What note-taking styles or words of wisdom would you think help people in my position?
You find that when you've reach the bottom of the barrel, you haven't because it actually goes a lot deeper than you thought it would. You are capable of magnitudes more than you think you are. It's only when you're in a situation where failure is not an option that you discover this.
In the first world, we have it so incredibly easy that most of us never discover our true potential.
Next, it's time to take a day and spend some time planning. Bring clarity to what your goals are for the next couple of months. Having a small set of clear priorities, allows you to ruthlessly defer and minimize everything that isn't absolutely necessary. It's less overwhelming to deal with only 1-2 things like this at a time.
In adult life, that's what learning feels like because we stop measuring ourselves against standards set for children.
Learning is doing things badly and knowing you are doing them badly.
Good luck.