really cool. 00:17:07.609 --> 00:17:11.689 Your boss will also be impressed. I think. No 00:17:11.689 --> 00:17:14.609 one else in your meeting is probably gonna be 00:17:14.609 --> 00:17:18.349 taking sketchnotes. You know, you're gonna capture different ideas, 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:20.290 and it's a good way to enhance, like, team 00:17:20.290 --> 00:17:22.679 dialogue, when you're like, sketching out ideas or thinking 00:17:22.679 --> 00:17:26.500 about, like, really hard problems. Sketchnotes will add, like, 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:30.970 a diversity to the conversation. 00:17:30.970 --> 00:17:33.009 So this isn't all. There are some actual practical 00:17:33.009 --> 00:17:35.940 tips that I can pass on to you. The 00:17:35.940 --> 00:17:38.610 first one is to get comfortable. I always go 00:17:38.610 --> 00:17:40.360 to a meeting or a talk early to find 00:17:40.360 --> 00:17:44.120 a good seat. The aisle is great for elbow 00:17:44.120 --> 00:17:46.830 room. It's not so great for people flowing into 00:17:46.830 --> 00:17:48.200 the room and you constantly have to get up 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:51.360 and interrupted. So I actually recommend a middle seat. 00:17:51.360 --> 00:17:53.549 I also try to tell people to find a 00:17:53.549 --> 00:17:55.860 good light source. They'll dim the lights in a 00:17:55.860 --> 00:17:57.610 lot of conferences, so you want to try to 00:17:57.610 --> 00:17:59.330 find some way that you can look at your 00:17:59.330 --> 00:18:00.740 sketch book. 00:18:00.740 --> 00:18:03.159 I'm also that jerk that will put my purse 00:18:03.159 --> 00:18:04.820 on the seat next to me so I have 00:18:04.820 --> 00:18:10.139 some room. I'm sorry Marty. I mean. You know, 00:18:10.139 --> 00:18:12.360 it's really hard when you're squished in and people 00:18:12.360 --> 00:18:13.929 are sitting next to you and typing on their 00:18:13.929 --> 00:18:15.759 laptops. You know, sometimes it's nice to have a 00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:18.850 little bit of elbow room. 00:18:18.850 --> 00:18:21.100 I think also getting to a talk early means 00:18:21.100 --> 00:18:23.169 that you can write down the speaker's name, their 00:18:23.169 --> 00:18:25.139 Twitter handle, the title. Get that stuff out of 00:18:25.139 --> 00:18:26.740 the way so that you're ready to go when 00:18:26.740 --> 00:18:29.850 they start. 00:18:29.850 --> 00:18:32.309 It's also important to slow down. When I did 00:18:32.309 --> 00:18:34.240 a practice run of this talk at Shopify, some 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:36.210 people came up to me and said, well my 00:18:36.210 --> 00:18:37.889 hand handwriting's really bad. So what do I do 00:18:37.889 --> 00:18:40.769 about that? And I advised this person to slow 00:18:40.769 --> 00:18:42.909 down and write your letters as if you're drawing 00:18:42.909 --> 00:18:45.059 them. When you slow down, you have to be 00:18:45.059 --> 00:18:46.509 deliberate about it. 00:18:46.509 --> 00:18:49.169 Also, trying to draw larger letters will force you 00:18:49.169 --> 00:18:51.620 to slow down, and I think make you really 00:18:51.620 --> 00:18:55.330 pay attention to your writing. When, if you're doing 00:18:55.330 --> 00:18:57.149 your normal handwriting it's easy to just go really 00:18:57.149 --> 00:18:58.559 fast and it, you know, turns out a little 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:00.399 bit sloppy. So if you slow down, I think 00:19:00.399 --> 00:19:01.860 it really helps. 00:19:01.860 --> 00:19:05.590 Also, try to play with layouts. You know, normally 00:19:05.590 --> 00:19:07.980 when we're writing just regular notes on pen and 00:19:07.980 --> 00:19:10.580 paper, we're going top down. I think, kind of 00:19:10.580 --> 00:19:12.370 stepping outside of your comfort zone and trying something 00:19:12.370 --> 00:19:15.610 different will really help. There's different ways to do 00:19:15.610 --> 00:19:18.409 that. I tend to do sort of a popcorn 00:19:18.409 --> 00:19:20.419 style, where I just fill in notes anywhere there's 00:19:20.419 --> 00:19:22.799 space on my page. 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:25.720 People can also do columns. It's really great for 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:28.450 panels. You can do a radial style, where maybe 00:19:28.450 --> 00:19:30.080 you start in the middle and sort of map 00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:32.669 out, kind of like mind maps. There's also sort 00:19:32.669 --> 00:19:35.899 of the winding story lane sort of style. You 00:19:35.899 --> 00:19:38.090 can go left to right, left to right. 00:19:38.090 --> 00:19:40.409 But, basically it's important to try to challenge yourself 00:19:40.409 --> 00:19:43.840 and do something different. So these are some examples 00:19:43.840 --> 00:19:47.130 from Veronica Erb, again, doing sort of a radial 00:19:47.130 --> 00:19:48.380 style. You can see like the title up at 00:19:48.380 --> 00:19:52.110 the top and she's sort of going out. 00:19:52.110 --> 00:19:54.710 And the decoration last. This is gonna be really 00:19:54.710 --> 00:19:56.289 tempting, too, when you're sketchnoting. You want to make 00:19:56.289 --> 00:19:57.899 it look really pretty and you're trying to capture 00:19:57.899 --> 00:20:00.190 everything. But I said before, you know, there's always 00:20:00.190 --> 00:20:02.059 these moments in the talk where people are pausing 00:20:02.059 --> 00:20:04.490 or maybe transitioning or maybe the speaker's kind of 00:20:04.490 --> 00:20:06.799 boring for a little while. And you can use 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:08.649 that time to sort of add all those boxes 00:20:08.649 --> 00:20:11.610 and arrows and shading that you weren't able to 00:20:11.610 --> 00:20:13.480 capture earlier. 00:20:13.480 --> 00:20:15.100 And you can also use your post-its, again, to 00:20:15.100 --> 00:20:16.889 keep that backlog and sort of, you know, help 00:20:16.889 --> 00:20:19.960 you pace yourself if you can't fill up the 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:21.870 space. I like to go back after the talk, 00:20:21.870 --> 00:20:23.820 as well, just really quickly, before I share, just 00:20:23.820 --> 00:20:25.570 to sort of add some more detail and boldness 00:20:25.570 --> 00:20:27.340 if I'm, like, reflecting on the talk and sort 00:20:27.340 --> 00:20:29.110 of realizing that something was extra important, I'll try 00:20:29.110 --> 00:20:32.220 to go back and, and add some embellishment. 00:20:32.220 --> 00:20:35.830 It's also important to embrace mistakes. Especially if you're 00:20:35.830 --> 00:20:37.950 live sketchnoting, it's gonna happen. There's no way to 00:20:37.950 --> 00:20:41.690 get around it. It can be really scary to, 00:20:41.690 --> 00:20:43.620 to use a pen and paper. You might want 00:20:43.620 --> 00:20:45.220 to use pencil but I really encourage you to 00:20:45.220 --> 00:20:48.940 just go ahead and use pen. I bring a 00:20:48.940 --> 00:20:50.850 bold marker just in case I need to fix 00:20:50.850 --> 00:20:53.529 something really crazy. But be OK with scratching out 00:20:53.529 --> 00:20:54.879 a word. If you didn't spell it right the 00:20:54.879 --> 00:20:56.669 first time or if it was wrong, it's, it's 00:20:56.669 --> 00:20:57.590 totally OK. 00:20:57.590 --> 00:20:59.740 So here are some notes that I took and 00:20:59.740 --> 00:21:02.809 there's like smudges and this word right here, that 00:21:02.809 --> 00:21:05.590 was the first time I spelled entrepreneurs wrong. I 00:21:05.590 --> 00:21:12.110 tried again. I still spelled it wrong. Like, so 00:21:12.110 --> 00:21:14.100 it's gonna happen. Like. 00:21:14.100 --> 00:21:17.009 As with anything, practice makes better. There's some ways 00:21:17.009 --> 00:21:19.049 you can do that. I advice people to start 00:21:19.049 --> 00:21:22.679 out with already recorded conference talks, like TED talks. 00:21:22.679 --> 00:21:25.049 Do it in your meetings at work. Even reality 00:21:25.049 --> 00:21:28.450 TV. I have sketchnoted Real Housewives before. It's really 00:21:28.450 --> 00:21:30.330 fun. 00:21:30.330 --> 00:21:32.789 Watching videos at home on your own takes the 00:21:32.789 --> 00:21:35.070 pressure off of live sketchnoting a little bit. You've 00:21:35.070 --> 00:21:37.000 got a pause button. You can sort of figure 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:39.690 out your pace. As you practice, you'll also get 00:21:39.690 --> 00:21:42.379 a really good sense of how much information you 00:21:42.379 --> 00:21:44.539 can capture in a given amount of time. 00:21:44.539 --> 00:21:47.279 I used to take up two pages for every 00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:50.500 single talk no matter how long the content was. 00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:53.379 I have no gotten everything down to a page, 00:21:53.379 --> 00:21:55.370 like, whether it's an hour and a half talk 00:21:55.370 --> 00:21:57.690 or a thirty minute talk. And so as you 00:21:57.690 --> 00:22:00.350 practice you'll sort of find, you know, your own 00:22:00.350 --> 00:22:00.899 style. 00:22:00.899 --> 00:22:07.840 Here are some of my notes. Name the movie. 00:22:07.840 --> 00:22:10.769 So some notes by MJ Valente. She was sketchnoting 00:22:10.769 --> 00:22:13.039 a BBC episode. 00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:18.149 Get inspired. When we all started out developing, what 00:22:18.149 --> 00:22:21.769 did we do? We just copied other peoples' code 00:22:21.769 --> 00:22:23.529 and then we tried to make it better. And 00:22:23.529 --> 00:22:27.480 I advise doing the same thing for sketchnoting. I, 00:22:27.480 --> 00:22:30.029 when I first started, just went on the internet, 00:22:30.029 --> 00:22:32.759 just through Flicker everyday looking for other peoples' styles 00:22:32.759 --> 00:22:34.529 that I liked, and I tried to just copy 00:22:34.529 --> 00:22:35.940 it. 00:22:35.940 --> 00:22:38.370 As you become more comfortable, you'll find your own 00:22:38.370 --> 00:22:40.629 style. But it's OK, because even if you're trying 00:22:40.629 --> 00:22:42.529 to copy somebody else's style, it's never gonna look 00:22:42.529 --> 00:22:44.679 exactly like theirs. So it's always gonna be your 00:22:44.679 --> 00:22:45.809 own. 00:22:45.809 --> 00:22:48.299 Some good resources for that include Sketchnote Army, like 00:22:48.299 --> 00:22:50.590 I said before. There is a hash tag on 00:22:50.590 --> 00:22:53.919 flicker and there's various user groups on Flicker devoted 00:22:53.919 --> 00:22:56.840 just to sketchnoting. I actually found a bunch of 00:22:56.840 --> 00:23:02.809 boards on Pinterest, so that's another great resource. 00:23:02.809 --> 00:23:05.789 So experimentation is how you're gonna find your own 00:23:05.789 --> 00:23:07.629 style. And what I advise doing is start with 00:23:07.629 --> 00:23:10.740 the copying, and then copy another persons' style and 00:23:10.740 --> 00:23:13.450 then copy another persons' style and start mixing and 00:23:13.450 --> 00:23:16.289 matching, and you'll sort of find your happy place. 00:23:16.289 --> 00:23:18.299 I mean, I spent a lot of time trying 00:23:18.299 --> 00:23:22.769 to, to match Paul Soupiset's handwriting. I've never gotten 00:23:22.769 --> 00:23:24.830 it quite right. 00:23:24.830 --> 00:23:26.450 But I've taken elements of what all of my 00:23:26.450 --> 00:23:30.169 favorite sketchnoters do and tried to add them to 00:23:30.169 --> 00:23:31.279 my own. 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:33.399 Mike Rohde wrote a book that covers a lot 00:23:33.399 --> 00:23:35.440 more than what I was able to tell you 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:37.710 today. This book is amazing. It's actually got some 00:23:37.710 --> 00:23:40.639 really great hands on exercises that you can do. 00:23:40.639 --> 00:23:44.559 I highly recommend it. 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:45.669 So at the end of this talk, I've sat 00:23:45.669 --> 00:23:46.820 here and I've told you all about how to 00:23:46.820 --> 00:23:49.000 do this, and you're like, Jess, I still can't 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:50.950 draw. You haven't told me how to draw. But 00:23:50.950 --> 00:23:54.950 that's OK. Cause you can sketchnote. So please go 00:23:54.950 --> 00:23:55.769 do that. 00:23:55.769 --> 00:23:58.840 OK. So the question was this talk focused on 00:23:58.840 --> 00:24:01.889 sketchnoting for yourself, and is there any advice for 00:24:01.889 --> 00:24:03.809 communicating with other people? 00:24:03.809 --> 00:24:07.269 Yeah. I mean, I think, like, I, I mentioned 00:24:07.269 --> 00:24:09.759 different ways or, different places that you can sketchnote. 00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:12.360 I sketchnote in my meetings at work. I don't 00:24:12.360 --> 00:24:14.330 do a great job of sharing them with everyone. 00:24:14.330 --> 00:24:17.190 Nick, I'll do that next week. It is, I 00:24:17.190 --> 00:24:20.029 think that is a good way. Sharing them actually 00:24:20.029 --> 00:24:21.960 helps other people, too. 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:24.820 You'll find, in meetings, there's not actually a lot 00:24:24.820 --> 00:24:26.899 of people that take notes. I mean, it's kind 00:24:26.899 --> 00:24:30.340 of surprising sometimes. We all think we're gonna remember 00:24:30.340 --> 00:24:32.330 when we walk away. So if you're the one 00:24:32.330 --> 00:24:35.210 that sketchnotes and you know you find it fun 00:24:35.210 --> 00:24:36.860 and other people find it fun, sharing it right 00:24:36.860 --> 00:24:39.929 afterwards is actually really, really helpful. 00:24:39.929 --> 00:24:42.159 We've done a lot of whiteboarding sessions, you know, 00:24:42.159 --> 00:24:44.690 people take pictures with their cameras to capture that. 00:24:44.690 --> 00:24:47.639 Your sketchnotes add another layer to that conversation. And 00:24:47.639 --> 00:24:49.440 so I think just bringing all of that together 00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:52.950 helps, you know, sort of document what happened so 00:24:52.950 --> 00:24:53.889 people can remember. 00:24:53.889 --> 00:24:56.370 Does that answer your question? 00:24:56.370 --> 00:24:56.990 Thank you very much.