[stillwater56]

Does anyone else find that the simple act of writing notes helps them remember and process better? I spent forever trying to find an ideal note-taking solution, but now I just write things in a single notebook. I rarely review my notes, but I find that simply writing thoughts down consistently has improved my memory and understanding of new concepts.

[Terr_]

Yes, the effectiveness of note-taking (particularly handwritten) on memory has been a subject of scientific interest for a while.

I feel it shares aspects with Rubber Duck Debugging: The effort of taking something you "know" and forcing it back out through other brain-circuits (i.e. language and/or simulating a social interaction) helps to fill gaps that your brain would otherwise skip over. The act of hearing/seeing your output also causes other parts of your brain to analyze it as if it were someone else's thought.

I suspect our consciousness isn't nearly as unified as we like to believe.

[hinkley]

This has changed back and forth over time for me.

Tests in middle school, I could recall writing things down, even the part of the page I wrote them in.

By college I would write TODO's down and lose them, and not be able to recall what I wrote down. Misplacing the note was more likely than forgetting the task, so I stopped writing them down.

I should try to measure this again because right now I couldn't tell you which works better.

One of the most uncomfortable things about getting older is that in your teens and 20's you spent all this time figuring out who you are, what you like, what you're good at and what you struggle with. Age, changes in health, coping mechanisms, changes in perspective all fuck around with this and you can find yourself in situations you should avoid or avoiding situations you could embrace.

It's like a weird mid-life crisis.

[otakucode]

This certainly applies for me personally. My theory is that it ties in with the sort of 'geographic' memory where when you think of something, you might not be able to remember exactly what it is, but you can remember pretty precisely that it's in the middle of a certain notebook, on a heavily marked-up page, in the bottom left corner. By tying things to a location which you can remember, placing it in a bit of a context, its easier to hold on to. I also find, and for this I have no explanation at all, that I can remember sequences of numbers and code very well, better than anything else. I couldn't tell you the date I started or left my job 2 employers ago, but I could rattle off my 7-digit numeric security code for the door no problem. The brain is weird.

[lazyasciiart]

Well, you also used that 7 digit code a lot more often than you ever had to recall your start or end dates.

[slightwinder]

I think notetaking is way to "materialize" thoughts. In which I mean a thought is bunch of uncertain values within a rough area, and they come a go fast. But writting it down makes the values clear and specific and puts and gives you something to remember, instead of something to think.

Hm, basically it's making real final decision, instead of playing with a bunch of potenial possible decisions which are all somewhat equal, but also kinda fuzzy,

[_y5hn]

This is well-known. Hand-writing are found in research to work very well, though digital note-taking also works. Those dilligent students were rewarded, though very good to learn this yourself!

I've found Freemind to work well enough for me. Search not needed as I browse the graph easily enough.

[nik_0_0]

Very much so. For me, note-taking also forces basic internal thought (I guess what you called process) as well, which is great. As I'm writing down the note, the next line has a relatively high percentage chance of being "wait, no that can't be right because X".

I am now dabbling with reviewing them, although not sure what that will lead to, as they are so unstructured. There are generally a few gems in there to be remembered, but mostly spur of the moment gibberish!

[semitext]

I think there is a lot of truth to this, however I also (when I remember to) like to review notes I wrote a month or so later, and check to see if they make any sense to me. If they don't it means I didn't understand the concept as well as I thought I did and it is worth going back over the source material.