Notes from the terminalWhy I still keep a paper notebook
My whole job happens on a screen, and yet the most used object on my desk is a cheap paper notebook with a soft cover. People sometimes ask why. It is not nostalgia. I have tried the apps, and the notebook keeps winning for a few specific reasons.
It has no notifications
This is the obvious one, but it matters more than it sounds. When I open a note-taking app, I am also one tap away from everything else on the machine. When I open the notebook, the only thing I can do is write.
It forces me to be short
Handwriting is slow. That is a feature. I cannot paste a whole stack trace or a long thread, so I have to decide what is actually important and write only that. Most of my useful notes are three lines long.
How I use it
- One page per day. The date at the top, a short list of what I want to finish, and room underneath for whatever comes up.
- A square for each task. I draw a small box next to each item and fill it in when it is done. It is oddly satisfying.
- A parking lot in the margin. Ideas that arrive in the middle of something else go there, so I can keep working and come back later.
- A weekly review. On Friday I flip through the week and copy anything unfinished onto the next page. What I keep copying and never do is a sign that I should drop it.
What it is bad at
It cannot be searched. It cannot be shared. If I lose it, it is gone. For anything that other people need, such as decisions, runbooks and design notes, I write it in the shared documents where it belongs. The notebook is for thinking, not for record keeping.
A note you wrote by hand is a note you have already half understood.
If you are curious, try it for two weeks. Buy the cheapest notebook you can find, so you do not feel bad about messy pages, and keep a pen with it. If it does not stick, you have lost very little.