I’m a techie, but I’ve fallen for paper notes again

Normally I type my initial thoughts for these columns on my computer, but this week I wrote them in a paper notebook.

I’ve never been a paper person. While I did carry a reporter’s notebook with me for newspaper work in the pre-iPhone era, I prefer to record my thoughts in digital form so they can be sorted, backed up online, and accessed from any device.

But after a recent office cleaning project resulted in a bunch of unused items field notes notebook— along with a few beautiful pens I’ve accumulated as gifts over the years — I was inspired to try paper note-taking again as a supplement to my digital note-taking.

This story first appeared in consultantJared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. SIFree gn Get more tips every Tuesday.

The situation of paper notes

I’ve come to understand why paper notebooks endure.

There’s one obvious fact: Paper is cheap, you don’t have to charge it all the time, and it never bothers you to make in-app purchases. The worst that can happen is that you buy more.

There’s also the immediacy factor: You don’t have to think about which app to use or which folder to open. If you decide to digitize your handwritten notes (more on that later), you can still write first and sort later.