De-computering its Notes (and if it recommends it)

This one, at the start of the year, moved from using Obsidian very heavily to using a paper journal and a box of index cards for its note taking, calendar, and organising purposes. It had some stumbling blocks in that experience but has also experienced a lot of benefits from it, and it figured it would write a little thing about that experience and the pros and cons of moving to paper notes. It's kinda gonna be an unordered list of things to consider and talking about how it dealt with some issues that showed up, and what it sees as benefits and drawbacks of paper vs digital notes. So... let's go!

It's been better for this one's ADHD

One of the major problems this one had with digital notes was either forgetting they existed, losing the files, or going to write something down and then getting distracted with other things like checking online chats or watching videos or generally wasting time with the internet. It tried its best to get around these things but never fully managed. With physical paper notes, it knows where its journal is, and it's a physical object that it can't forget exists as easily if it stays out on a table. When it goes to journal, or add things to its card file, it does that, without getting caught up in whatever distractions exist on the computer.

Keeping things organized was much easier than it thought

It relied heavily on the many search and tagging and linking tools in Obsidian to keep its digital notes organized, and worried that it would lose notes and information as it wrote more down on paper. This turned out not to be a problem, but required a little forward planning. It adopted a somewhat cut back version of the Bullet Journal system for organizing its calendars, tasks, planning and daily journalling, and this has done a fantastic job of allowing it to keep that stuff organized.

For knowledge management, it uses a box of index cards with a variant of the zettelkasten system, which allows for easy flipping through cards to search for stuff, but also searching by "tags" (with a card for a "tag" listing numbers of related cards), keeping an index, and linking between cards. It practically does everything it was doing for knowledge management in obsidian, but without anything more technologically advanced than a box of cards.

Everything is more manual (but that's secretly a good thing)

Working on paper, everything is manual. In obsidian, this one had a system set up for migrating tasks to a daily task list, making sure they were all in the same place, dealing with scheduled and deadlines automatically, and so on. With a paper journal, all of that management is manual, but it actually finds that to be helpful.

Manually looking back through tasks and TODO items helps it with understanding what is actually important or not. If it has to write out an urgent task in each day's section at the start of the day, it motivates it to actually complete (or reconsider) that task.

Migrating monthly tasks between months helps it prune things that don't actually need doing, and reminds it to do the ones that do. On the knowledge management side with the zettelkasten system, it feels like it understands where things are much better, because it wrote out the index manually and has to somewhat mindfully plan where it files new cards. It's more work, but it thinks that work is valuable (and flipping through a box of index cards is a lovely tactile experience)

It has to carry more stuff, often

Going from just carrying its phone to carrying its phone, its journal, pen and pencil (and sometimes, a box of index cards, if it needs access to that while travelling) certainly took some getting used to. There's a few places it will still use the notes app on its phone, mostly for things that are ephemeral (like shopping lists) and where not having to carry any more stuff matters. Stationery isn't very heavy, but it has meant bringing a bag some places it wouldn't have to bring a bag if it kept these things on its phone.

Paper notes are more immediately flexible...

As a nerd for weird languages, this one loves that it can use any writing system it wants, because it is writing it, itself, on paper, rather than having to worry about IMEs, weird fonts, not being able to type in certain scripts, etc. It's also nice to be able to just doodle diagrams and such when they are helpful for its memory.

...but struggle with including other content

It is impossible to print out a video and attach it to a paper note in a way that is convenient. Images are also difficult (when they are not hand-drawn). The way this one has got around this is a kind of "digital compromise" where if it needs to reference digital things, it has a dedicated folder on its laptop for things "linked" from its paper notes, where it puts anything they need, so it can refer to them by name in its notes. A lot of the time, a hand-drawn diagram is fine, but sometimes it really needs a video, and that's something that sucks.

Similarly, if it has notes for a post on paper, it has to transcribe those digitally by hand, which is a pain. It wouldn't recommend paper notes if you otherwise work entirely on a computer.

Good stationery matters

If one is committing to paper notes, it's worth getting a good journal, pens and pencils that are nice to use, and invest a little in making the experience nice. You don't need to spend ridiculous amounts of money, but a notebook with nice quality paper and good binding, a pen that you like to use, etc are all well worth getting. This one thought it hated writing inherently until it found a pen it actually likes (for pen nerds, a Lamy Safari) and mechanical pencils. The first journal it bought (a WH Smith own brand one) is falling apart after 4 months or so of heavy use, and it highly recommends getting something good from the start.

Overall, this one would say it greatly prefers using paper notes. It's not for everybody, to be sure, and it's been sure to note what it sees as the issues and drawbacks here. But it's happier with this setup than it was with obsidian.