Tour of an MIT student’s notebook by Anika H. '26
my brain is a mess so my pages have everything
Note: This is not a guide to keeping a notebook because everyone has their own style of taking notes and keeping organized. But if you’re looking to start keeping a little notebook or everything and have no idea where to start, feel free to use this as inspiration.
my scrungly boy
Historically, I’ve only ever finished three notebooks out of the dozens I’ve had over the years, including the most recent one. The first was a composition notebook filled with spelling practices from elementary school. The second was a multipurpose notebook that I handcrafted and bound in 8th grade, filled with sketches, diary entries, and brainstorming. My most recently completed one, which I finished a month ago is also multipurpose, though far more technical with more diverse content.
It has everything has notes from all my classes, doodles from any TTRPGs I happen to be playing, notes from my summer internships, sketches, technical drawings, and scrapbooking.
Obviously, it’s impractical to take a picture of each and every the 100+ pages I’ve scrawled across, so what you’re getting will just be the highlights. The brown colored pages are from the completed notebook, and the white dotted pages are from the current one I’m using right now.
Diagrams and Technical drawings
If I had to pick, this is my favorite part of my notebook. I use CAD (Solidworks, Fusion360, OnShape) for different projects, but because drawing is way faster for me, I like to sketch it out first to get the rough shape and dimensions down and also have a preliminary design to get feedback on.
Class Notes
My notes vary from day to day depending on everything from my interest in the subject, the pace of the lecture, how much sleep I’ve gotten the previous night, and how nice the ink pen I’m using feels on the page. Especially for technical classes, I like to include diagrams to help with understanding. They’re not the best notes to give a friend when they miss class and want to catch up on what happened, but they’re good enough to be helpful for psets and test review.
I will also keep note of things that confuse me by writing little footnotes and such around that actual content. I find it a little funny in hindsight how crass some of them turned out to be (usually a good indicator of frustration)
Scratch paper
These are the messiest parts of my notebook. The main way I was able to finish my notebook was by accepting that it was not going to be neat and ✨aesthetic✨ the entire way through. I generally believe that “form follows function”, and as such should prioritize using the notebook for what it’s intended for before worrying about how nice it looks.
Scribbling stuff down is a part of how I process, and really useful to me for both calculations and brainstorming.
Planning and Brainstorming
This is usually just a short bullet point list of stuff I need to do. Some specific projects have more elaborate details.
Art and other drawings
I really like playing tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons and Dragons and Mothership, and throughout each session I’ll draw a few pictures of the world we’re in, our characters, and the monsters we encounter.
Sometimes I go outdoors to sketch landscapes and passing strangers. I’ll live sketch once in a while if I have free time or don’t feel like doing real work. Sometimes, Alexi will organize sketch nights in Random Hall, where we hunt down a willing victim to model and pose for an hour while we draw them. Our sketch lengths increase in time from 30 seconds to 1 minutes, to 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Margin sketches are just evidence of me getting distracted or really liking the pen I’m using.
Scrapbooking
When I was almost finished with my notebook, I decided it wouldn’t be complete without a few pictures, so I printed, sorted, and glued them in. Most are vaguely categorized by topic. I have several pages with Tetazoo, some of cats, some of family, some of classes, and one page filled with just mugshots I got of my friends.
Other notes
Here are some bonus pages that I didn’t really know how to categorize:
I do these things and think they are helpful but I would stop just short of calling it advice
Page numbers: I like numbering my pages, because it lets me refer back to pages for notes I took on the same subject or a diagram that would supplement it. My new notebook has a table of contents, which is really really nice, but I was too lazy to make one for my old notebook.
Contact information: If you plan on keeping a notebook or sketchbook of any kind, you should write down your name and contact information on the first page in case it gets lost. I know from experience that losing a sketchbook you’ve worked hard on is one of the most devastating things that can happen to an artist. It’s not that much different for notebooks, especially if it has all your class notes.
My preferred writing implement: I don’t use pencil for my notes when I can help it. I like the finality of using an ink pen and enjoy leaving a record of my mistakes, not to mention it shows up better on the page and doesn’t fade.
My pen of choice is the 0.1mm Pigma Micron pen. It uses archival ink, so the ink doesn’t bleed when it gets wet or fade over time. It flows wonderfully, and the only problem I’ve encountered is that the tip is fairly fragile. When I drop the pen on it’s tip, it either splits into two or leans on its side, making thicker, more inconsistent lines. For finer details, I use the 0.05mm one, though the lines are too thin for notetaking and the tip will shrink back into the metal support if I push too hard on the page over a period of time. When available, I use white gel pens for highlights on my drawings.
Ballpoint pens are ew. Still prefer them to pencil though.
Holding the book together: My old notebook has a button clasp and my new one has a rubber band attached to the back to hold it shut. Many of my pages have come loose, so it’s nice to have a way of keeping everything together. When it’s bouncing around in your backpack with laptops, books, and all the rest of your stuff, keeping it shut will prevent pages from folding and tearing out.
If by your last page you have formed an emotional attachment to your notebook, you’ll know that you’ve kept it well.
good luck to all my notebook and sketchbook fiends out there