How to take notes from YouTube videos (with timestamps)
Notes from a YouTube lecture are only useful if you can understand them a month later and find the part of the video they came from. Most notes fail one of those tests: copied word for word, or a list of headings with no way back to the explanation. Here is a simple method that passes both.
Keep the video and your notes side by side
Switching between a video tab and a notes app breaks your attention every time. Put them next to each other so you can pause, write and play without losing your place. On Studyio every chapter of a course has its own notes page right beside the video.
Write in your own words
Pause after each idea and write one or two sentences as if explaining it to a friend. If you can't, rewind; that's the part you didn't understand yet. Copying the speaker word for word feels productive but skips the step where you actually process the idea.
Add timestamps to anything you'll want to rewatch
A timestamp turns a note into a bookmark. Instead of "the bit about recursion somewhere in video 7", you have a link to 14:32. On Studyio, press T while watching (or Alt+T while typing) to insert the current time; clicking it later jumps the video straight there.
Use a simple structure per chapter
- Key ideas: three to five points in your own words.
- Examples: code, formulas or worked problems you want to keep, exactly.
- Questions: what you didn't understand, with a timestamp to come back to.
- Summary: one sentence on what the chapter was about.
Headings, lists and code blocks make the structure easy to scan later.
Keep code and formulas exact
For programming and maths, paraphrasing doesn't work: keep the exact code or formula in a code block, then add a line in your own words on what it does. Next to a timestamp, that's a reference you can trust.
Compare with a summary, then test yourself
After writing your notes, compare them with a short summary of the chapter to spot anything you missed; Studyio Notes, next to your own, gives you one for every chapter. Then close your notes and answer a few questions on the chapter. What you get wrong tells you which notes to improve.
Take your notes with you
Notes are worth more if they outlive the app. On Studyio you can copy a course's notes as Markdown, or download them as a Markdown file or a PDF, and timestamps in the download link to the exact moment on YouTube. Read more in the guide.
Courses to practise on
Lecture-style courses where good notes make the biggest difference:
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