With so much note taking apps nowadays, I can’t understand why does anyone still write notes with pen and paper. You need to bring the notepad, book or that paper to retrieve that information, and most of the time you don’t have it in hand. While my phone almost always reachable and you carry when you go out. For those still like to do handwriting, there’s many app does that and they can even convert it to text notes.
So, if you still write notes with pen and paper, why?
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a notebook and pencil in my shirt pocket are faster to open than a phone app
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handwriting is faster than thumb typing
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I can sketch an electrical diagram on paper way faster than anyone can with a stylus on some janky phone screen.
3.1) Even if there was a stylus/screen combination with the same haptics, fidelity, and input recognition speed as pencil on paper, it wouldn’t be 0.78€
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I can toss the notebook and diagrams to anyone working on a project with me with zero worry that they’ll drop it, forget it, or look around in the rest of it
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I can tear out a page and hand it to anyone instantly, instead of finding out what messaging app we have in common, copying (or screenshotting) the note and pasting it in an app
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I can insert a note into a physical book, stick it to the inside of a toolbox lid, a wall next to an electrical junction, inside a breaker box, or any other surface, and always have location-aware reminders waiting for me when I need them.
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With minimal environmental control, my notes are effectively immortal. I have notebooks of measurements and diagrams of most rooms, wall cavities, pipe runs, electrical runs, cable pulls, and dimensions of various equipment that have outlasted hard drives, backup tapes, and a few cloud storage companies.
This guy notebooks.
This. Plus as a subjective thing: I personally remember stuff more easily when I write them down compared to typing. Also my written notes mix bullet points, regular writing, arrows and connections, without having to “switch mode” or install plugins.
I still use note-taking apps, sometimes as primary, sometimes as secondary tool.
And your notes don’t suddenly increase the price of your storage.
Uh, except for buying more notebooks and writing utensils, which, if your text files are large enough to suddenly increase the price of storage (or even need to pay for text storage), you’re going to need a whole lot of.
Digital text notes take up practically no storage space. You’ll spend more on new notebooks to write in over a year than digital storage space for the exact same content
No, it’s more of a subtle, inflationary pressure.
For me, it’s the act of writing, the memory it helps solidify, and… being an FP nerd.
Can I take notes on a phone? Sure, but I wouldn’t use a personal device for work notes, ever. Between my privacy, customer privacy laws, and separation of concerns. I’ve no compunctions at all, though, about sharing an A5 notebook between journal, work notes, personal notes, and reminders.
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Yes, pen & paper notes always. I consider myself a techie, but when it comes to learning or remembering, 100% analog, all the way.
As for the why, it’s a bit hard to explain, but the sensory experience of writing - the feeling and sound of the pen or pencil gliding on the paper - and the fact that I write more slowly than I type, which helps me sit with and process the infformation for a bit longer, really helps cement the info in my head.
Its your sense of proprioception, too. To write something with pen and paper you have to move your hand in three dimensional space, and this does a TON to engrain the information in your head
Oh yes. The actual craft of writing something down with a pencil does wonders for me to actually remembering stuff.
Yeah the note itself doesn’t really matter in my experience, it’s the note-taking itself that helps register stuff.
I used to have my shopping list on my phone. Replaced that by a whiteboard on the fridge, which is much less cumbersome to use (seriously, typing on a phone nowadays is almost worse than back in the T9 days). Before I go shopping, I just snap a picture with my phone.
This is brilliant and I am going to use it.
A home assistant is great for that too.
But pen and paper work fine if you dont need your shoping list to connect to wifi
I remember it better when I write it out. Typing doesn’t do the same.
The reason is often that writing forces you to already process and abstract the information. Especially if you are taking notes real-time like in a lecture. You will naturally want to shorten the info to write less so you have to process and understand what is the important info, you have to take the info in context of previous knowledge etc. Typing is often much more mechanical, you just need to process the info as it is coming in and transform it into mechanical keypress.
I also remember something about handwriting processing being a nuanced and very separate process from typing, although I am not certain on this. There was also some stuff about reading your handwritten notes triggering memories better than typed notes.
Til, thanks!
For anything I’ll need to share or search, digital.
But for everything else, I remember it better if I commit handwriting to it, and I use fountain pens, it’s a nicer experience.
Your explanation make sense
Another option for consideration is a tablet with a pencil stylus and palm rejection (personally, iPad works great for me). It doesn’t feel as nice as pen and paper ofc, but it strikes a nice middle ground since notes are highly editable, organisable and digitally stored. OneNote, as much as I despise Microsoft is really good for this.
There are also options for handwriting to digital transformation though you basically have to use english and have good handwriting that the algorithm can understand otherwise you will end up having to edit a lot.
I like to have a small pocketbook for important notes I want on hand and quickly (basically personal pocket guidelines in my case for the ED and a separate one for EMS), but I prefer taking lecture and study notes on my iPad in handwriting. Although I am slowly trying to create a digital version of my notes in a personal wikipedia style using Obsidian.
Also, not writing with a fountain pen is a disservice to yourself if you handwrite a lot.
For me it’s other way around. If I have to write I only focus on writing itself, and not the content. This also often causes me to accidentally repeat words, mix up letters, erase it, repeatedly end up writing the wrong letter because I need to speed up, then I have to leave out a section because I already forgot what I wanted to write.
And in the end I still can’t decipher quarter of my handwriting.
I do. Its much easier
Taking notes with pen and paper is more effective for information retention. I frequently keep a bullet journal to help me stay in the moment and on task. I don’t digitize it because I find it to be a waste of time. I want to take my notes and then turn them into action. Turning them into a digital blip in a database is me faffing about not taking the action
During meetings, I find it easier to follow the discussion if I’m making notes on post-its or a notepad rather than digitally.
For longform notes, research etc I prefer to use a wiki program like Obsidian and a mindmap or diagramming tool. I will rarely sketch ideas on paper but being able to rearrange the shapes on digital canvas makes it great for whiteboarding as a software engineer.
I love the tactile feeling of writing on paper.
Yes. There’s something about putting it in paper that makes me grasp the concept in a more personal manner.
I’m a millennial and I still write notes with pen and paper simply because I can’t be bothered to learn how to format in a notes app of any kind.
All of my notes are formatted in a bizarre way that makes sense to me. Applying that format in a digital space is always a giant headache.
I am switching to using Obsidian. Skipping the formatting all together and instead linking all my disjointed ideas to each other seems to be working pretty well.
I’m a millennial and I still write notes with pen and paper simply because I can’t be bothered to learn how to format in a notes app of any kind.
I’m an older millennial, and I’ll tell you how I format my notes: in text files. Markdown if I’m feeling fancy.
Yes, typed notes don’t stick as well as written ones
Yeah of course. Especially if you’re in dirty or wet places a waterproof pad and pencil are fantastic.
But even in everyday normal life, having a little notebook is good.
I pretty much only take notes with pen&paper. Never really thought about doing it otherwise. Seems like it would be much more inconvenient on my phone since I don’t thumb type and I hate laptop keyboards.
I agree with a lot of peoples take about the convenience of paper notes with the ability to handle them, physically share them and so forth. But I still never use physical notes any more. And 100% of the reason is that I’m always carrying my phone, but I never carry a pen and notebook. My need to take notes is spontaneous and unpredictible, so paper and a pen is never within an arms reach when I need to take a note.
Yes, at work. Healthcare --> HIPAA All notes shredded at the end of the shift or whenever the patient no longer is on your unit.
