I want to show you something cool that I can do
on my Mac here.
So I get a lot of email, and for a lot of these emails,
I have to type the exact same responses.
But instead of typing the same words
over and over and over again,
I have this cool little Chrome extension called Gorgias
that lets me bind templates to little keywords
that I can type.
So if somebody emails me and, say, they want me to
do something and I just don't have the time to do it,
instead of typing out a long apology and an explanation,
I can just type the word busy, hit tab,
and the entire response will pop out in less than a second.
Over the past few months, I've been steadily developing
more and more templates as the need arises,
and according to the app statistics,
it's already saved me over 5 hours of typing,
which isn't too shabby.
But, what if you're using paper?
Well, on paper we have shorthand writing systems.
These are systems that vastly cut down on the characters
or strokes needed to express ideas.
The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography,
and it's an art that basically every journalist had to learn
before the widespread availability of these little devices.
The origins of shorthand date back to the 4th century B.C.
in ancient Greece.
Though even before that, scribes in ancient Egypt
developed two different writing systems,
the hieratic and later the demotic,
which let them write much more quickly than they could
using complicated hieroglyphics.
Fast forward to the past couple of centuries
and two systems became dominant in the shorthand sphere:
the Pitman shorthand method and the Gregg shorthand method.
Both these systems are phonetic.
That is, their alphabets aren't one-to-one approximations
for Latin characters.
Rather, they're symbols designed to express how words
sound when they're being spoken.
Masters of these two systems have been known
to be able to write at 200 words per minute or more,
which means they can write basically anything
word for word as it's said,
but the problem here is that both of these systems
are incredibly difficult to learn.
They take a lot of time and practice,
and, as a student, I'm betting you probably don't have
that time to dedicate to learning one of them.
For example, here is, as best as I can write it
with 10 minutes of practice, the statement,
"There is a ninja standing right behind you.
"I am not joking.
"You seriously need to run,"
written in Gregg shorthand.
Now, I'd wager it'd take you a bit of time to figure out
how to read let alone be able to write it professionally.
So on one side of the problem, writing in Gregg
or Pitman shorthand takes way too long to learn,
but on the other side writing in longhand
is painful for your wrist and simply takes too long
to do while you're in class.
What's the solution?
Well, actually I've got two solutions in mind.
The first one is to use a simpler shorthand writing system.
One option is alphabetic shorthand systems
like speedwriting or personal shorthand.
Now, these are systems that use the standard Latin alphabet
you're already familiar with,
and while some shorthand purists may turn their noses up
at them like snooty aristocratic gentleman
and while, indeed, you may not be able to write as fast
as you could with Gregg or Pitman, the trade-off here
is that they take far, far less time to learn
Another option is to use a system with characters
that do differ from that standard Latin alphabet,
but that are easier to learn than the phonetic alphabets
of Gregg or Pitman.
The most famous example I can think of is called teeline,
which is actually still used by a lot of journalists today.
But an even newer example that I came across recently
is called Ford Improved Shorthand,
which is supposedly designed
to be able to be learned within 15 minutes.
So here's that same statement from before
but now written in Ford,
and I have to say that while it took me probably 10 minutes
to puzzle out how to write it in Gregg,
it was really, really easy to write it in Ford,
and I found myself being able to memorize the new characters
after writing them just once or twice.
The other solution is to create what amounts to
your own shorthand system, and this is an idea
I've had kicking around in my brain for a long, long time,
and it's actually why I made this video in the first place
because if you're the only one who's gonna review your notes
and no one else is gonna need to look at them,
then why not write them in the most efficient way
you can for you.
With that being said, let's get into one of the experiments
that I've been doing in recent weeks with my notes.
So let's take three words,
allegation, procrastination, and litigation.
All these three words end with the suffix tion,
which in my made sounds a bit like shin.
So we could just draw a picture of a shin with a foot,
and I'd circle the shin, and then you could simplify
that drawing down and then simplify it once more
until we have a two-stroke symbol that resembles a shin.
Now I can add that as the suffix instead of writing tion,
which is six strokes, and this one is two,
so now we have a reduction of four strokes.
If you want do another example, let's take the suffix able.
When I think of able, I think of somebody who is strong
and able to do things, so let's take a big, beefy arm,
draw that and then simplify that once again,
and now we have yet another two-stroke symbol.
Now, going beyond those two examples that I made up,
I just want to give you a list of good targets in your notes
for developing potential symbols,
and one target is prefixes and suffixes,
and I'm actually gonna link to a big list of these
in the article for this video.
Another idea is function words,
essentially the words that make sentences coherent
like with, and, because, or, greater than, less than,
those kind of things.
These words don't really carry a whole lot of information
about the concepts within them,
so they're prime targets for shortening.
So that rounds out all the ideas I had
about shorthand right now, but I did want to leave you with
one final tip before I round out the video,
and that is that shorthand isn't the only way
to condense the amount of notes you have to take
and also to cut down on the amount of carpal tunnel
you suffer from.
In fact, you can draw diagrams, you can use arrows
to connect concepts and ideas, and you can find other ways
to jot down the things you're learning in class
without having to write them out fully.
And, as always, if you've already done your own experiments
or have any tips I didn't mention here,
I would love to hear about them down in the comments,
so let your knowledge flow forth from your brain.
And if you enjoyed this video,
as always, give it a like to support this channel,
and I will see you in next week's video.
Thanks for watching.
(electronic music)
Hey there, guys. Thanks so much for watching this video.
Now, if you want to get new tips on being
a more effective student every single week,
you can click that big, red subscribe button right there.
Also, I wrote an entire book on how to earn better grades,
and if you want to get a free copy, you can click
the picture of the book, and I'll send you one.
And if you want to read the article for this video
and find all the links to things I mentioned,
you can click the orange button right there.
Last week's video, we talked about resources
for getting cheaper prices on the textbooks you have to buy,
so check it out if you missed it.
And if you want to connect, I'm TomFrankly on Instagram
and Twitter, or you could leave a comment down below.
(electronic music)