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by yial 2557 days ago
I frequently still use notepads for notes, I find it actually helps me retain information.

Additionally, when reviewing shortly after a meeting, I find that I can better suss out the truly important action items. Especially if things need to be delegated.

This isn’t to say I never take notes on my computer. (Notepad++ is wonderful for this), but I find the physical note taking to be incredibly beneficial for organization of information.

Additionally, there may still be a certain social impact where people feel that you’re “paying attention” when taking notes on a physical pad, vs they feel they’ve “lost your attention” the second you start to type away on a device.

2 comments

> Additionally, there may still be a certain social impact where people feel that you’re “paying attention” when taking notes on a physical pad, vs they feel they’ve “lost your attention” the second you start to type away on a device.

Never mind what people feel - I care more about the fact that I do actually start to lose attention when I'm working on a laptop! (And I don't even need Internet for that, there's enough other things to distract me.)

Mind sharing how you use Notepad++ to take notes? Why is it wonderful?
I use Sublime Text for not taking when not doing it longhand, and I really like it. I think it's because it's an environment we're intimately familiar with, so there is nothing to get in the way of just capturing the information you want to capture.
I like notepad++ because it’s light, there’s no formatting or similar that happens if I hit 1. Space or 2. Space Or I use a.

Additionally, I like that I can hit new and have quick new tabs of notes (instead of new windows ) and that when I close it it gracefully saves them as “new” rather then promoting me to have to save them. (Of course I have the option to save them, but it doesn’t have a prompt like word and defaults to making sure they’re saved somewhere ).