Note taking in the Hybrid Age
January 5, 2022 7:31 AM Subscribe
What digital note taking methods work for you? (corporate edition)
I'm a note taker; I need to write things down to remember them (preferably by hand) and I need to be able to reference those notes.
Historically (pre ~2014) I took notes in small spiral notebooks; in about 2014 I got an Ipad+ pencil; specifically to digest high volumes of reading for work; to take notes; to annotate files for my underlings digitally and to do some sketching. the Ipad, with the GoodNotes App worked perfectly for my needs until the Pandemic. Now, my iPad is regularly pressed into service as my video chat screen, and I find myself taking notes in email drafts. Early in the pandemic I would then transcribe those notes onto my iPad and maintained that continuity, eventually I ran out of time (and desire) to do so. Today (and a new job later) my notes are now scattered across 31 email drafts; grouped by person I spoke with, or occasionally topic. This is again unsustainable, and I need a new method for 2022. The email draft system MAY be the most optimal right now, but I need to be better organized.
This also feels like something someone has studied and optimized since I was taught to take notes in outline form in middle school.
Current methods:
iPad (preferred)
- pros: hand written; I tend to remember what I wrote more clearly; in the good notes app it's easy to move pages around between notebooks/categorize and flag themes
- con: my iPad has the best camera and I'm on video 70% of the day; can't take notes while using the iPad for client presentations; increasingly not transcribing notes into my preferred platform
Email drafts:
- pros: in my email! accessible across all devices; quick to access; currently organized by person
- cons: there is no good way to categorize the notes; sometimes I talk to one person on several topics; each on different days, and it is NOT easy to dig out when I spoke to someone about something.
Things I've considered and mostly discarded:
- Notepad/text editor (similar issue to emails, more downside)
- oneNote: it keeps trying to outsmart me, I don't like the options to pull to do lists from emails - usually I'm generating emails based on my notes and references, not vice versa. (I'm open to being told I'm using it wrong)
- Word: probably the best one with ability to reference, but it's heavy to use; and harder to access on mobile devices even with cloud storage
- Excel: have used this for ongoing todo lists; but it's overengineering things. (and my job is shifting away from excel so trying to be less reliant on it for organizing my entire life)
- Reverting to paper/notebooks: I really like the ability to reference my notes digitally
- Buying another ipad or webcam: I don't have a stable office (it's our dining table in a 450 sq ft apt) so I take apart my set up (laptop, big secondary screen, mouse, iPad/ iPad stand) every evening and set it back up in the mornings. Adding a webcam into the mix is frustrating. Another iPad just to take notes feels like overkill.
- Google keep: great for todo lists and digital 'post its', but it's not what I'm looking for professionally
the TL;DR:
What are the current recommended note taking methods, both in terms of technology (apps? programs?) and in terms of methodology (organizational - topic, time and person)?
I'm a note taker; I need to write things down to remember them (preferably by hand) and I need to be able to reference those notes.
Historically (pre ~2014) I took notes in small spiral notebooks; in about 2014 I got an Ipad+ pencil; specifically to digest high volumes of reading for work; to take notes; to annotate files for my underlings digitally and to do some sketching. the Ipad, with the GoodNotes App worked perfectly for my needs until the Pandemic. Now, my iPad is regularly pressed into service as my video chat screen, and I find myself taking notes in email drafts. Early in the pandemic I would then transcribe those notes onto my iPad and maintained that continuity, eventually I ran out of time (and desire) to do so. Today (and a new job later) my notes are now scattered across 31 email drafts; grouped by person I spoke with, or occasionally topic. This is again unsustainable, and I need a new method for 2022. The email draft system MAY be the most optimal right now, but I need to be better organized.
This also feels like something someone has studied and optimized since I was taught to take notes in outline form in middle school.
Current methods:
iPad (preferred)
- pros: hand written; I tend to remember what I wrote more clearly; in the good notes app it's easy to move pages around between notebooks/categorize and flag themes
- con: my iPad has the best camera and I'm on video 70% of the day; can't take notes while using the iPad for client presentations; increasingly not transcribing notes into my preferred platform
Email drafts:
- pros: in my email! accessible across all devices; quick to access; currently organized by person
- cons: there is no good way to categorize the notes; sometimes I talk to one person on several topics; each on different days, and it is NOT easy to dig out when I spoke to someone about something.
Things I've considered and mostly discarded:
- Notepad/text editor (similar issue to emails, more downside)
- oneNote: it keeps trying to outsmart me, I don't like the options to pull to do lists from emails - usually I'm generating emails based on my notes and references, not vice versa. (I'm open to being told I'm using it wrong)
- Word: probably the best one with ability to reference, but it's heavy to use; and harder to access on mobile devices even with cloud storage
- Excel: have used this for ongoing todo lists; but it's overengineering things. (and my job is shifting away from excel so trying to be less reliant on it for organizing my entire life)
- Reverting to paper/notebooks: I really like the ability to reference my notes digitally
- Buying another ipad or webcam: I don't have a stable office (it's our dining table in a 450 sq ft apt) so I take apart my set up (laptop, big secondary screen, mouse, iPad/ iPad stand) every evening and set it back up in the mornings. Adding a webcam into the mix is frustrating. Another iPad just to take notes feels like overkill.
- Google keep: great for todo lists and digital 'post its', but it's not what I'm looking for professionally
the TL;DR:
What are the current recommended note taking methods, both in terms of technology (apps? programs?) and in terms of methodology (organizational - topic, time and person)?
If you are open to a new device, I know people have been recently raving about the ReMarkable, which is a single-use notetaking device.
posted by hepta at 7:46 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by hepta at 7:46 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Handwrittern notes, but you take photos of your notes with Ipad after each session to be filed in your notetaking software. To save on actual paper you can use RocketBook rewritable pages or cards, which can be erased and reused afterwards.
Have you tried Evernote?
posted by kschang at 7:54 AM on January 5, 2022 [6 favorites]
Have you tried Evernote?
posted by kschang at 7:54 AM on January 5, 2022 [6 favorites]
One idea to consider is getting a better camera/mic for your computer and continuing to take notes on your ipad. A rather good logitech webcam is $70 or so, and will probably work better than what's on your device. For that matter, if you use it for several years, a second ipad isn't an unreasonable professional investment.
(My strategy is many tens of spiral-bound lab notebooks with too-rarely updated indices and many thousands of org-mode text files with long and descriptive names. I don't think either is optimal.)
posted by eotvos at 7:56 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
(My strategy is many tens of spiral-bound lab notebooks with too-rarely updated indices and many thousands of org-mode text files with long and descriptive names. I don't think either is optimal.)
posted by eotvos at 7:56 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
I would do as kschang suggests. This is what I do when I'm without my ipad/pencil. You can take pictures of your notes directly into goodnotes and they will be searchable just like your directly handwritten notes.
"Handwrittern notes, but you take photos of your notes with Ipad after each session to be filed in your notetaking software."
Or buy a good quality webcam, which has the advantage of being repositionable so you can set it up at a perfect angle for your presentations.
posted by some chick at 7:56 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
"Handwrittern notes, but you take photos of your notes with Ipad after each session to be filed in your notetaking software."
Or buy a good quality webcam, which has the advantage of being repositionable so you can set it up at a perfect angle for your presentations.
posted by some chick at 7:56 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
One possibility: take notes on paper, then scan them (using the camera and the native Notes app or some other method) into a PDF and get rid of the paper. These notes might even be searchable with OCR, not sure whether/how to do that.
Alternatively, get a second ipad and use one for note-taking and the other for all the other functions.
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 8:02 AM on January 5, 2022
Alternatively, get a second ipad and use one for note-taking and the other for all the other functions.
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 8:02 AM on January 5, 2022
Riffing on what @some_chick said, It's certainly possible to get a second tablet or one's smartphone just for Zoom sessions, if one rather not be tied to a PC. One can buy a mounting arm for tablet easily which can also be adapted to hold a webcam with a different "head" mount if you decide to be more PC centric later.
posted by kschang at 8:05 AM on January 5, 2022
posted by kschang at 8:05 AM on January 5, 2022
Best answer: I've fallen in love with Notion recently and have been using it mainly for to-dos but it's also really great for the broader use case of note-taking that you're looking for. It works based on "pages," and each page that you create can be nested with other pages, directly link to other pages, and include any number of different embeds or other specific types of content, like to-do lists. One of the many things that I love about it is that it has a huge user community that creates and shares templates that can easily be copied and tweaked to your needs.
The way I have mine set up is that I have one big "database" (a collection of pages) called Tasks. Each task is it own page, and I have a series of custom fields for organizing my tasks: Workflow, Project, Due Date, URL, etc. Then within the task I can include any notes that are relevant and link out to other notes (like literal meeting notes) that I need to complete the task.
It took me some time to get things up and running, but I can honestly say it's the best tool I've found for combining both notes and to-dos – as you noted, most apps are geared toward one or the other, not both.
posted by anotheraccount at 8:41 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
The way I have mine set up is that I have one big "database" (a collection of pages) called Tasks. Each task is it own page, and I have a series of custom fields for organizing my tasks: Workflow, Project, Due Date, URL, etc. Then within the task I can include any notes that are relevant and link out to other notes (like literal meeting notes) that I need to complete the task.
It took me some time to get things up and running, but I can honestly say it's the best tool I've found for combining both notes and to-dos – as you noted, most apps are geared toward one or the other, not both.
posted by anotheraccount at 8:41 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'd like to recommend you give OneNote another try. It has a lot of positives for it. You don't HAVE to use the tasks sync or whatever with it.
OneNote is super searchable, syncs across devices, and has the best organization with tabs and sheets. It's usable on your laptop when you are in board meetings, and can I emphasize how you can search keywords on the whole workbook so fast and easy?
It's definitely what works for me. My mentors that have "Made it" use it as well (except for one guy who writes everything in notebooks still).
posted by bbqturtle at 8:42 AM on January 5, 2022
OneNote is super searchable, syncs across devices, and has the best organization with tabs and sheets. It's usable on your laptop when you are in board meetings, and can I emphasize how you can search keywords on the whole workbook so fast and easy?
It's definitely what works for me. My mentors that have "Made it" use it as well (except for one guy who writes everything in notebooks still).
posted by bbqturtle at 8:42 AM on January 5, 2022
I am a big note taker, and I really like OneNote. I have about a dozen notebooks in OneNote and probably close to 1000 pages of notes. It syncs across my devices and is rock solid. It does everything I want it to do and more. It doesn’t do any of the outsmarting behavior you describe—there must be settings you can turn off.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:44 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:44 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am also a OneNote devotee for work (Evernote is my personal system), and most of the time I'm just typing notes in it but there are absolutely tons of options for working with handwritten notes - I like youtube for this research.
I do think you should consider either getting a slightly better aftermarket camera for your laptop or a cheap drawing tablet so you can handwrite directly into OneNote. I spent about $35 on each of those, and while the tablet is not as fantastic as Apple Pencil it's plenty fine for writing.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:39 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
I do think you should consider either getting a slightly better aftermarket camera for your laptop or a cheap drawing tablet so you can handwrite directly into OneNote. I spent about $35 on each of those, and while the tablet is not as fantastic as Apple Pencil it's plenty fine for writing.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:39 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
You might like Rocketbook as part of a hybrid method. It's basically a reusable notebook (requires a Pilot Frixion pen, which are widely available). You write, and using the symbols at the bottom, are able to direct a destination service (OneNote, Evernote, box, iCloud, Mail, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc). There is OCR text recognition/transcription and tagging as well.
posted by honeybee413 at 10:07 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by honeybee413 at 10:07 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
I didn't really pursue my ideal solution in the end (raising the funds for it) which is getting a graphic tablet to handwrite digital notes. However, i did do some googling around, and if you're still considering pen+paper and then digitally scan them (these days it just means taking a photo), Evernote and OneNote have decent OCR for handwritten notes and you can still scribble more notes on top of it. I think you can even get a third-party stylus for your phone, and take notes directly on your phone with either of these as i believe they have great handwriting input recognition (Evernote, yes, OneNote, I never personally tried but this was a key plus for me when I was looking up options).
If you still would like maintain the email drafts, then either software would work as well as an additional step, where you dump your notes and add tags etc to organise it. Notion i think would work here too.
posted by cendawanita at 10:46 AM on January 5, 2022
If you still would like maintain the email drafts, then either software would work as well as an additional step, where you dump your notes and add tags etc to organise it. Notion i think would work here too.
posted by cendawanita at 10:46 AM on January 5, 2022
If you like the typed email drafts I'd encourage you to have a look at Obsidian. It's a series of text files that sit in a folder you choose, but the software lets you do fun things like linking between notes, making templates, a daily note page, etc. They also now have good syncing and mobile in case that's useful.
If I was in your shoes I'd make a new Obsidian vault/folder, then make a new note with the text of one email draft in each. Give each a short title, and just keep typing as you've been, but there's many more features to explore if you want.
posted by heyforfour at 12:26 PM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
If I was in your shoes I'd make a new Obsidian vault/folder, then make a new note with the text of one email draft in each. Give each a short title, and just keep typing as you've been, but there's many more features to explore if you want.
posted by heyforfour at 12:26 PM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Bundled Notes on Android (iOS supposedly coming this year) is a game-changer / life-changer. My most used app.
Samsung Galaxy Note phones, because they have a stylus. I use the Note20 Ultra. If you're not familiar with the Note, you can remove the pen, write on the blank, black screen as if it were a piece of paper, reinsert the pen into the phone and have your note be filed away -- all without unlocking the phone or launching an app. Like this (note in this video that they tap "save" but you can change the setting to make it save automatically by reinserting the pen.)
Both of these things are the reason I stay with Android even though I use a Mac as my computer.
posted by dobbs at 12:31 PM on January 5, 2022
Samsung Galaxy Note phones, because they have a stylus. I use the Note20 Ultra. If you're not familiar with the Note, you can remove the pen, write on the blank, black screen as if it were a piece of paper, reinsert the pen into the phone and have your note be filed away -- all without unlocking the phone or launching an app. Like this (note in this video that they tap "save" but you can change the setting to make it save automatically by reinserting the pen.)
Both of these things are the reason I stay with Android even though I use a Mac as my computer.
posted by dobbs at 12:31 PM on January 5, 2022
(Oh, and Bundled Notes has an excellent web app which can be used on any web browser/platform as part of its PRO feature, which is under $20 a year.)
posted by dobbs at 12:37 PM on January 5, 2022
posted by dobbs at 12:37 PM on January 5, 2022
Best answer: You have a system that works for note-taking (the iPad), which is the hard part. What you don’t have is a system for being in video meetings 5-6 hours a day. Is setting up a webcam really more work than stressing out because you can’t find your notes when you need them? Being on camera is a major part of your job, it’s worthwhile to get a small piece of tech to support it. You may also benefit from better storage for your office to make setup and take down easy. Your employer should pay for both, imo, but do what you need to.
posted by momus_window at 1:26 PM on January 5, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by momus_window at 1:26 PM on January 5, 2022 [8 favorites]
I do a lot of searches (mainly google scholar, but other sources and hardcopy) and wanted a way to track search pathways and branches to make my searches as valid/supportable as possible. I also like things on my server, not on the web as have seen so many systems end.
I define my initial terms, assign a random string to the search e.g. s__GPuQngRg (the s__ helps me find searches, plus a keyword) and save as a .txt file. I do everything in vscode as I can date and time searches and easily add the random number. I add notes to finds as I go and this way I can start with a question where I know almost nothing, and in an hour have a lot of useful info, and where I found it.
lead phytoremediation x90000 [x number of hits]
I don't want refs to; EDTA, reviews
I do want "plant uptake", Europe, and published after 2011
"plant uptake" phytoremediation "lead" "Pb" Europe -"EDTA" -"review" x286
and there's a hit on the first page
Lyudmila 2013 The fate of arsenic, cadmium and lead in Typha latifolia: A case study on the applicability of micro-PIXE in plant ionomics. synopsis; [where metals go in Typha, lead was adsorbed to roots, NOT taken up] c68 = 68 citations
"in vivo"|"field"|"case study" occurs in almost all citations, and when I put "new zealand in" I have 4 possibles.
I enter dates as the search develops then can easily run again from that point. When I save items I put the random number in the file name, helpful if I'm busy.
posted by unearthed at 1:37 PM on January 5, 2022
I define my initial terms, assign a random string to the search e.g. s__GPuQngRg (the s__ helps me find searches, plus a keyword) and save as a .txt file. I do everything in vscode as I can date and time searches and easily add the random number. I add notes to finds as I go and this way I can start with a question where I know almost nothing, and in an hour have a lot of useful info, and where I found it.
lead phytoremediation x90000 [x number of hits]
I don't want refs to; EDTA, reviews
I do want "plant uptake", Europe, and published after 2011
"plant uptake" phytoremediation "lead" "Pb" Europe -"EDTA" -"review" x286
and there's a hit on the first page
Lyudmila 2013 The fate of arsenic, cadmium and lead in Typha latifolia: A case study on the applicability of micro-PIXE in plant ionomics. synopsis; [where metals go in Typha, lead was adsorbed to roots, NOT taken up] c68 = 68 citations
"in vivo"|"field"|"case study" occurs in almost all citations, and when I put "new zealand in" I have 4 possibles.
I enter dates as the search develops then can easily run again from that point. When I save items I put the random number in the file name, helpful if I'm busy.
posted by unearthed at 1:37 PM on January 5, 2022
Response by poster: Taking a picture of my handwritten notes is brilliant; and so simple. That's implementable today and is significantly faster than transcribing notes across platforms. I read that and literally the lightbulb went off. Thank you.
I will take another stab at OneNote given the support this thread has for it; and I'm very much intrigued by Notion. (I operate behind a VPN at work, so while I know OneNote is a a supported software will need to see what I can do with Notion)
posted by larthegreat at 2:13 PM on January 5, 2022
I will take another stab at OneNote given the support this thread has for it; and I'm very much intrigued by Notion. (I operate behind a VPN at work, so while I know OneNote is a a supported software will need to see what I can do with Notion)
posted by larthegreat at 2:13 PM on January 5, 2022
Came here to suggest Obsidian, too. I’ve adopted it for work (along with the PARA classification rubric) and it’s aces.
posted by notyou at 9:47 PM on January 6, 2022
posted by notyou at 9:47 PM on January 6, 2022
This is exactly what programs like Evernote and Notion are designed for. The key is to use Tags to organize them by category.
I used Evernote for a long time until it got bloated and they are always pushing a subscription. So I switched to the open source Joplin which has been perfect for me so far. Organize notes using tags. Easy and fast. I'm only using on desktop though, so YMMV with mobile.
Simplenote is another lightweight option that supports tagging notes.
I also use OneNote, but for organizing writing projects and reports rather than notes, as the tagging function is not as robust.
posted by roaring beast at 1:12 PM on January 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
I used Evernote for a long time until it got bloated and they are always pushing a subscription. So I switched to the open source Joplin which has been perfect for me so far. Organize notes using tags. Easy and fast. I'm only using on desktop though, so YMMV with mobile.
Simplenote is another lightweight option that supports tagging notes.
I also use OneNote, but for organizing writing projects and reports rather than notes, as the tagging function is not as robust.
posted by roaring beast at 1:12 PM on January 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by london explorer girl at 7:45 AM on January 5, 2022