So don't take notes, make Mind Maps. And make them with trees, with pictures, with colors, with symbols, with patterns and associations. Mind Mapping is a method devised by Tony Buzan. Singapore-based author and Buzan facilitator Dilip Mukerjea has written and illustrated an excellent introduction to the subject, entitled Superbrain.
Swedish publisher Ingemar Svantesson has produced Mind Mapping and Memory. And in the United States the finest book on a similar theme is Nancy Margulies' Mapping InnerSpace. Margulies has also written a great accelerated-learning book Yes, You Can Draw! and produced a first-class video to go with it.
Those books, and some of the Mind Maps in this one, demonstrate the principles in practice. The main points are simple: