Note Taking Templates

The following is how I approach studying and note-taking for the Institute for Functional Medicine conferences. There are no notes or content in these - they are just templates.

It includes printable PDFs for those that prefer to write notes (for Treatments, Testing, Key Takeaways, and Lecture Outline). It also include pre-formatted Mac and Windows options (for those that want to type notes).

A few pointers (based off my process):

1. Before the conference, skim PowerPoint slides and note important slides. Please note that half the lecturers tend to update slides, so pre-conference slides don't always align with those used during the conference.

2. Make a brief outline of each lecture on a spreadsheet for notes (I don't like to take notes on the PowerPoint, and a spreadsheet decreases the notes to a few pages rather than hundreds of slides).

3. Take notes during the conference.

4. Organize your notes ideally within a week following the conference.

5. Write down key takeaways (particularly the clinically applicable stuff).

6. Plan on revisiting the information multiple times, especially when recordings come out 2-3 weeks after the conference.