Taking notes on computer or pen and paper?

My thoughts are that both systems have their pros and cons but I prefer paper and pen.

Also, it's incredibly distracting to have someone tapping away on a computer whilst trying to take notes and listen to a lecture, so might be worth factoring into the consideration other people.
 
I find that I love the pen and paper for working things out, or making notes, getting ideas down, that said I've never used a good stylus. I've been meaning to get one to see how it compares though. Typing just isn't the same for me.
 
I 100% wouldn't use a computer. Writing walls of text is an incredibly inefficient way of taking notes, it's slow, it's not very flexible and it's poor for recalling information later on.

I tend to map and draw out the concept as someone is explaining it, adding key chunks of text where needed and diagrams as appropriate. The more visual your notes are the easier it will be to recall key things later, to assimilate the information and it will also be much quicker.

If something is very important I'll record it on a Dictaphone as a backup but that is exceedingly rare.

Upside of paper as well is you won't be tempted to check your emails, downside is you might be tempted to draw a gigantic penis in the margin if like me you've got the mental age of a 13 year old boy.
 
At uni, I used pen and paper exclusively. It's easier when dealing with equations or annotating diagrams.

At work, I started with pen and paper but found that a lot of times when I went back through my notes, I couldn't find what I was looking for. So now I use my Surface to write down notes from meetings or just general things. It also means I can go back and add additional content more easily. I can use the bundled pen to draw diagrams but that still doesn't beat pen and paper if I need to draw diagrams or equations quickly.
 
Sliver said:
You can still spill your coffee on it though. :p
Click to expand...

You can also rip the paper and run out of ink. There is also no ctrl+z or autosave feature, and you can ruin an entire page by starting to fall asleep and accidently scribbling all over the page when you jerk awake.
 
Pen and paper. Far easier when drawing diagrams and chemicals and less likely to get broken in your bag or feel like it no longer wants to work*. ;)

*Don't worry little BIC, I have hundreds more where you came from.
 
Surface Pro, with the Wacom pen and one note it really is the best of both worlds, freedom of pen/paper but with online sync, undo, easy to share, etc.
 
For studying I use a combination of the two. I can spend quite a lot of time at the pc or on a laptop so getting away from it and doing it with pen and paper is nice. I usually end up writing them up again anyway if it is something I need so I have the benefit of going over it twice (hoping it helps it stick).
 
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