Notebooking Best Practices

• Keep the notebook up to date

  • Don’t let entries pile up and do your best to enter them on the day they took place

  • Entry dates should reflect the day they were entered into the note, not necessarily the day they took place

  • As many teams are transitioning to a digital notebook, it should not be seen as an excuse for being able to go back in time and edit or add additional details

• Mistakes in a notebook are okay

  • Misspellings, grammar and missed entries happen

  • Strikethroughs, cross outs and other edits to an entry are fine to have

• Take notes whenever possible

  • Have someone responsible for taking notes during a team meeting

  • When building, take notes of any special steps or unique build processes

  • During a competition take time to write up match results

  • Review match videos, if available to fill in any missed information your team feels is necessary

• Take lots of pictures

  • Highlight or magnify key focus areas in a photo

  • Use before/after images (great for identifying problems encountered and solution implemented)

  • Label pictures/images/drawings/sketches in the notebook

  • Create a figure table if possible

• Integrated CAD into your notebook and design process

  • While the use of Fusion 360 / Onshape / Solidworks / Protobot / etc can enhance your design process it provides additional details to the reader that can make it easier to follow or recreate your design

  • Sketches can be a good substitute to using CAD software

  • Provide parts list if possible

• Avoid creating an overly beautiful notebook

  • Pretty notebooks are nice and may attract attention, but the appropriate details may get overlooked

  • Background images may distract from the core content of the notebook

  • Moving into the university/working world content will be key above the look

• Find a format that works for your team

  • There are a number of good examples available to explore, but don’t just copy and paste those examples. Use them as a getting started guide/template for your journey

  • Develop your own team’s identity where possible

  • REC Foundation provides a nice starter template and digital parts library that should not be overlooked

• Have multiple team members contribute to the notebook

  • Not all members need to provide details, but everyone should be able to provide input that is used in developing your team’s design

  • It is okay for a primary person to be responsible for entering the finalized notebook entry, this can help with keeping a consistent notebook format

• Keep things concise

  • If entries become a little long, use underlining, bolding, or highlighting to bring attention to key points

  • Use bullet points

• Get feedback on your notebook

  • While judges are not allowed to give feedback on notebooks or interview, there are some mentors that might be willing to look over your notebook and give you some tips

  • Listen to feedback and don’t be closed to making changes to your notebooking process

  • If you make a big formatting change to your notebook, it is okay to mention why as judges will likely see the change and may wonder why it took place

  • Don’t be afraid to share ideas with others as you might get some good ideas in return.

• The notebook is not a journal

  • While it is great to notate as much as possible during the season, the notebook doesn’t need to contain details around what pizza was provided for a team members birthday celebration at a team meeting

  • Paragraphs of information are hard to digest and writing a storybook format may make it difficult for a judge to find relevant information in your team’s notebook

• Don’t see the notebook as chore

  • While this may be a hard item to avoid, it should be looked as piece of your design process

  • Good documentation will only enhance your ability to be able to come up with a solid end solution