Asklemmy

I do a mix -- paper is for thinking, digital is for long-term saving.

I'll use paper (nice paper and a fountain pen, ideally) for a quick brain-dump, mind-mapping, planning out my week, figuring out the shape of a solution. There's something about working on paper that spatially makes more sense to me. I keep it all in a single notebook *usually A5 grid or dots like Leuchtterm 1917 or Rhodia webbie) so that I don't have loose pieces of paper. If I'm working or traveling, that notebook is in my bag.

Things that I need to remember land in Obsidian in cross-linked notes, usually tied together with a daily note. Some paper notes do land in Obsidian - that can be a photo/scan, but more likely a cleaned up, summarized version of my thoughts.

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

I use paper for all my "at the moment notes" it's just easier because actually unlocking my phone and opening a note app then starting a note takes too long and a lot of the time I need to draw a diagram or something to go along with it. Anything important gets transferred into my onenote from the paper later on. I would like to find a good app to go completely digital but so far nothing I've found meets that need as well as just carrying a notebook around.

Both, for different reasons. I use paper notes to stick them on my fridge so I won't forget about them.

I'm 53. Never got the hang of typing fast on the phone, so whenever I'm in a meeting and not having my laptop with me, it's pen and paper for me. 🙃

I'm a zoomer and my middle & high school had us do a large majority of stuff on a computer, so my handwriting kinda sucks now

whenever I use pen & paper now, I look at what I wrote and realize I still have the handwriting of a fucking 12 y/o. I also type a lot faster than I write

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.

Yes. It's faster and it doesn't end up getting lost on my phone or PC somewhere. I can also leave a page open on my desk if it's something I tend to forget (currently German prepositions).

Yes, at work. Healthcare --> HIPAA All notes shredded at the end of the shift or whenever the patient no longer is on your unit.

I do both. I use Obsidian to maintain lots of notes and links and such. But I also carry a fountain pen and a notebook in my pocket. I find when I write stuff down in there I tend to remember it more. I also carry an A5 notebook at work to take down work notes and track my todo's. More productive, looks better in meetings, and I'm less likely to get distracted by notifications or the draw of apps/social-media.

Lots of times I'll do a drawing of dimensions or an idea, then I'll take a picture of that and throw it in Obsidian later. Also if it's a note that I want to keep later I'll transcribe it into my digital notes.

I just enjoy the act of writing and getting to own a pen that I won't just lose or loan away. I'll also pick up old notebooks sometimes and be reminded of things I wanted to do or ideas I had that got missed, and the reminder is way more tangible and impacting that being reminded by found digital notes. It comes with the tactile memories as well.

Yep. I get distracted with my phone. I doodle on my notes. I enjoy writing in cursive, it's so loopy! I like pens, they're neat!

I also do bullet journaling, but not very strict to the original style. I just draw my own little boxes.

I use a mechanical pencil. Pentel 205 for life baby.

I do both, and it’s heavily dependent on what the purpose of the note is for.

I keep a yellow legal pad and mechanical pen. Stuff that goes on the pad are usually the ultimate in throwaway notes. Scribbles that are wholly transitory.

Then I have a digital note management system (Obsidian.md) and use it to maintain a personal journal and Zettelkasten.

Some yellow pad notes might flow into Obsidian, but not always.

Yes, typed notes don't stick as well as written ones

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 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.

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.

Do you still write notes with pen an paper?

Yep.

So, if you still write notes with pen and paper, why?

I just like having something physical as opposed to something on a computer screen or phone or something. I suppose I could just type them up and print them out but eh. 🤷‍♀️

Hell yeah i do, i’ve been keeping a notebook for scheduling and journaling for the last 5 years and it helps my thought process so much.

The biggest thing for me, i dont control the apps, so if an update breaks my apps, i’d be out of luck, but that cant happen with a notebook. My notes will always been as i wrote them.

I’ve even gone through writing with gel pens, to fountain pens, and now i just use pencils cause it’s just better over all.

I could get philosophical about it too. I remember what i write, my mind paces itself better as i commit to paper vs typing on a keyboard or screen. We have that primordial need to scribble on something, and i get to indulge it when i write:

• coffee
• milk
• rice (big bag)

Everyone should try it, with a simple caveat: keep it cheap. Write in cheap books with cheap pens and paper, then buy better as the cheap shit starts to fail on you. Some paper is really bad for ink, some are bad for pencil, somehow there’s some that worse for both. Some pencils have terrible erasers, but dont dwell on those choices.

Writing by hand requires me to condense whatever I'm trying to grok. That helps in my understanding of it.

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 love fountain pens so much and journaling with them. Extremely therapeutic.

For work I used to have an agenda with notes but over time I realized it's impossible to actually keep organized and have the most important things be the most easy to find. I moved to onenote and never looked back.

For personal notes I use a tablet with pen because it's fun to write by hand without wasting trees and it still being digital it's easier to organize and move information around.

One thing paper helps me with is free-form thought externalizing.

When you limit yourself to text, markdown, or sometimes even a digital pen/drawing app, I feel like it requires a bit of effort to use which allows ideas to slip from my mind.

With a pen/pencil and paper, I can write, draw, and connect about as fast as I can think. I can crumble the page and refine the idea over and over until something I like is there.

I have a phone with a stylus built in and it's great- but sometimes I don't want to stare at a screen.

If I'm Journaling I stick with pen and paper because I dont want the distraction. There is also something nice about the feedback of ink on a page.

If the note is important I'll put a sticky note on my desk and copy it to obsidian or take a photo of it.

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.

I use a tablet for most my notes but there's a pretty obvious reason for paper/pen - you don't have to charge a notebook.

I hand write to-do list because I can remember , my phone is a distraction machine.

I tried many times to "go digital" at work, using different apps and methods, but it comes down to 3 things: I take notes and jot down ideas nonlinearly. For example, I'll start taking a note from a meeting or lecture, then have an idea that I'll jot down elsewhere, but go back to the original note to finish it then go and complete the idea. It's stupid, but it works for me. The second is that I infrequently need to review my notes that are written since they get committed to memory. Unfinished ideas are different. Third, I can find notes faster when I wrote them vs typed them. I have a photographic memory. My desk is a huge mess, but I can usually find what I need because I remember it's physical location in the pile.

Yep.

Yes. It's faster, I have an easier time remembering stuff that I wrote by hand instead of using a keyboard, I can't be arsed to use a phone most of the time, and I can even apply some primitive "encryption"* to keep a certain overly curious person around me from messing with my notes. I can also use them when I'm designing writing scripts for constructed languages, way faster than doing it in Inkscape.

The big con is that one of my cats thinks that paper is toy, and the other thinks that any large enough sheet is a bed.

*it's just Italian with ad hoc Cyrillic. Good enough for handwritten notes.

Somehow I notice how I think more 'structured' and focused about the things I write down by hand. Especially useful when I try to break down tasks into smaller bits or try to plan anything through step by step

not to sound like a boomer, but i just like to write with pen once in a while so i dont forget how to

Yes, for recipe.

I do physical and digital notes both, just so that information is available in as many places as possible. I need a number to refer to a thing in an email? It's in a word doc, on a post-it note on my monitor, on my physical and digital calendar probably, and in a spreadsheet. No matter what, I can find the info I need.

And I feel like the actual act of handwriting helps me remember what I'm writing. I'll take notes during a meeting or a class, never look at them again, and remember the important info. If I don't take notes, I might as well have not been there lol.

Yeah, I can type faster than I can write, but I can write faster than I can type on phone. The note winds up in a physical location, which helps me with both retrieval and remembering (say, this section of my desk-cube-thing is for project notes in my garage, this section is events, this is things I need to buy from the shops etc). I can draw little images pretty easily as well, have not habituated to digital art unfortunately. While not insurmountable with apps, is it really worth the additional effort shopping around when I keep inheriting post-it notes and data cards from various sources (idk why).

Also, I get bonkers distracted on the phone. I sometimes forget I am just checking the time.

I use sticky notes at home, and write by hand in an actual notebook when hashing things out. I also take notes in a text editor, though.