[atrettel]

One advantage of lab notebooks that the article does not mention is that by design, the pages are firmly bound to the book, so you cannot lose them. I started to use lab notebooks because I would otherwise just write thoughts on loose-leaf paper and have a difficult time keeping track of the pages and their order. The lab notebook (or any notebook with firmly bound pages) solves that problem.

That said, I don't use lab notebooks for coding/software development. I tend to use Markdown files in a Git repository for that. That setup serves the same purpose, since I write down what I intend to do and whether I was able to achieve it or not, but it is much easier to use when coding in my experience.

[stanford_labrat]

As a grad student I have an “official” lab notebook which sits on my lab bench and has all my technical details etc. I also have what I affectionately call my “real” lab notebook which is a stack of loose printer paper at my office desk, full of scribbles, designs, math, random planning and thoughts.

I plan to get it bound and call it my “real” thesis.