When you’re trying to learn something new (or improve at something familiar), the mind often prefers to see the same content and substance transcribed into your own words at some point – rather than just absorbing what someone else on the topic has said. 

This is why it’s easier to learn using created mind maps or self-written notes. This is also why I’ve always advocated that bridge players and students start keeping bridge notebooks from the moment they start to learn (and add to it as they go further).

Notes make things easier to learn, especially if you can find ways to condense the most crucial information into a few pages or sheets instead. 

How do you keep your bridge notes? 

Here are a few ways to keep them all in one place – with some added advice on how notes can aid learning.

#1: Cloud-Based Storage

I know a lot of people who type a lot faster than they write, and this is useful when you’ve given yourself a lot of information to work through. Type your bridge notes, and save it on a cloud-based server.

Free clouds including Drive or DropBox can give you more storage than you’ll ever need for text-based notes. Cloud servers have the bonus of being accessible from anywhere – and they won’t require carrying around heavy notebooks ever again. 

#2: Old-Fashioned Notebooks

For many, writing by hand increases recall more than typing. If this describes you, then you might have to keep your notebooks in a different way – and I’ve found that flip-files and folders are best for the amount of information that you’ll keep on adding to (and removing) over time.

The great thing to remember here? Handwritten notes can still be scanned and uploaded to the cloud for instant access.

#3: Mobile Memos 

Let’s not forget that smartphones are the most portable information storage devices we have. 

Other than accessing cloud information from your phone, it’s just as easy to save quick thoughts (and easy-learning acronyms on bridge) as memos – or if you prefer, voice notes.

Speech-to-text and text-to-speech technologies can make learning a whole lot easier (if you let them).

If you have any on-the-move bridge information that you can’t wait until you get home to note down, remember your smartphone.

#4: Everywhere Else

For hard-to-learn concepts or things that struggle to absorb into the brain sponge, try putting your notes (often in the form of cheat sheets or summaries) everywhere else instead. 

This means the bathroom door – or the wall of your bedroom – where the information remains in plan sight, as obvious as if you had hung the Mona Lisa in your house. 

For learning my way through songs, this used to help a great deal, and I found that the technique carried over well to bridge (even though it might resemble a horror movie with pages full of notes lining the walls).