15 September 2008
It’s been about 3 weeks since school has started. This semester, I decided to take all my notes by hand. One thing I noticed is that it’s a lot easier to stay focused on the class material if you art being distracted by emails and such on a computer. I’ve also noticed that my writing speed has been gradually increasing. I used to think that I would need to learn shorthand in order to take notes on par with someone who had access to a computer. While there’s no way that I could be as good of a transcription-ist, I’m convinced that handwritten notes can be just as good as typed ones.
Should be a good semester all in all :)
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Notebook, Paper, writing | Tagged: Notes | 
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Posted by paperdan
19 July 2008
A few months ago, I was out shopping for a good notebook to use either for school or as a journal. I know that those are two very different ways to use a notebook. And I know that if I find a good notebook for school, it’s likely that the same kind of notebook wouldn’t be good for use as a journal, but anyways…
I came across composition books. I know, there’s nothing particularly special about them. I used to use them in grade school and haven’t touched them since. But I’m not convinced that they’re useless. In fact, there’s a lot to like about composition books: they’re durable, they can be laid flat on a desk, and they’re smaller than letter-sized paper.
I had a contracts professor in law school that I respected a great deal. She was a fantastic speaker, she was incredibly organized in her teaching, and she respected everything that students said in class - even if someone said something a little silly, she found a way to turn it into a positive learning experience.
We had a guest speaker for class one day, and I saw that my professor was frantically taking notes in a composition book. As I learned at other events, my professor was constantly taking notes in composition books. I guess it goes to show that you don’t have to use fancy writing equipment to record good ideas.
I mean, I knew that anyway, but it’s easy to get distracted by fancy stationary :)
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Notebook, Paper | Tagged: Notebook, Notes | 
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Posted by paperdan
8 June 2008
In law school, everyone takes notes with a computer. Last semester, I took a bulk of my notes by computer as well. This helped when I was studying for finals because I could create outline by cutting and pasting a lot of material from my notes into my outline.
The semester before, though, I took all my notes by hand. I can’t write as fast as most people speak, so I was forced to process the information before I wrote it down. At the end of the semester, when I make my outline, I had to process it again, since I had to read all of my notes before I typed the relevant information into my outline. When I copy and paste my typed notes into my outline, I have a tendency to overlook a lot.
Anyways, what’s the point of all this? Well, at the end of the semester I became quite good at taking notes. As the semester went on, I noticed my notes looking better and being more comprehensive. I got all the important stuff and less of the not so important stuff. Plus, it was well organized.
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve taken extensive notes by hand. I was in someone’s office talking to them about some work I had to do, I had a pad of paper and pen to take notes. I jotted a few notes down, but I felt like my writing was slow. When I got back to my office, I looked at my notes. Basically, I remembered what I was writing about, but my notes weren’t very good.
That’s when I realized that taking notes is a skill that needs to be maintained. So, I’m going to start taking notes by hand more often!
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Notebook, writing | Tagged: GTD, Notes | 
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Posted by paperdan
9 May 2008
I’ve always thought the large moleskine journal was a little bit small. It’s been great for jotting down quick notes. The cover is rigid so you don’t necessarily need a hard surface to write on. The elastic band keeps it from opening when you stick it in a bag, and the soft yellow pages are easy on the eyes. Really white pages are a little too bright. Welp, I was on the moleskine US site and I saw these. They’re soft cover moleskines that are extra large (7.5″x9.25″). Bigger than the current large moleskine, but with just as many pages. Moleskine cahiers come in the extra large size, but they don’t have that many pages in them. While the new extra large moleskines won’t have the rigid cover or the strap to keep it shut, I plan on improvising ways to achieve those features. For the time being, I’m thrilled that they’re making bigger moleskines. I always felt that the current moleskines were a bit too narrow for doing things other than writing down random thoughts. Wahoo for new moleskines. Though, it looks like the US shipments are being held up in customs. I hope they make it through quick! On the website, you can punch in your email address and receive an alert when they come in stock for ordering. Nifty.
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Posted by paperdan
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