Keyboard vs. Pen: What's the Best Way to Take Notes?

Growing up, I was fascinated by my mom's shorthandnotes. The cryptic symbols she'd write blindly while listening through our 1980s-era phone with a 12-foot cord were a different language -- vestiges of a different time.

她解释说：“您永远不需要学习速记，因为您会输入所有笔记。”

And as it turns out, she was right. These days, many of us have traded in our mechanical pencils and fancy notebooks in favor of laptops to ensure that our every word is perfectly spelled and neatly tucked away in “the cloud.”

直到我参加大胆的演讲INBOUND2014 about note-taking that I put much thought into the difference between writing and typing notes.In his session -- "The Pencil and the Keyboard: How The Way You Write Changes the Way You Think" --New York Times Magazinewriter Clive Thompson explained why handwriting is better for taking notes and remembering big-picture thinking, while typing is better for composing your ideas and communicating with others.

Ever since I attended that session, I couldn’t help but wonder: Was he right? Were we doing this all wrong? To get some answers, I dug into some research on handwritten notes versus typed notes.

Keyboard vs. Pen: What's the Best Way to Take Notes?

TL;DR:就像我事实证明,understanding how your mind captures, retains, and recalls information can help you become more productive. Writing notes by hand in long-form will force you to synthesize the information, which helps you remember and recall it. So next time you head to a meeting, consider just a notepad and pen.

When we take notes by hand, we typically can't keep pace with the information being presented to us. As a result, our brains are forced to quickly synthesize the information into two categories:"important: write this down"和"not important: don't write this down."

这很简单neurological processis valuable to us, as it begins to stamp those important notes in our memory. In other words,when we’re forced to mentally prioritize information, it becomes a little bit stickier in our mind.

In his Bold Talk, Thompson describeda series of experimentsconducted by researchers Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer that demonstrated the benefits of handwritten notes:

A couple of scientists decided to test this. They set up an auditorium of people. Half of them took notes on keyboard and half of them took notes handwriting while someone spoke. They wanted to figure out who would remember the most, who would retain the most. They tested them afterwards. It turns out that handwriting won, hands down, pun intended. Handwriting completely won out. People understood more, they retained more, they remembered more when they wrote by hand."

There are times when typing is optimal, however. Thompson goes on to explain that typing is better suited for communicating information to other people.(Think: Handwriting is for input, while typing is for output.)

Fast-typing, referred to as transcription fluency in this context, correlates to better writing skills because there is less interruption between your thoughts and the composition. Stephen Graham,识字学者, described this phenomenon as follows:

You can think of the ideas in your head as rushing along and you're trying to transcribe them onto the page. The faster you can do that when you're in the act of writing, the less likely it is that words and ideas will escape and get away from you."

7 Handy Tips for Taking Better Notes:

归根结底 - 除了所有研究之外，做笔记的最有效的方法最终将归结为最适合您的东西。但是，无论您是打字还是手工打开东西，我们都会汇总一些方便的技巧和窍门，以牢记可以帮助您保持井井有条。

1. Know the purpose of your notes. Do you just need to remember a few key things to follow up on from a meeting? Or are you preparing for an exam that will test you on the details? Knowing your purpose will help you craft the right amount of detail.
2. 使用衬里的笔记本，然后 *尝试 *使用良好的笔记。The extra time you put into your handwriting will save you time later when you’re searching through your notes.
3. Underline, embolden, italicize, and highlight.Introduce some textual hierarchy into your notes so that you can decipher them more easily later on. Need help mastering italic handwriting?Check out this self-instructional course.
4. Get the big ideas down on paper.Trying to keep up with a fast-talker? Try just recording any numbers and facts that you know you won’t be able to recall. As soon as you get the chance (as in directly after the lecture) fill out your notes with everything you can remember while it’s still fresh in your mind.
5. Try a tablet and stylus.想要笔迹的记忆益处以及数字的协作好处吗？平板电脑和手写笔 - 喜欢Apple’s iPad Pro and Apple Pencil-- can help you speed up the note-taking process.
6. Learn the ins and outs of bullet journaling.根据网站, bullet journaling is best described as a “customizable and forgiving organization system.” You can learn more about this approach (and other helpful strategies)here.
7. For meeting notes, record the initials of the person who made the noteworthy comment.This makes it easier for you to follow up with them. Date, time, who’s in attendance, meeting topic, and project are all housekeeping items that add context to your notes for a future -- possibly more forgetful -- version of yourself.

Ready to Improve Your Skills?

If note-taking is not your strong suit, consider it a skill worth developing that will have compounding effects on your productivity throughout your career. Remember: Typing is best for getting your thoughts on [digital] paper, with as little interference between idea and text as possible. And forcontent creators, learning how to type quickly will allow you to get your point across with less edits later on.

Want to work on developing your content skills even further? Check out HubSpot Academy's first-ever内容营销认证在这里.