The Utility of Notepads

It’s hard to understate the value of taking notes as a writer. In today’s busy world, it is all too easy to have a good thought come to us, only to immediately lose it a second later as something else catches our eye. We need a means of recording those thoughts as quickly and efficiently as possible so that even if we forget about them by the end of the day, they are not lost forever. Some folks would simply whip out phones or other devices and type a few hasty words before moving on with their lives, but I have always preferred good old fashioned pencil & paper, and here are three reasons why.

First and foremost, it’s quick and easy. There is no need to enter a password of PIN and open up an application first: just whip out a pen and flip to a blank page and scribble away. This is especially great for those who have a problem keeping device batteries charged–no power required! And of course, you don’t risk having those wonderfully ubiquitous “tech issues” that causes you to magically lose entire files or work sessions into microchip oblivion.

My second reason for sticking to the physical method is that of comprehension. It’s an established fact that reading and writing things down on physical media is better for comprehension and retention than reading or typing on screens. This has become so apparent that the Swedish education ministry has made moves recently to return to physical media in the classroom. (Plus, let’s face it: checking or crossing items off a list yourself is way more satisfying than simply pushing a couple of buttons to apply a strike through in Word.)

Finally, there’s the matter of privacy. Sure, if you drop your notebook, anybody could pick it up and read your scribblings (assuming you’re not like me and often writing in a foreign language just in case of such a possibility). But you can drop a phone as easily as a notepad. And when you input information of any kind into a program, that program has access to your file, and presumably whoever owns that program potentially does as well (to say nothing of potential hackers getting into your device). Maybe your notes aren’t of such a private or consequential nature that it matters to you. But personally, I’d rather people saw only the finished product I want them to see–not the jumbled and sometimes downright bizarre mix of words and random thoughts that it takes to get there. To each his own, though.

At the end of the day, what matters is getting those thoughts recorded so you don’t lose them. Whether that’s in the form of lists (my personal favorite), charts, drawings, whole paragraphs etc. is entirely up to you. But I have always found that having physical stationary around aids tremendously in that process, and gives us a nice record that we can look back on to see just how far we’ve come.

Be sure to come back next week for another interesting guest post from Christopher Haymon about what we do once we become established as writers!