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.
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.
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.
Also, notes taken with pen and paper never run out of battery, or need to be charged. They’re powered by basically any light source.
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.
There’s research that backs you up.
People tend to retain more of their written notes than typed. The act of writing forces you to assimilate and summarize new information on the fly. Typing allows you to take more complete notes closer to a verbatim transcript, but you engage less with what you’ve typed.
Oh yes. The actual craft of writing something down with a pencil does wonders for me to actually remembering stuff.
Because i can scrawl a note faster than opening an app and typing, and i can organise a notebook with a lot less fuss.
I’ll answer with a simple test. Do the following first on your phone and then on a piece of paper:
Design a thing, something physical; a box, a house, a chair, whatever. In addition to the diagram, this note must include a description of the item, the bill of materials, the dimensions and, if applicable, assembly instructions that you could confidently hand to someone else and have them follow. Ideally, you should include the dimensions of the object directly on the sketch itself.
Now give this to someone and see how accurately they can reproduce the item while you go off and make a phone call.
In addition, the mere act of giving that information to somebody else.
On a phone I can obviously text somebody, but what if I’m somewhere with bad signal (and yes, those places often exist), or the person doesn’t have the phone in their pocket right that second (yes, this also happens in places with work where people don’t want to risk the phone in their pocket breaking)?
With a mini notepad, I can rip a sheet of notes off and hand that diagram to somebody else. If it’s work that will take some time doing while following a diagram, having a phone screen locking up because it isn’t being touched is a hassle and going into the settings to change it back and forth is annoying.