Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Summary
Unlock the cognitive benefits of handwriting without losing the convenience of digital organization. Research consistently demonstrates the cognitive value of writing notes by hand. However, there are important benefits to keeping notes digitally. In this seminar by Duly Noted author Jorge Arango, you’ll learn workflows for integrating handwritten notes into your digital notes. Watch Part 2 Watch Part 3
Key Insights
-
•
Note-taking serves varied use cases including prosthetic memory, creative ideation, reading annotation, and lecture capture, each requiring different media.
-
•
Handwritten notes promote deeper flow and better attention in certain tasks due to slower processing and lower temptation for verbatim capture.
-
•
Digital notes offer superior searchability, organization through tags and links, and multimodal content inclusion like photos and audio.
-
•
Combining handwritten and digital notes through workflows, like scanning or direct digital handwriting, yields benefits of both media.
-
•
Using 'wrapper notes' in applications like Obsidian integrates scanned or digital handwritten notes with metadata for projects and people.
-
•
Developing an emergent, evolving metadata and tagging system is more effective than premature optimization of note structures.
-
•
Avoid transcribing handwritten notes fully; OCR and wrapper notes provide sufficient search and reference, saving time.
-
•
Beware of spending excessive time optimizing note-taking tools and processes at the expense of actual work and thinking.
-
•
Extended Mind Hypothesis supports that notes and environment can be considered extensions of cognition, augmenting brain capabilities.
-
•
AI tools like GPT-4 can help summarize and reflect on notes, acting as a reality check to uncover missed insights or gaps.
Notable Quotes
"Notes are a way to enhance our thinking, not just a prosthetic to memory."
"Paper has no boot up time — you just open it and start writing."
"People who take handwritten notes tend to remember lectures better because they make the information their own."
"Digital notes are infinitely organizable and easily searchable unlike paper notes."
"Handwritten notes allow deeper flow because you can draw, make arrows, and creatively express ideas."
"The goal is not to take notes. The goal is to think effectively. – Andy Matus."
"It’s easy to waste time fiddling with tools and processes instead of focusing on the actual work."
"I resisted premature optimization in tagging and let structures emerge bottom-up from actual use."
"Using wrapper notes in Obsidian lets me relate notes by project or people and jump between related ideas."
"You can give a text to an LLM and ask what you might be missing — often it comes back with surprises."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"A good story that people can retell is key for global communication, even if it distorts a bit."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"Sometimes the director is the most senior design person in the org and ends up playing the executive role without the title or support."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"If you haven’t designed who your teams are and who your players are, expecting people to comply with standards won’t work."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Policy change is the backbone of effective climate strategies in urban areas."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"OKRs are a tool for each of us to tidy our house and focus on what’s important."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Thick data is the opposite of big data; it’s stories, qualitative, and crucial during moments of rapid change."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"If you don’t bring stakeholders into the research journey, they won’t believe or use the data."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"Our brains are terrible at operating only on one type of information, whether object-oriented or context-oriented."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"Ethics evolve faster than law; just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s ethical."
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
