Tag: generalconference

More Visual Notes

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In the fall, I took visual notes alongside my regular notes while watching General Conference.  It was fun to try something new, and I liked looking back on them later in the year.  It made it easier to find a specific talk if I could only remember part of the talk and couldn’t remember the speaker.

And so, I took regular and visual notes again while watching conference this spring.

Some sessions went better than others. I’m sure I left things out. Once again, it was fun, and I think it helped me pay better attention to the talks. I will share my notes with you here. I would welcome any suggestions!

Here is a link to the full talks, so you can see what I missed or didn’t quote exactly right: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/general-conference?lang=eng

If you took creative notes of General Conference or something else, I’d love to see them! Please post a link in the comments if you have them posted somewhere, or send it through the tab labeled “contact” at the top of the page.

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To see the details, use the full screen icon [⤧] at the bottom right of the images.

A First Attempt at Visual Note Taking

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Recently, I have started seeing examples of visual note taking all over. As someone who likes to take notes and loves to learn new things, I was immediately interested. With conference weekend last weekend, I finally had a great chance to practice.

Conference weekend was ideal, because there was lots to take notes on (ten hours of broadcasts), and I won’t really need my notes to remember the material. All of the talks will be available soon in multiple formats. Perfect!

I still took my regular notes alongside my visual notes. This was nice as I was able to look back at them for points I missed. This was not nice, because by the end of the weekend, my hand really, really hurt.

I learned a lot in this first attempt. First, visual notes are wonderful for review. They are fun to look back at, and really condense the talk into a few key points. In that respect, they are a bit like a comic journal versus a regular journal. I may never reread my conference notes once I have the written copy of the talks in hand. I will most likely look at my visual notes, if only to remember quickly who said what.

Second, it’s easy to take note of something just because it makes a great visual image and miss the main point of the talk. Also, some things that you want to emphasize aren’t easy to make visually appealing. I will have to study this some more and see what other people do.

Third, I watched the women’s session at the church where the lights were dim, so I took regular notes and completed the visual notes later instead of at the same time. I think those notes are probably the best representation of the talks. Creating visual notes that are really useful might best be done after hearing the entire talk, so that it is a good representation of the main points of the talk and what I really want to remember.

I will definitely repeat this experiment. I think that visual notes are a great way to focus on the main points of a talk or lecture and have the information available for easy reference later. It’s also a good method to review what I’ve learned and think about it carefully.

Have you ever taken visual notes? Do you have any advice? Do you have any recommendations of great examples of visual notes for me to study? Please let me know!

Mini Holidays

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“Happy Friday,” I tell my kids as they leave for school on Fridays. “Have fun. I love you.”

A few weeks ago, we had tacos for dinner on a Sunday. “It’s Taco Tuesday on a Sunday,” I said. The kids rolled their eyes.

We celebrate Pi Day and Star Wars Day and Banana Split Day and three day weekends (“It’s Friday on a Thursday,” I say. “No it’s not,” they reply. “It’s Thursday on a Thursday.”)

Sometimes it’s good to have something to celebrate, even if that means eating tacos for dinner or wishing each other a Happy Friday. Big holidays are far apart, and they take so much work and planning and expense. While I try to carry the spirit of Christmas in my heart year-round, I don’t think I want a Christmas celebration every day.

Today is a holiday for my family. It’s a little bigger than a mini holiday, but smaller than Christmas. This is Conference Weekend. Twice a year, the prophet and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints broadcast messages of guidance and hope centered in Christ.

A sketch from a picture of President Russell M. Nelson

We sit and watch for hours and hours, like a movie marathon. We sing songs and eat snacks and feel inspired and uplifted. It’s one of my favorite holidays. Little expense or preparation or clean-up, lots of joy.

“It’s Conference Weekend!” I’ve said over and over. It feels like Happy Friday, but better. I love little holidays. Simple pleasures.

Does your family celebrate any mini holidays? How do you celebrate? What other simple pleasures do you enjoy?