I Basically Have A Fetish For Open-source Stuff If You Couldn't Tell - Tumblr Posts

Take notes. No matter how bad they are, it's still better than taking no notes. (it always ensures you at least pay attention)

Assuming you take notes in some sort of class, consider using tools that the class offers (e.g. my school gave us Microsoft accounts, if you have that try things like OneNote)

Find a solution that lets you store your notes in a way you can keep an overview and find the right notes later on (e.g. when learning for a test)

You'll most likely need a (or several) solution(s) for text and images/graphics/depictions.

Personal preference: After 4 years of laptop-focused class I prefer typing my notes in most subjects, because it allows me to note down things quicker and note down more. For some subjects I used digital handwriting (with a pen onto the screen) for graphs (e.g. Economics) and in other classes I heavily (almost solely) relied on digital handwriting (e.g. Maths with all formulas and fractions etc.).

Also consider in which way you'll be getting your learning material (on paper? PDFs? etc.)

I tried different things, OneNote is popular but IMO sucks ass because it is limited and very hard to export your notes properly. I settled on using mainly Xournal++, which is free and open-source and can easily "edit" PDFs or create empty pages (with or without lines/squares(?)/dots), you can add text fields wherever you want and also write with a pen. I also use Obsidian (also free n open-source), which mainly works with Markdown (text) files and has limited options to handwrite freely. (anyone feel free to ask me more about Xournal++ and Obsidian)

How to take notes question mark