Goodbye PDA, It's Been Nice Knowing Ya

I'm ditching my PDA (currently a BlackBerry Curve) and my laptop for note taking and going retro.

For the past few years I've been taking notes in various digital media. Back when I had my Palm, I would do handwritten notes (sometimes trying to fight that silly PalmScript recognizer). When I had a tablet available, I would do the same in OneNote and recently I just fill up OneNote pages with notes and scribbles (all typed in). The biggest issue I have with digital note taking is, while it's fast on data entry, it's horrible in capturing intent and nuances of information.

Recently I got inspired by a concept Mike Rhodes seems to have earmarked back in 2007 called "sketchnotes". It's the idea of capturing hand-written notes in a book, much like how you would scribble notes in class if you were that sort of person, adding in images and enhancing the notes with fonts and flair. I remember those days as I would use my sketch book for pretty much all notes rather than a traditional lined book (I went to a Vocational Art School so 70% of my classes were art based and thus I had dozens of sketchbooks for use throughout the year).

Sketchnotes are just like those days of taking notes in art class, except now I use them in corporate meetings, conferences, and impromptu get togethers at user group sessions, code camps, etc. They're much easier to lug around than a laptop (although I usually always have my laptop handy) but the best thing is they're easier to get started (it's like having a solid-state drive) and require no batteries!

The best part of sketchnotes is that you tend to flow free with the information and really focus on what's being said as you translate it into something more meaningful than just words on a page. Changing fonts is much faster than on the computer (and I can invent fonts on the fly) along with bits of flair (borders, highlighting, shadows, etc.) that punch out a concept. It's a slower process than capturing brain dumps onto OneNote and typing in information, but it lets me be more creative (something I've been lacking in the last few decades) and helps me understand the concepts that were being presented or talked about. It's also like having a whiteboard hovering around with you all the time as I can quickly do a screen mockup as the customer might be describing his/her needs which I can then just turn around and show to them "Do you mean something like this?". Fast feedback cycle, I like that.

Here's an image from my current sketchnotebook (taken from the ALT.NET Open Spaces Conference in Calgary a few months ago):

The image is from my CrackBerry so not very clear. I'll be creating a new Flickr pool and uploading higher quality images as I get them scanned.

My weapons of choice are the unlined large size (5"x9") Moleskin plain soft notebook and a black Uni-Ball Vision Micro Roller Pen. The Uni-Ball bleeds ever so slightly to get that "homemade" effect (something that's missed in digital) and lets me be free with the note taking, not worring about erasing (since you can't do it anyway). Moleskine rocks and while they're more pricier than other books, they hold up under stress (and come with a cardboard holder in case I have some handout to stash).

Yes kids, you can do something like this with OneNote and a tablet PC but a) I don't always have a tablet PC b) I find my OneNote notes turn into a graveyard of information that's always being sorted and never being used and c) I still need batteries to run OneNote (not to mention an OS that takes a few minutes to boot up). I'm not saying abandon your tablets and Moleskine is king (not that anyone would listen to me anywho). I use this as an alternative and like it, but YMMV.

Anyways while it might not be a new concept for you, it's something I've been trying to get into lately and now I'm comfortable doing on a regular basis. It took a few false starts and weeks of practice to get back to scribing (and my hand still cramps up from time to time as I have to switch back and forth between paper and keyboard). Sometimes the notes are pure chicken scratch and I have a hard time deciphering them but it's the imagery and little things that make it work for me. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I believe it. I feel like a giddy school girl again, scribbling images madly that remind me of School House Rock (and we *all* know how cool SHR is).

So goodbye digital input, it's been nice. Hand writing is back for me and it's here to stay. Maybe give it a try yourself?