How do you turn messy notes into something usable?

I’ve always struggled with long, messy notes.

I could write them down, but when it came time to revise or understand them, rereading text didn’t help much.

So I started experimenting with turning notes into visual structures instead — mind maps that show relationships instead of paragraphs.

I’m building a small tool around this idea (hand-drawn style, not rigid boxes), but before going further I’d love to hear:

• Do you use any method to visualize notes? • Does structure actually help you understand, or is text enough? • What would make a tool like this genuinely useful (or useless)?

Not here to promote — genuinely curious about how others think about notes and understanding.