[nolamark]

Habit of lab notebook has stuck with me since college. Shoutout to reMarkable tablets and Neo Smartpens, for helping combine the analog process of handwriting with digital search. Likely a personal thing, just like to take hands off keyboard from time to time. Seen hints of research re benefits of handwriting, but never really dug into it.

[maCDzP]

Haven’t heard of Neo before but it looks amazing. Could you explain your process and likes/dislikes with the Neo/reMarkable?

[nolamark]

Here is a first draft. I'll expand if I have more time and energy.

Rule #1. Every thing gets a date (And more an aspiration than reality a time.) I am truely an oddball and have my own date format 2023_12Dec_26Tue_1312. Rational, when used a a corresponding file name, it sorts naturally assuming you used 0 prefix on one digit numbers. Day of week, just another memory clue to try to recall specific thought experiment.

Rule #2. It is a process, not end product. Like the article mentions, no erasure. Point is re remember mistakes, not hide them.

Rule #3. Take you time to write neatly. It is for your future you, and you will thank yourself. May feel like a debt due to slowness, but really an investment for your future self.

Pros. reMarkable likes: feels like nice inkflow. Can get a fine line not quite comperable to a Pilot G-Tec-C 0.25 pen, but fine enought. I write small to increase information density per page. NeoSmart pen: doesn't just feel like ink flow, it is inflow

Cons. NeoSmart pen: notebooks are expensive. Cheapskate in me, writes less than I should. Remarkable tablet: Miss the real estate of two pages open in a labnote book. Also, miss the leafthrough feel of physical notebook. Can't as easily binary seach to find something like one can in paper notebook

Just saw Smart Plate at neosmartpen site, resisting urge for impulse purchase

Edit - update to expand

Additional cons or NeoSmartpen: Very limited number of pen widths.

Note: When I worked for a living, it was much more likely to be greenfield project, not a repetition of a existing workflow. Even on repetitive projects, debugging is a good match for a notebook. Now my projects are for learning, never finished product. As always, your mileage may vary.

Try to formalize your process and have repeatable actions done in repeatable ways. I have a collection of tokens. Before starting I write down a #GOAL, useful for climbing out of rabbit holes. Of course, the all important #ASSUMPTIONS. If the goal is not likely achievable in one session, write down a #PLAN. If need motivation to pursue a path, I write #BABYSTEPS for an action to start with. If I have a thought that would distract from present pursuit, I write a #STASH. If I do have a distraction I pursue, I note #DETOUR. End of day gets a few #LESSONSLEARNED and a #WRAPUP.

I have a target audience of one, me. Thru trial and error I know what I'll want to know in the future, usually from stuff I regreted not having written down. From time to time, recall, revise, and document "process" currently in use in notebooks. Date_Time are links to other notes in notebook, Date_Time_Notebook are references to other notebooks. Date_Time and Date_Time_Notebook are also typed as comments in associated computer files, be they source code or what serves as documentation.

To re-emphasize importance of Rule#1: Truth value of things changes with time. Time, usually, but not always, serves as a shortcut description of context, or at least provides enough hints to re-build the context

[throwaway914]

Neat date format :)

I use these for work within SharePoint lists:

"2023 Q3 August"

"2023 Q3 08/02"

"2023 Q3 Monthly"

"2023 Q2"

"2023"

"Weekly"

"Monthly"

"Annually"

I had an issue scheduling things for 1-off occurrences, and reoccurring. A lot of what we do is scheduled around quarters or months. This was my "best of both" because I can store the date as text, sort alphabetically, and the dated-1-off things sort correctly. The recurring stuff like weekly/monthly/annually naturally group at the bottom or top depending on the A-Z direction. It generally keeps the format of year-quarter-month/day.

Thanks for the heads-up about the NeoSmart pens! I have a remarkable 2.

[pimlottc]

> Rational, when used a a corresponding file name, it sorts naturally assuming you used 0 prefix on one digit numbers.

Minor bit, but I think you meant “rationale” here, as a noun. “Rational” as an adjective is a bit of a different meaning than you intended, I think.

[nolamark]

you are correct. (Note from grade school report card: Mark missed 39 of the 81 spelling words this month).

But it does point to another issue with handwritten notes. Sloppy spelling and dislexia (sic)

[maCDzP]

Thanks for the write up. I am seriously considering the NeoSmartpen since it’s cheaper in the beginning and I really like the feeling of ink flow.

I looked at their website and if you buy the idea pads you get 5 for 20 USD, seems reasonable.

[nolamark]

Mentioning for completeness, they do also have printable ncode pdf files of various flavors for download on their site. Others have had success with them, I have not.

Livescribe has a similar product line. No direct experience with it, so can't contrast and compare.