How can I organize and manage my medical school notes and files effectively?

Starting medical school can feel overwhelming. You’ll have a huge amount of notes, all the files, documents, and presentations that quickly become disorganized and difficult to manage.

As a busy student, you need an effective system to store and access all of this information from your laptop. An organized system will save you time and reduce stress.

In this post, I’ll share my best tips on how to effectively organize and manage all your medical school notes and files on your laptop. You’ll learn key principles and specific apps/software to use so you can find what you need when you need it.

The Core Principles of Medical Notes and File Organization

Getting organized starts with understanding a few core principles that the rest of your system should be built on:

Everything Has Its Place

Like a well-organized closet, every type of note and file should have a designated folder or system, which includes creating folders and organizing file folders. Avoid randomly saving files on your desktop or documents folder over time.

Make it Easy to Search and Access

You should be able to find any lecture note or important document in less than 60 seconds through search functions or well-labeled storage folders.

Automate Where Possible

Let apps and software do the heavy lifting to organize files and tag them so you don’t waste time.

Review and Purge Regularly

Get in the habit of regularly deleting outdated notes, presentations, or resources that you no longer need quick access to. This avoids overload.

Set Up A Folder System For Different File Types

At the core of your file organization system should be a folder structure to categorize files. This makes accessing notes efficient long-term. Here is a structure that works very well:

1. Parent Folders For Each Academic Year

For example, you may have a parent folder called “Medical School Year 1“. Do the same for all years.

2. Semester Folders Within Each Year

Under “Medical School Year 1“, you would have folders called “Semester 1” and “Semester 2“. Add more if your school divides further into quarters.

3. Topic/Course Folders Within Each Semester

For example, under “Year 1 – Semester 1“, you may have folders such as “Anatomy“, “Biochemistry“, “Physiology“, etc. This is where you store all files related to that course in one place.

This structure for organizing files means you always know where to look for lecture notes or resources for a specific course when you need to quickly reference something.

Choose Your Overall File Storage Approach

Now you have to decide the best general approach to save files and organize all your medical school files, notes, slides, recordings, etc. There are two main options:

1. Subject-Based Folders

For the conceptual learners, you can organize parent folders by subject (Internal Medicine, Physiology, etc.) and then create sub-folders for different units or profs within those.

Example:

• Internal Medicine
  • Cardiology
    • Lecture Notes
    • Study Guides
  • Endocrinology
    • PowerPoint Slides
    • Recordings
    • Practice Questions

2. Document-Based Folders

If you’re more of a sequential student, you may prefer setting up parent folders for each document type (Lecture recordings, Study Guides, Practice Questions) and then subject-based folders within each.

Example:

• Lecture Notes
  • Internal Medicine
    • Cardiology
    • Endocrinology
  • Physiology
    • Unit 1
    • Unit 2
• Study Guides
  • Microbiology
  • Biochemistry

Be Intentional and Consistent with File Naming

With so many files, using a consistent file naming system is vital so you can easily know what is in each file.

Trust me, “Lecture Notes” versus “Class Notes” versus “Notes from Lecture” gets messy really fast when searching across courses years later.

You can include some combo of course name, subject, professor, and date in file names, like:

“InternalMed_Cardiology_Smith_03122023.pptx”

This keeps similar files grouped together in my folder structure without too much redundancy in the name itself.

Other tips:

• Use consistent abbreviations for file extensions (.pptx, .docx).
• Keep the order of file name elements the same.
• Avoid spaces and special characters.

You want files on the same topic from different classes to logically alphabetize together in your system. 

Yearly Archive Drive

As you progress through medical school, your files will grow exponentially each year. To keep things clean, have a separate Google Drive folder titled “Med School Archive”. At the end of each academic year, move the entire year’s course folders into this drive for archived storage. You can still actively use, like Anki decks, study guides, or practice questions kept in your main drive.

The archive drive will allow you to still search and reference back to old material easily without cluttering your main academic folder.

Organize Your Digital Workspace

Beyond files and folders, organizing the laptop’s desktop workspace is also vital for productivity. A cluttered desktop filled with random files, folders, and sticky notes kills efficiency.

Set a rule that if something lands on your desktop, you must file it away into the appropriate folder within 24-48 hours max. This stops important content from getting lost in a sea of clutter.

Minimize open windows and browser tabs at the end of each work session to keep your workspace tidy. 

Note-Taking Apps

Folders can help you arrange your content but choosing the right note-taking app for taking notes is important for writing and searching notes efficiently. Apps like OneNote and Evernote make it simple to type, annotate PDFs, and add tags for quick searching.

Microsoft OneNote

OneNote’s hierarchical system makes it easy to compartmentalize different classes, topics, and projects. Its excellent organization features and the ability to collaborate on notes make it a great pick for many medical students.

Evernote and Notion

For those who prefer plain text notes, Evernote and Notion provide simple yet powerful workflows. Their tagging systems and effective search allow you to manage your notes easily. Both also make it simple to share notes and collaborate with study groups.

Final Tips for Managing Specific File Types & Maintaining Organization

The key to staying organized long-term is developing the habit of filing everything into the proper folder structure each day. It takes no more than 5 minutes but saves you hours down the road of searching for that one file you need buried somewhere on your laptop. Here are my top tips for maintaining organization and managing a few specific types of medical notes and files:

1. Set reminders to file items or designate 15 minutes at the end of each day to organize any new files right away into the folder structure
2. Stick to the naming conventions every time you go to save a new file
3. Only keep what you actually need or will realistically reference later
4. If you access a file often, create shortcuts on your desktop for quick access
5. Designate 20 minutes each month to archive old stuff and clear out unused files
6. Save notes by lecture date so they stay chronological.
7. Screenshot important images into your notes app and use annotations to highlight key areas.

Conclusion

There you have it! This medical school filing and note organization system will be a total game changer for your learning and productivity in med school.

There’s no universally superior approach that will work for every student’s needs. So first, reflect on how you like to study and retrieve info when you need it.

The key is choosing what makes sense for your needs and then sticking with it consistently across all courses.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I effectively take notes on a laptop/tablet during lectures?

Use a note-taking app like OneNote or Evernote to have everything in one place. Structure notes by lecture/week. Record audio and sync it to notes so you can click to hear any part of the lecture later when reviewing. Draw diagrams with a stylus right into your notes.

2. What’s the best way to organize physical notes, handouts, flashcards, etc.?

Scan everything into PDF/image files as soon as possible so it’s digitized and backed up, including your hand-written notes. Then organize the digital files using the folder structure.

3. What’s the best cloud backup service to use?

Google Drive and Dropbox are both solid options that integrate well into Windows/Mac. Choose one and pay for expanded storage if needed. Set up automatic photo uploads from your phone too.

4. How often should I review and purge old files?

Do a big file purge once a year before each new academic year starts. Scan/shred any remaining physical papers. Delete redundant notes, but keep syllabi, textbooks, slides, etc. from completed courses.

5. What note-taking/organization systems do you recommend?

Evernote and OneNote are excellent for creating meaningful notes, especially if you record lectures.

6. Should I organize notes by subject (microbiology, physiology, etc.) or by course?

I recommend structuring your notes around the courses you take rather than broad subjects. This mirrors how you learn the content and makes it far easier to map notes to exam study later. You can still search notes for physiology concepts across courses.