Visual Thinkers

Architects are visual thinkers.

I've often said this in many of my blog posts on :scale. Us designers are very much visual thinkers, and when you sit down to think about our ways of learning and presenting, it makes sense. We learn and design through diagrams, models, 3D visualisations, plans and sketches so it's a no-brainer that the way we organise information should also be visually appealing.

It does take a lot of time to nicely decorate and plan out a bullet journal or have to re-do a weekly whiteboard every week. Online workspace tools can take the heavy work out of all that. Although some other tools like Evernote are more text based, Notion allows you to embed a lot of content, has a very aesthetic interface and just looks nice. Not to mention the range of 'views' that allow you to view your data and content in a variety of forms which will just add to the experience.

This image attached is a part of a long series of Illustrated Notes by Maggie Appleton who has summarised the general ideas about Building a Second Brain.

Brainy Actions:

1. Take a look at your tried and tested methods and evaluate what you like / dislike about each. Do you keep a weekly planner or bullet journal? What's been stopping you from committing to a form of organisation? This will help you understand how you learn best. If you're used to filling your wall with post-it notes, it may just mean you prefer to see things in front of you at all times.
2. In preparation for the following section (and pretty much the whole course) I suggest you go ahead and create your Notion account - there's no time like the present.