Throw it away?

Comfort blanket or paperweight? Should you or shouldn’t you?

It’s question that could be asked of so many things in our vet lives, but this is a biggie: should you throw away your revision notes?

This is both an emotional and practical issue – you slaved over those notes with blood, sweat and tears, but they take up space (and time, when you move house), so keeping them is a pain. However, they are comfort blanket of your success in qualifying.

What should you do? I’ve asked this myself online, and see others asking for advice, too – so let’s consider why some paper, or online, files are so hard to get rid of.

Want or need?

Practically speaking, they are taking up space and time that could be better used. It may be worth asking yourself some questions:

• Will you need them again?
• Will they be in a format you want to use?

The flashcards and huge files of yesteryear are unlikely to be that helpful in their current format. So, in that sense, they may not be useful. You also need to remind yourself that you know the relevant stuff in those files because you now do it every day. Will you actually go back and read them again?

Piece by piece

A gentle way to “downsize” your notes is to give yourself credit for the info in there you use regularly, so don’t need to review. These notes can go.

For areas you don’t use often, condense your notes to the bits you need and maybe add them to CPD records to build on your knowledge.

You may find it easier to take pictures of paper notes and upload to a CPD record or cloud storage. I know a few pages of my beautiful highlighted notes must be preserved!

Part of the journey

Emotionally speaking, our notes are comforting. They are part of your journey to being what you are now – so will you be less of a success if you take away the comfort blanket of your revision notes? It’s a tough emotional decision, but it may help to consider:

You change as a learner as time goes on

The notes you needed to pass your course become less relevant as you progress. You change as a learner as you increase your knowledge base. You don’t need to go back to Lesson 1, Day 1 every time you review or refresh skills.

You may also find new formats of learning more helpful. Video, audio and online sessions are changing the way we access information – are your huge files really still the best way you learn?

You can see getting rid of notes as a reward of your success

Getting rid of physical things can be seen as a bit of a punishment, but creating physical and mental space is beneficial – its not only Marie Kondo who thinks so!

See reviewing and removing notes as a reward – you’ve passed; you’ve earned the right to move forward, emotionally as well as physically.

Saying all that, I only just recycled my notes from my 2011 Grad Dip in nursing, so maybe don’t act too rashly – we’re all a work in progress as learners.