Taking notes or a journal has helped me with my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu progression.
I haven’t always done this, but wish I would have always done it. I have forgotten so much technique and important details over the years.
Writing what you went over in class afterwards helps with knowledge retainment. Visualization and simply thinking about techniques is important for progression.
Revisiting notes you’ve made over the last week, month, year, etc can also be incredibly helpful. When learning new systems, you may learn details that you discard at first while you’re forming the movement patterns and knowledge related to the system. Certain details aren’t immediately apparent, but come into light as you learn more.
Including dates can be super useful.
Notebooks work ok, but are hard to search or revisit. If you know you did something 10 years ago, it is almost impossible for most people to remember exact dates, months, or even years you did something. It all kind of becomes a blur and you will likely end up searching through several notebooks and pages to find what you are looking for, if you can even find it at all. This is not a good use of time in my opinion.
I do see the importance of physically writing (helps many people with memory retention and understanding. Writing is a skill that needs to be developed, taking notes is a good way to practice), but also translate notes into digital form. I have seen people use notes apps on their phones, spreadsheets, Obsidian, and other such software. This is a personal preference. I picked Emacs with the Org-Roam package to take my notes in a Zettelkasten-like system. This lets me search, graph, back up, and edit notes. Digital notes also make attaching images, animations, or videos easy.
If you prefer to keep physical notes, you can take them on notecards and come up with an indexing system to be able to search them.
Taking notes or a journal helps you spot patterns that you may not realize you have. Having cold hard data to back up your assertions is also valuable.
Some things to take notes on:
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What you learned in class that day.
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Rolls you have in class. What went well? What didn’t? What was the general sequence of events? Where did you experience problems?
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Your matches. Get someone to record your matches if possible for deeper analysis. Write down notes similar to your rolls as soon as convenient. Voice notes also work great!
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Other people’s matches. Watch people you are likely to compete against, and people with games similar to yours, or people you just admire or like to watch. Take notes on the sequence of events, what worked well, what didn’t, and anything you feel deserves attention.
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Seminars. Depending on the seminar, they may or may not allow video recording. I don’t think I’ve ever see someone running a seminar refuse to let people jot down notes. Always ask if you can record or jot down notes. Chances are, it wont be a problem.
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Instructionals. All those BJJ fanatics videos are great sources of information. You’ve paid hundreds (thousands!) of dollars on these, so you should at least watch them, take notes, and try to apply some of the stuff.
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Physical fitness workouts. Weightlifters, runners, bodybuilders, and a lot of other athletes also tend to keep notes on the lifts they use, how they are feeling, etc.
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Reviewing your own notes. Every now and then, it may be useful to revisit your own notes and add to them, edit them, etc. Your notes are an organic thing that will grow and improve over time.