Quick Tip – Put Away Your Phone and Laptop

🚀 Inefficient processes are surprisingly useful – Issue #123

When I was in college, we didn’t have cellphones or laptops that we could take to class. Yes, I know. I must be ancient.

I took notes as quickly as I could in a paper notebook (been enjoying this notebook lately). I sketched diagrams and ideas too.

Several years later, along came laptops and mobile phones. Soon, we were all carrying them to classes and meetings.

I will admit that I can type much faster than I can write notes by hand. I also love the easy access to my iPhone when I want to capture an idea in Evernote (BTW, you can get a free month of Evernote Premium).

However, some things still feel more natural with a paper notebook. For example, I prefer to quickly sketch designs, concepts, process flows, etc. by hand.

Yes, I suppose that I could do this with an iPad. But, quickly trying to switch back and forth between taking notes and sketching is still a bit clumsy on digital devices.

And, I’m sorry, but I find it almost impossible to flip between numerous “pages” of notes quickly. Tablets haven’t progressed to the point that they can fully replace a high-quality paper journal.

Ok, the ReMarkable “paper” tablet is pretty darn cool. I’d love to play with one and see if it lives up to the hype. However, I’m not quite ready to throw down $500 to find out.

But, what if I told you that the very inefficiencies of the paper notebook experience were beneficial?

Research has found that when you take notes by hand, you learn more. The physically tedious act of writing forces you to summarize and process the information before you scribble it down.

This is referred to as “generative note-taking,” instead of non-generative when you capture something verbatim. You’d think that more comprehensive notes would be better, but they are not.

The generative approach requires that you process what you hear more thoroughly, which improves learning and retention.

“When people type their notes, they have this tendency to try to take verbatim notes and write down as much of the lecture as they can,” Mueller tells NPR’s Rachel Martin. “The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective — because you can’t write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing of the material that they were doing benefited them.“

I’ve also found that people don’t pay attention and fully participate in meetings when they have their heads down, staring at their phones and tapping away at the keys on their laptops. Not to mention the fact that people get distracted by emails, messages, and alerts popping up when they should be involved in the discussion.

Good old-fashioned paper notebooks are less of a distraction and don’t create such a barrier between people.

So, the next time you go into a meeting, put your phone facedown on the table and close your laptop. Try using a paper notebook to keep track of information and action items.

I bet you’ll find that you are more engaged and remember more of the discussion later!

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