I wrote more about my current workflow/stack here if anyone is interested (w/ some reMarkable hacks): https://briandoll.medium.com/personal-setup-for-getting-shit...
Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
11–20 of 152 posts
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#12Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#13I handwrite my todo list at the start of everyday and scribble notes down when I’m in meetings and almost never look at them again. It definitely helps solidify things in my head for whatever reason. I’m not uptight or anything, it just seems to help me.
My notebook is everything. If I don't have it for any reason (most often: it ran out and need to buy a new one) my productivity actually takes a big hit. Basically: if I don't write it down, I probably won't get it done.
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#14I disagree. Writing is helpful for thinking things through, but the writing itself doesn’t do anything. I used to take a lot of notes to remember things and it can just act as an excuse to not think hard. It’s the hard thought and periodic review that cements things
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#15This is one of the reasons I've started to use the reMarkable tablet for taking notes. Sometimes I don't even look at them again, it's just a more efficient way to get the info into my head. I wrote more about my current workflow/stack here if anyone is interested (w/ some reMarkable hacks): https://briandoll.medium.com/personal-setup-for-getting-shit...
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#16As you might know one very common technique used by memorizing masters is to place things you want to remember in some imagined 3D world.
This effect is also something I've experienced strongly myself when listening to audiobooks while running. I figured I can actually remember the exact place along my running route in a nearby forest that I was listening to a particular passage in the book - and vice versa - going back in memory to a particular location immediately makes me start hearing memories from the book passages I listened to in that location!
I think this aspect is at play a lot with handwriting as well. You are always writing in tangible places inside a notebook, while when typing things on the computer there is less of an immediate spatial location of each note. In any case that location will both be mostly the same for all notes (you sitting at the computer), and regarding any virtual spatiality of you computer desktop system, that will have a less tangible connection with your senses, (although any sense of spatiality surely can help a bit).
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#17This is one of the reasons I've started to use the reMarkable tablet for taking notes. Sometimes I don't even look at them again, it's just a more efficient way to get the info into my head. I wrote more about my current workflow/stack here if anyone is interested (w/ some reMarkable hacks): https://briandoll.medium.com/personal-setup-for-getting-shit...
I take notes in a $.79 spiral paper notebook. When it fills up, I just scan it and get another one.
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#18I disagree. Writing is helpful for thinking things through, but the writing itself doesn’t do anything. I used to take a lot of notes to remember things and it can just act as an excuse to not think hard. It’s the hard thought and periodic review that cements things
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#19Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#20One aspect the article doesn't mention is spatiality, and how that aids memorizing. As you might know one very common technique used by memorizing masters is to place things you want to remember in some imagined 3D world. This effect is also something I've experienced strongly myself when listening to audiobooks while running. I figured I can actually remember the exact place along my running route in a nearby forest…
I also got into the habit of creating 1 or 2 page cheat sheets for tests, whether I could use them in the test or not, and the spatial organization of the data seemed to correlate very directly with my ability to process and absorb the data.