Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Asks: Do You Prefer To Handwrite or Type Notes? (npr.org)
A study published by Psychological Science and transcribed on NPR explores the science behind note-taking. As technology becomes smaller, cheaper and more functional than ever before, it's not uncommon to see people taking notes on their laptop or tablet, especially in a school or work-related environment. In fact, it may be even more common to see people taking notes with an electronic device than with a pen and paper. The study shows that the process of taking notes by hand is slower, thus allowing the information being written to better soak into your brain. However, it's a double-edged sword. While using something like a laptop to type notes may be faster and allow for people to better transcribe what they're hearing, writing longhand generally allows people to better process the information they are writing, but at the expense of length. That is to say, writing longhand doesn't provide people with as much to look back on since the process is slower.
Now everyone is different and everyone has their own formula and routine that works for them, so we thought we'd ask the question: Do you prefer to handwrite notes or type notes on a computer? Does one form of note-taking work better than the other or is it a combination of the two that is best?
Now everyone is different and everyone has their own formula and routine that works for them, so we thought we'd ask the question: Do you prefer to handwrite notes or type notes on a computer? Does one form of note-taking work better than the other or is it a combination of the two that is best?
it's faster and easier to save
Handwritten in a sketchpad. For some reason I can't stand ruled notebooks.
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
I prefer to handwrite on an e-reader with a stylus and good palm rejection software. And not on a smartphone.
Sadly, the e-reader field ain't getting the love it deserves.
Gotta do it handwritten because keyboards and specialized software ain't friendly to chemistry, physics, equation input, and sketching that goes along with the aforementioned. Takes 500 years to do what i would in a jiff with a stylus.
Amazing the rate of improvement of verbal transcription. I can only imagine what this would have written if I had voice recorded it 10 years ago. Today I seen students speaking into their phones. Of course if everyone is talking at once it has that limitation
Good luck managing to type complex equations as fast as you can write them.
If you are talking about transcribing something, then yes typing is faster. But if your note taking requires you to jump around the page, annotate diagrams, sections of text or anything else then writing wins.
Having things electronic makes things easy to file and refer to, but that is why I use a tablet and stylus.
Why ask a poll type question without having a actual poll? OP are you going to manually go through every comment to tally it or is there really no reason in asking the question and just a attempt in making "news" regarding something IMO that isn't nerd news worthy..
Especially if I am away from home, it is the only thing I have with me. I do not bring a computer everywhere I go.
My cursive writing is so unreadable it is better than encryption.
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
Both work just as well for me. Except eg. when on the phone without speaker/headset. I prefer writing over one handed typing.
I find it easier to retain something in memory if I write it down while I'm learning it.
Numerous studies have shown better retention and understanding when people "take notes," as opposed to simply transcribing large chunks of what they hear.
This is a general issue with learning in general -- the more your brain "works" to understand something, the better you retain it. (Numerous studies suggest that too.) And even if you're not going for retention in your brain, if you actually listen and comprehend, then write down short "notes" (i.e., summaries), you'll probably do better than if you attempt to transcribe spottily and perhaps miss some critical detail in your transcription.
The problem is that many people type so fast that they naturally tend toward chunks of transcription, rather than processing the information and then summarizing in "notes." If you take the same kind of notes while typing that good note-takers do by hand, you'd do just as well... perhaps better, because sometimes the speed will help.
But of course there are other advantages to handwriting, especially when it comes to math, chemical formulas, drawing diagrams, flow-charts, whatever. Handwriting is still usually much faster for everything other than plain text -- and thus, it's still my preferred medium, whether on paper or with a stylus on a tablet or whatever. (Also, I don't believe in linear note-taking: connections are generally complex between ideas, and a blank sheet of paper allows a lot more flexibility in drawing various sorts of connections than text arranged in lines.)
If I'm at my computer I'm not really going to handwrite notes. But if I'm somewhere that accessing/using pen+paper is more beneficial to use, I'll use that. I have a Palm Tungsten C I still use daily for work because IMHO its core function of a general purpose, disconnected personal data assistant has yet to be bested. It's always on me so unless hitting a single button and entering my password is too long then pen[cil] + paper win I guess.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
That said, I rarely, often never, go back an read my notes. By the time I have it on paper, with internal comments as I write them down, it's permanently affixed to my brain. Most of my classes would have been difficult to take notes with a keypad except for the fluff courses (psychology/anthropology/humanity credits). I mostly learn from books.
Over the years I have gotten better at taking notes on a computer, to the point where I can make well-organized, nicely formatted notes in real time. I memorized a few shortcuts like Ctrl-Alt-1, 2, or 3 for various headings and subheadings, wrote a few macros to insert code blocks, etc. Since my typing speed is much faster than my handwriting, and the flexibility of being able to go back and edit or rearrange things, the computer is now my preferred method for taking notes during a lecture.
However, the minute I need to think creatively (whether to organize my thoughts, troubleshoot a problem, or create an outline for a new document), I immediately go back to pen and paper. I'm not entirely sure why... one would think that the ease of cutting and pasting on a computer would make it better suited for keeping up with fluid nature of creative thought, but no. Something about the tactile nature of the page makes it easier to think clearly, scribbles and all. I suspect it has to do with thinking habits ingrained from early childhood... or I might just be a Luddite at heart.
Procrastination Man strikes again!
a pen that uses neat dot paper (that you can print on a decent laser printer) to discern where on the sheet you are writing...
write down key phrases as notes as you LISTEN, and later you can tap those words, and hear the speaker from that point in the recording...
Just jot the key ideas--- and listen...
Arrows, shapes and symbols are much easier to execute with handwritten notes rather than typed. So I prefer the handwritten.
I have a paper-based note-taking system that has served me well for my entire career.
I always write down the date and time I arrive, and the time leave for the day, with a margin-to-margin line delineating days.
Whenever I change tasks, I jot down the time and what I'm doing next. Huge help when I'm working on projects where to-the-minute timecards are required.
In meetings, I write down the key points being made. If the point applies directly to me, I put a box in the left column, to indicate that it is a "to-do" item.
If a point is something I can/should contribute to, but not during this meeting, I put a circle to indicate I should probably send an email.
If there is a change in policy, or a new direction or project, I put an asterisk to the left.
Most of the above merely help me prioritize my work.
But there is one more massive reason to take notes compulsively, and not just in meetings: Patents. While I have no patents to my name, my notes have twice been used as "prior art" to help defeat or limit other patents, or to help negotiate far better licensing terms.
From a personal development perspective, I also make not of my mistakes. Writing them down makes it harder to repeat them.
As I get older and my memory grows ever weaker, I find it hugely beneficial to be able to go back 6 months or a year, and be able to perfectly describe what I was doing and why.
Paper rocks. Plus it's way easier to carry around, and needs "recharging" only about twice a year.
The summary notes that typing is faster than taking long-hand notes. If you are taking notes on paper then you are using some form or short hand (be it a formal system or your own creation.) If you want a transcript of a meeting/lecture then record it or type it out. If you want to capture the flow of a conversation and the important technical details, then you take notes by short hand.
Neither. I engage in the meeting, it's a conversation not a data-dump. I do use the notes feature in my phone to take down the bullet points of the conversation. When I get back to my desk I then type everything out using those bullet points as a guide.
One of the things that drives me crazy when I give marching orders to my employees is when they insist on writing every step down. I don't mind a little note-taking, but the ones that try to write the whole conversations down are typically the ones that I end up having to give the most revisions to. When they discuss with me they form the correct picture in their head, then they perform like a brain instead of like a robot. When questions come up they can take a better guess at what the answer probably is if I'm not immediately around to answer.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I normally use pencil and paper for math/science notes, because 1)they use lots of formulae, which is much better with pencil/paper, and 2)they normally involve practice problems, and I like doing math by hand. In history, however, I tend to do notes electronically, since typing is faster and I could search them to find stuff. For random notes about stuff to look up/do later, though, I tend to use paper. Not really sure why, though.
If we start ignoring all of our constitutional rights because of terrorism, then what are we fighting for at that point?
When I was a student in Law School, I almost exclusively took notes on a computer. When I graduated and starting practicing, I switched to legalpads (i.e., a large notepad). The primary reason I switched is because as a lawyer, you can have a legalpad sitting on a conference room desk in a meeting filled with people and it wont be a distraction to yourself or others. In law school, you mostly sat, listened and took notes, so it was less of an issue.
Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates
(To quote Drew Sullivan, who taught me the difference between inclusive and exclusive or)
davecb@spamcop.net
Is that today's typewriters are pure crap in comparison to the typewriters made 30 years ago. I couldn't have gotten through college in the early 1990's without my electronic typewriter. Many instructors didn't accept Near Letter Quality (NLQ) printouts from a dot matrix printer, and some didn't even accept print outs from laser printers. If it wasn't typewritten, you haven't done the work.
White Board!
And no, you may not sniff the markers!
It's the internet and nobody here really gives half a shit about anyone else's opinions. When people say they want your opinion on information what they mean they're a data miner.
No lecture halls for me. We do have video lectures for certain subjects but there's no need to take notes, per se, because you can replay and pause the lectures at any time.
If I was in a more traditional classroom environment I might buy one of those Surface things with the stylus for scribbling on PDF lecture slides.
I did buy pen and paper notepad when I started the course but rarely use it except when doing certain exercises by hand. For library searches I am looking up books on my laptop to copy and paste that catalogue number into one of those cloud services like onenote or google keep. Syncing to my phone is easier than scribbling a number onto a scrap of paper when finding a book on the shelf.
The last time I travelled, I kept a pen and paper diary. Many years ago I did a blog but you either have to carry around portable computer or spend an hour a night on a youth hostel internet machine. I'd rather jot down my thoughts whenever the moment strikes. Entrepreneurial types might monetize travel into a book or a website but my adventures aren't really that unique or off the beaten track - it's the personal memories of the people I spent time with more than the location that count.
So much of what I've tried to record electronically has been lost, because of storage format changes, and the fact that it's just not really there permanently. Paper isn't permanent but it lasts a lifetime and that's long enough.
At one point I coded a 'word processor' that had features including a timestamp at the top of the entry in each instance that I ran it, and No Backspace. It was a good idea, but I'm not sure what ever happened to it. (irony)
Title says it all, a previous employer bought all employees Franklin Planners. I took a break from it for a number of years but I've been back with it for a decade or so.
In the late 90s, I decided to do some A/B testing to see which method worked best for myself. I had 6 classes for a term, 3 of them I took handwritten notes, and 3 of them I took typed notes.
I've never been much of a crammer and usually relied on rereading the notes once or twice prior to an exam.
After the midterms, I've noticed that I had a higher score for all 3 classes with handwritten notes, so the next thing I did was to ditch the laptop.
One thing I love about handwritten notes is that I can visualize myself having written them and found that it helps recall the information. On the laptop, it was much harder.
Even with classes where the teach provided typed out notes (or printed out powerpoint slides), I would continue to write my own notes in a big binder of loose sheets.
Classes are there for learning, not to transcribe what the teacher says.
Even now at work, I use pen and paper at meetings. Laptops and computers just get in the way and provide way too many distractions.
Maybe I have poor I/O bandwidth, but if I'm doing anything besides paying attention to what's being presented (including trying to take notes), I retain little of it. If I do pay attention, I usually have little problem recalling what I need, especially since I can usually reference a textbook or handout.
Way back when I was in college, I didn't realize this at first. I took copious notes freshman year that added up to several inches of notebook thickness. Making those notes was stressful and not that helpful to my studies, so I rapidly cut back. By the end of my college career, the notes for any given class were usually limited to jotting down the scheduled dates and times of the quarterly and final exams.
Depending the girl, I prefer masturbating. Seriouly, keep this feeling and get away from my life.
In a history class that was graded on verbatim rote memorization of a ton of stuff, I typed as fast as the prof spoke. I had a near perfect transcription of the class... good enough that other's paid me for my typed notes.
We had the study guide for the tests... He wasn't happy that I was not taking notes "organically" and thought I was surfing the web or playing a game. It wasn't until the end of the semester that I showed him his lectures all typed up. There was no reading for this class, just listen and regurgitate. Typing was the way to go.
Science classes, no way. formulas in math, chemistry pictures etc are way better by hand. Plus who takes an expensive laptop into a lab where it will be splashed and destroyed.
Handwritten is more information dense (added doodles) and more memorable, but typed notes can be copied and pasted. You end up typing handwritten notes anyway, but you also might end up quickly sketching a diagram in a handwritten note that is hard to capture with typing.
Kind of depends. If I'm in a meeting that I will be using my laptop, I can take notes in my Emacs-OrgMode running "brain". This does not happen incredibly often, but it happens. If not, I have a portfolio with a pad of paper that I carry around that I take notes on. I've gotten to where I can write pretty fast, but if anyone has to read my notes, they will have trouble with some of them (though it's a minority). I write in all capital letters. I can read everything that way, but some of my letter constructions slur together. I know to look for it. Others don't. It ends up being about 80% hand-written and 20% electronic. Of the 80%, probably half gets transcribed later into the Emacs-OrgMode files. These are stored on Dropbox, just in case...
Typing, even on a touch device, makes you appear distracted, even if you aren't. By contrast, writing notes by hand reinforces that your are listening to what is being said.
After writing my notes on a notepad, if I want to keep them, I take a picture so I have an electronic copy.
Look when you were young you had simple, meaning not too many... Interconnected neurons.
That's when they taught most in these generations handwriting. Without a doubt you are going to learn more using techniques that are older in your mind.
So anyone who knows will prefer to use handwriting or if they learned typing early they will do that.
The truth is they learned speech before all that and that's another route.
Just know with enough work in one medium that you learned early you can integrate a faster medium. Talk to your parents they can't type notes, talk to a drug addict the can probably see notes but never gave up replacing their latest method.
It's not hard to understand. It is sad they don't teach the reality of it all and prefer to fight about it.
This took place in the olden days, before there were laptops. For our basic circuits class (the one that separated the EEs from the wannabes) a group of us hired a stenographer to take notes. We talked the prof into giving permission, on the sensible basis that if we weren't copying notes just as fast we could to keep up, then we could actually pay attention to the lecture. I think he got a copy of the notes as well. Cost us all about a dollar a lecture and the stenographer made about $40 an hour, which was a pile of money in those days.
If there's something I don't understand, I'll realize I don't understand it instead of being busy making notes. I'll ask the questions nobody else is asking because they're too busy scribbling notes to actually engage in the learning process.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Getting back on topic, I'm definitely in the "Handwritten" column. Being a lefty, I rarely write with pencil. Other left-handers will likely understand why. As for paper, I prefer quadrille or genuine Post-It Notes. I've yet to find any substitute for the latter on which the pen doesn't skip at crucial moments.
(FWIW, I've never taken a typing class. I touch-type, but probably do it wrong, although--after nearly a decade in Sweden--I can use a Scandinavian or US keyboard more or less equally well.)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
What I need is a kind of shorthand for ideas instead of sounds and handwriting recognition for that, so I don't have to pay so much attention to the note taking process and can focus on the concepts being presented.
I jump back and forth between typing notes and handwriting them. Of course, it often depends on if a computer is handy or not. I can type a zillion times faster than write, plus my handwriting is horrible to the point often only I can make it out. And typed documents are easy to edit and reuse later, and can be distributed nicely, and searched. So typing is a win.
One factor is noise... typing is loud, and in a meeting, it is often unacceptable/distracting to people and can be rude. And there are things that are much easier with writing- like putting in stars, lines about relations, quick diagrams, etc. Doesn't rely on batteries, easy to use just about anywhere, very compact. So writing is a win.
So it "depends" :)
The noise of other people typing, even on quiet keyboards can really get under my skin when I am trying to focus. At work it's OK. I can pop on some headphones. But if I were a student now, I'm not so sure that I'd be able to sit through a lecture for very long if people were taking notes on laptops.
I'm over 50, so there you go... :-)
I can't take notes at all or I miss most of the content. I just have to shut up and listen and study course notes and texts that are already available.
Leela: "Is all the work done by children?" Alien: "No, not the whipping."
You already know the use of computer notes. Let me tell you why a two tiered standard desk is good. Put the keyboard and college ruled notebook to the off hand. Put five notebooks on the top layer. Write notes in the notebook to the side of the keyboard. Once it is full, swap it with a notebook on top the desk that has the most outdated info. To me, this is a wise programming tactic. I forget easy, but with this, I don't lose focus because all the latest things I was working on is there in plain sight.
God spoke to me
How do people organize notes?! I am always dealing with the question of whether you take chronological notes as you work or whether you try to jump around to add info to the relevant subject (project, task, etc).
Anyone else encounter this problem?
Due to my disabilities. I can type like a machine gun which drives people crazy with clicky keyboards. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I type if I want to be able to organize thoughts and actually read them later.
I hand write to form visual associations to remember things.
Typing is great if you already have an idea or know wha to do. Writing in an unorganized manner help you come up with that idea.
I need to transfer it to OneNote. If I don't, it's nearly hopeless to recall later where I wrote it down.
What is this note taking you speak of?
Alll I ever do is copy/paste URLs and logins.
We have audio visual recording devices in our pockets.
My handwriting is so horrible that not even the NSA can decipher it, let alone myself at times. Therefore, for clarity I prefer to type my notes, especially if they are to be seen by other people. Also, it is simply faster for me to type than hand-write. Therefore, I almost always keep a blank Notepad window open on my computer for this specific purpose.
Besides, I'm always losing pens or having coworkers take them without returning them afterwards. If I somehow end up losing my computer keyboard, then I have more serious problems to worry about than my note-taking habits.
In medical school we had the best of both worlds - we all took handwritten notes, and formed a note taking service, where someone recorded, and then transcribed all of the lectures.
Although to be honest - it was more efficient to skip class, and study the transcribed notes - better retention, and time management. Course load was roughly 2.5 times more than a typical college work load.
BUt yes - anecdotally speaking - hand written notes always seemed better for raising your testing averages.
..........FULL STOP.
Whilst in theory it is easy to take mind maps on paper, it's also easy to run out of space in an unexpectedly rich corner, and computer-based mind mapping applications are very useful in this context. Whether you believe mind mapping is useful is another matter, of course.
My "A4 sheet worldview" is on paper, with pen; lots of little boxed-off notes that show me things at a glance that I can cross out.
Everything else: Simplenote, because it's everywhere -- Mac, iPad, Android phone, web if I need it elsewhere. It's too simple to fiddle with (no formatting, no tickboxes, no images, no PDFs, no smart links). It forces me to write and describe.
Simplenote has had some subtle problems for me recently that have become hard to pin down, and I'm looking for an alternative. But without stepping further into the Apple-only world than I'd like to, I am finding no 'just type and it'll be everywhere' note system. And it's that which is the great strength; I am not tidy enough or organised enough (or even dextrous enough, perhaps) to work with a small pencil and small pad, and I'd be too anxious about losing them.
AN actual poll.
AN attempt.
Please god, I don't want to be a grammar nazi, but can we not let THIS one slip?
Ever hear of "shorthand?"
While using computer almost all day, I prefer dropping my notes in my notebook.
A multi core ball point pen with red, green, blue, black and a mechanical pencil
makes a good combination. A rubber eraser around will be handy.
When a concept is still in development stage, a pencil and an eraser usually works
more efficiently.
I'm using A4 notebooks which must be perforated and have holes for easy archival. For writing I've switched to the new generation of "Frixion" pens by Pilot. (The first generation was essentially useless.) They are less than ideal, for example your writing can disappear if you put a paper in the sun (!), but they are still better than pencil or ink with 'ink killer'. I need to be able to erase mistakes. There are two things that annoy me about notepads in Europe, though. First, the squares and lines are practically always printed too strongly. Extremely annoying. Second, it's almost impossible to get pads with large squares, which would be ideal for me. Why only small squares *or* lines? Large squares are the perfect mixture between the two, yet apparently there is some conspiracy to withhold them from the whole of Europe. I believe in the US choices are better.
If your taking useless notes that aren't worthy to remember... doesn't matter theyre specifically that purpose that upon working that matter you can check them easily lot of data is onetime or specific rememberance bears no longterm significicancy what so ever...
I don't take notes, I just remember important things and forget the rest. Now, where was I....
-- Make America hate again!
Both. That's why I use OneNote. It's the last product keeping me from switching my personal workhorse machine over to Linux from the Windows 10 crap.
The problem isn't typing them. With the right macros (see Lyx/Yasnippet) and keyboard commands you can type out equations at a rapid pace. It's not as flexible as paper no, but for standard equations you can get away with it.
Not, the true slowdown is that, courtesy of the LaTeX typesetting systems no-one simply types equations anymore. Everyone must typeset equations, so that they are Beautiful(TM). Want to just write out an equation on your computer? Too bad. You must consider the typography of the entire document.
Want wider margins to fit your equations? Want pictures? Want text to wrap? Want to put a box around some things? Want important mathematical material to fit on one page? How gauche. How unlovely. Go waste 2 hours trying to figure out how to include a sketch which would take 10 seconds to draw on paper. And think always of the beauty of the typesetting you are trying to achieve.
I type and write. But I wish my handwriting were better.
I like it when I find the time, peace and place to do some good handwriting. When I'm relaxed and not exausted my handwriting is actually quite good. I'm also a geek for all sorts of pens, pencils, calligraphy brushes, notebooks and paper-types.
I've always gotten flak in school and especially from my mom because of my bad handwriting. Turns out my handwriting isn't bad, I just don't have that much practice.
With all the typing however, digital is still not my main means for notes.
My main notebook is still physical (Moleskine Reporter) and I use a regular ink ballpoint pen (Lamy Ink Ballpoint, Lamy Fountain Pen Aluminum regular, Lamy Fountain Pen Aluminum Orange (with organge ink) + Faber Castel Technical Pencil with 0.7 mm leads).
I simply don't trust those services and my Emacs Skills arent that mad as to mitigate the platform and device mix I use every day (Tablet, Smartphone, MB Air, big ThinkPad, iMac). I'd like to try Emacs org mode some day and see if there's a cross-platform sync in there some where - then I'd might move to electronic entirely.
Evernote has become cumbersome recently with an aditional selection to be made before taking notes and Wunderlist is only for ToDos.
For larger and project specific stuff I use a mix of online services and accounts. Google Docs, Evernote, & Wunderlist.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I used to write all of my university notes by hand before using a laptop for lectures and handwritten notes for books, primary sources which I then typed up. Being able to annotate on paper made them much easier to deal with later. For work now, I type everything. It hurts to write.
Depends on what I'm taking notes for. If it is mostly text then typing is the way to go. I can type nearly fast enough to transcribe in many cases. But if math or drawings are involved then handwriting is the only realistic option. Paper and pen are fine. A tablet with a very well done stylus and good software actually is ideal but so far I haven't found one I consider adequate, mostly because the software for note taking is complete shit. (and I'm being generous - the hardware is passable but the software is a complete train wreck) And yes I've tried a number of options and don't like any of them so far. They all seem focused on the solving the wrong problems.
The biggest problem with tablet and PC handwriting software is that the developers waste enormous effort on tying to do quasi-pointless things like turn scribbles into typewritten text. I don't care about that AT ALL because handwriting is essentially a form of drawing. Drawings should be left as drawings. When I want to type something I'll use a keyboard. Make drawing and managing the documents as easy as possible and that would solve a lot of problems. A stylus isn't a substitute for a keyboard - it's a drawing implement and should be used for nothing else. Now you can draw text but the primary purpose of as stylus (like a pen/pencil) is drawing. Developers seem to have a hard time remembering that idea.
with pencil and paper.
When I was in college, I preferred to take notes on a printout of the slides for that lecture. 2Ã--3 layout of slides so as to not be too much.
The benefit of that is that notes would be in context to the slides.
I could add notes and arrows on the slides. The brain learns by associating.
If I would take notes on blank paper then I would also be copying what was on the slides, which would be more of an effort.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
Handwriting will slow down the method of output, allowing someone to contemplate the words a little more carefully. Considering that with typing, it's easy to delete entire sections and rewrite, typing for input and output purposes seems to be a little more free-flowing. Both serve purposes. I enjoy handwriting the most, as it allows me to slow down and take a breath (something we all need to do more of daily!) Plus it allows that "gadget" side of me to shine... a nice pen coupled with a good paper...
Taking notes never worked for me. If I'm focused on writing, I missed half the stuff that was being said.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I'm not afraid to spend money anymore, peasants! I want the best, no matter what the cost. I've tried all note taking methods including typing and voice recording. For a while, I used a stenographer/transcriptionist and I really liked that option. But the wife frowned on having her in my lap and truthfully she was a bit cumbersome to lug around, especially on flights. Even in the more spacious seats of first class, having her on my lap for extended flights got a bit uncomfortable after a while.
This past Christmas, my wife got me a wireless stylus, the Faber-Castell HB2. She also got me a 19"(!)battery free tablet from Sanford. I was reluctant to use it at first, but it has proven to be excellent for taking notes, jotting down ideas and to-dos and sketching up plans. I was initially concerned about the size of the 19" tablet, but it is insanely light weight. It's lighter than even an iPad Air and those are MUCH smaller screens. My tablet is also flexible which makes it much less fragile than most tablets. It really takes a beating without any apparent problem.
I really miss the warmth and tactile satisfaction of having the stenographer in my lap. But my wireless stylus and battery free tablet are FAR more portable and, frankly, I think my note taking has improved dramatically.
This new pencil and legal pad are by far the best note taking method of them all. But, I'll always have a place in my heart(lap) for the stenographer.
Unfortunately, all through middle and high school, I had anal-retentive teachers who demanded you transcribe their notes word-for-word and took 10% or more of your grade from random note tests. I had one teacher whose tests would consist of questions like "what is the third word on the 5th page of section 5 in your notes" and the answer would be "the" or something ridiculous. As a slow writer, I found it infuriating and it really left a bad taste in my mouth about education for many years. It wasn't about learning, it was about learning the way they say is best, individuality be damned.
I have been trying to get back into math for the past couple of years and one of my biggest gripes is there seems to be no good way to take notes on a computer for high level math. Sure you can learn Latex but it is time consuming to write/code and difficult to keep up or draw relations between different formulas. Any good apps out there for this? (Android or Linux preferred) Bonus points if it can actually compute or show connected relations between formulas.
I like to pee my notes in the snow. But, it only works when there's snow and when I have to pee a lot and when class is outside in the wintertime and when the rest of the class doesn't mind that my schlong is out.
I just use the Notes app on iOS. Preferably, I just take a photo of something rather than type out the detail. If the information was already written down on a label I see no reason to duplicate that effort, just photograph it and read it from the photo. Handy for recalling serial numbers and such. On a PC I just use the Sticky Notes app and screenshots. The only thing I tend to write down with a pen and paper anymore are passwords, which is possibly the worst thing to be writing down.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
I think this has more to do with keeping an active discussion going. People have been commenting on Slashdot for years that the only reason they stay is for the comments. Posting "stories" which are really just encouragement for active discussion is a way of keeping people engaged so there are more comments and a more lively community in general.
Typing when I will uses notes for reference or need a longer life. And to share.
Handwriting is useful when I'm in the midst of making something or documenting things. Knowing it's short-lived.
And I sometimes transcribe written notes when I couldn't choose to type.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Rather, I prefer to swipe notes!
Before the deluge, I loathed taking notes. Handwriting was slow, so I'd miss whatever came after what I noted down. I've never been a fast typist, so it suffered from the same issue. I'd just pay close attention to what was being taught and tried hard as I could to memorize, if not every word, the gist of the teaching, trying to make mental notes of insights. IOW, I trained my mind to understand subjects.
More recently, I discovered swiping and found that it was faster than handwriting and my typing. So, whenever I needed to jog down a reference, instead of letting it pass through my memory hopelessly, I'd make a quick note swiping without barely missing anything that was mentioned afterwards. I'm now an avid note taker.
I type at 125wpm and I still write notes because it's faster to write.
For written words that cannot possibly be true unless you are fluent in shorthand. For written words most competent typists are can take notes typing far faster than they can hand write them.
Hand writing is really a form of drawing. You can use it to draw text but it's not efficient to do so in large quantities. It has the advantages or being space efficient and for pen/paper energy efficient but drawing words is not quick compared with typing. The mistake most software developers make when creating software for handwriting systems is that they forget that it is a form of drawing even when you are putting letters to paper.
"As technology becomes smaller, cheaper..."
Wait... is it actually becoming cheaper to own/use a smartphone, laptop, tablet or other potential note-taking device? Because I'm fairly certain that cheapo laptops (chromebooks, netbooks) have been around $150-$200 and proper low-end laptops have been $300-$500 have been those prices for years. Smartphones and tablets (relative to brand) have been stagnant in their prices as well.
And smaller? Smartphones are only getting bigger. Laptops have bottomed out in their thinness at the cost of quite a bit of functionality.
I generally use audio to take initial notes but over many years I've found that transcribing them by hand gives me the best retention. In school I would use a cassette recorder, yes it has been that long, and then in the evenings I would transcribe them into notebooks. By writing them down and consequently reorganizing them I got the best understanding and value for my time. Typing them seemed to be less effective as I was more mentally involved in the act of typing than in fully absorbing the material.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I find typing notes on a laptop much more effective than writing. Because I can type much faster than I write, I find myself putting the ideas in my own words, hence I remember them better, even if I never look at the notes later. I've never tried a tablet, but using pen and paper, I have to keep looking down at the notes, which is very distracting. With a laptop, I can keep my eyes on the speaker and his presentation. Later, often on the plane ride home, I edit out the many, many typos, which I find is an absorbing way to review the material.
I am a contractor by trade and depending on the situation I use both a pen and paper or a phone or tablet (sometimes both). Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words, if I need exact measurements or geometry I use a pen and paper most of the time.
...handwritten sentiments...
Cursive writing can break 100wpm
Maybe some freak can scribble that fast for short periods but no normal human can write at that pace in cursive for any meaningful length of time. Not in full words anyway. I don't know anyone who can hand write full words in legible text at a rate of nearly two words per second.
When it comes down to it, cursive longhand isn't exactly "drawing"; it's a fluid and repetitive motor skill, whereas drawing relies on high accuracy.
Nonsense. Cursive (and block printing) most definitely is a form of drawing. The fact that it is a practiced and repetitive form of drawing does not change its basic nature. We use it for creating text because in some circumstances it is an efficient and/or practical means of doing so. But make no mistake that it is a form of drawing. I don' t mean to imply that drawing letters is a bad thing, merely that we need to understand what it is to understand where and why it is useful. Furthermore one can draw accurately or not and it remains the act of drawing either way. The fact that I happen to be a very sloppy artist (which is true) doesn't mean I'm not drawing because I have poor accuracy. The subject matter being drawn doesn't change the fact that it still is drawing.
Then you could say typing is a form of playing an instrument.
That would be true to an extent. Typing isn't so different from playing a piano in many respects.
Shitting is a form of drawing because it leaves marks in the toilet.
Really? You really think this is a good argument?
You're using a huge false analogy in which you equate the creation of a few marks in juxtaposition with the construction of an image
Nothing false about it at all. You seem to be under the misapprehension that drawing is merely the act of creating images in the sense of art work and that one has to be well trained to draw. That's an overly narrow and misleading view of what is taking place. If I grab a pencil and scratch an X on a piece of paper, I am drawing. It's a simple drawing but a drawing nonetheless. I can choose to draw characters or I can choose to draw images but either way I am still drawing. Drawing is the act of using drawing implements (pencil, pen, stylus, etc) to put down marks on a two dimensional surface. Handwriting is one form of drawing. There are others.
Writing is even easier than using a mouse to click on menu items on a PC--which, apparently, is a form of drawing, too, if you think about things in the broken manner in which you do.
It's possible to draw with a mouse. It's not a very effective or efficient tool for the task but it can be done. I've scrawled some crude images and text with a mouse. But anyone with sufficient coordination can created artworks or text with a mouse on a computer screen and in some cases you certainly could call that drawing. That said the primary intended purpose of a mouse is pointing and indicating. If you are clicking buttons on a GUI then you aren't drawing.
I have tried many things, then wrote my own tool. Currently it could be seen as emacs org-mode replacement that addresses some of the key challenges (hard to learn, awkward) while keeping some key benefits (efficient from keyboard, extremely flexible), and adding huge flexibility in what can be done: http://onemodel.org/ (AGPL).
But I also see it as the beginning of a platform to change how individuals (or mankind) manage knowledge overall. Future features involve exploiting the internals for collaboration (linking instances, sharing data, subscribing to each others' data, mobile, etc)
For current org-mode or evernote users: The app has export (& import) features to convert anything to (or from) an indented plain-text outline. The FAQs have more about that: http://onemodel.org/1/e-922337... ).
Feedback or participation are appreciated. If one has any interest at all, I suggest signing up for the (~monthly?) announcements list at least.
A Free, fast personal organizer for touch typists: onemodel
So here's what I suggest for the Note takers Bill of Rights:
1) The speaker will speak slowly and coherently when they want their ideas/opinions/facts propagated.
2) The speaker will pause between subjects, sort of like a new chapter in a book.
3) The speaker will use transitional phrases between subjects.
4) The onus is on the speaker that the note taker got your thoughts right.
5) The notes are owed by the note taker, and not subject to evaluation.
My other suggestion is to get the meetings transcribed like with court reporters (stenograph machines?), so everyone knows what was said.
No question, hand write. Not using cursive though. You need to use Gregg shorthand.
I can also splat an illustration if I need to.
Great thing is paper is well paper. Notes I wrote 20 years ago I still have, can still read them, no problem. Tablet, well stuff seems to be good for about 3 years tops. Then I can't either find it or it's simply gone. Paper I can throw in the drawer. I can then come back and by inspection I know about when I wrote it. Paper ages to show the age.
A lot of people lamely struggle along, insisting all the way it is working for them.
Faster and easier to do, just need a pen or pencil and some scrap paper. Notes are needed for short term and are typically for myself.