Digital vs analog for daily logs: paper won after 6 weeks of trying both

I ran a little experiment with my bullet journal for the last 6 weeks. I did three weeks using a digital app like Notion and then three weeks using my old dot grid notebook. The app was great for search and adding links, but I felt less connected to what I wrote. With paper, I remembered tasks better because I had to rewrite them, and my brain seemed to slow down. The biggest difference was at the end of the day - scanning a physical page felt more satisfying than scrolling. Has anyone else found that going back to paper made their tracking stick better?

3 comments

3 Comments

troyknight11d ago

Roll your eyes a little bit here because honestly this whole "paper made me feel more connected" thing always sounds like people convincing themselves they're deeper thinkers than they actually are. Tbh you probably just like the ritual of writing stuff down, not that the paper itself is magical. I bet if you timed yourself, the digital version saved you 10 minutes a day and you still forgot the same amount of stuff. Ngl people act like switching notebooks is gonna unlock some hidden part of their brain when really it's just writing a grocery list.

david_reed2211d ago

Roll with this: maybe the paper thing isn't about thinking deeper or saving time. The real advantage is that writing by hand forces your brain to slow down and summarize in the moment, which helps you actually understand the material instead of just typing it out verbatim. Digital notes let you parrot back everything word for word, but that doesn't mean you learned anything. It's not the paper that's magical, it's the physical act of having to process and rephrase stuff on the fly. You end up with less information written down but way more of it actually stuck in your head.

xena58211d ago

Wait, you actually did this for six weeks? Like a whole month and a half of your life dedicated to choosing between a notebook and an app?