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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
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Note-taking serves varied use cases including prosthetic memory, creative ideation, reading annotation, and lecture capture, each requiring different media.
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Handwritten notes promote deeper flow and better attention in certain tasks due to slower processing and lower temptation for verbatim capture.
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Digital notes offer superior searchability, organization through tags and links, and multimodal content inclusion like photos and audio.
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Combining handwritten and digital notes through workflows, like scanning or direct digital handwriting, yields benefits of both media.
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Using 'wrapper notes' in applications like Obsidian integrates scanned or digital handwritten notes with metadata for projects and people.
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Developing an emergent, evolving metadata and tagging system is more effective than premature optimization of note structures.
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Avoid transcribing handwritten notes fully; OCR and wrapper notes provide sufficient search and reference, saving time.
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Beware of spending excessive time optimizing note-taking tools and processes at the expense of actual work and thinking.
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Extended Mind Hypothesis supports that notes and environment can be considered extensions of cognition, augmenting brain capabilities.
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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."
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