3 ms·

My anecdotal contribution: I always took notes on paper, even though I never even read them. I have trouble sitting still and get bored and distracted very ea

My anecdotal contribution: I always took notes on paper, even though I never even read them. I have trouble sitting still and get bored and distracted very easily, so having something to do with my hands helped me pay attention in university. Doing the same on a computer would mean I would tab into something else and get distracted. Note taking is similar, if I write something on a piece of paper on my desk, when I get fidgety and move around I'm going to see it. If I wrote it on my computer, it'd be buried and forgotten behind my 20 browser tabs, mail client, editor windows, terminals, etc, and that's if I remembered to open it the next day. Having a whiteboard on my desk made me way more productive at work. So I would think the reasoning is less deep, it's more that there's less distraction on paper than on a computer.

anexprogrammer 11y ago
I am near certain that if I were 40 years younger I'd have been ADHD diagnosed. So I can easily believe it's a distraction / concentration mechanism, for me at least.
- cturner 11y ago
  I suspect the same, am also a rabid note-taker, and rarely revisit my notes. Writing is a means by which I build houses of cards in my head. Last year I tried some Ritalin I'd been given so I could understand the effect. What I found was that it gives me a sensation that is similar to when I'm in flow. But - for me - it feels plastic. I found it to be inferior to normal flow and I felt less in control than with normal flow. That might improve with exposure. I can see where Ritalin would be useful if you needed to get to flow on-demand. A back-door I use for this - write a throw-away dear-diary whinge about why I can't get started. The obstacle is a feeling - so I name that. Then I look for a source of it. This is generally a technical problem that's energy-intensive to load into my mind. So I write about the complications that make me see it as energy-intensive. By then it's started. [I've mentioned this before on hn and apologise if I get boring]
  - meric 11y ago
    Thanks for the trick. (Writing about the issue)
cnvogel 11y ago
Also my approach. I always (try to) bring some notepad and pencils. Most often it's not even notes for myself, but just writing down a few points I find remarkable, or on which I'm going to ask questions or make a remark at a later time into the presentation or lecture when they might be relevant.

anexprogrammer 11y ago

I am near certain that if I were 40 years younger I'd have been ADHD diagnosed. So I can easily believe it's a distraction / concentration mechanism, for me at least.

cturner 11y ago
I suspect the same, am also a rabid note-taker, and rarely revisit my notes. Writing is a means by which I build houses of cards in my head. Last year I tried some Ritalin I'd been given so I could understand the effect. What I found was that it gives me a sensation that is similar to when I'm in flow. But - for me - it feels plastic. I found it to be inferior to normal flow and I felt less in control than with normal flow. That might improve with exposure. I can see where Ritalin would be useful if you needed to get to flow on-demand. A back-door I use for this - write a throw-away dear-diary whinge about why I can't get started. The obstacle is a feeling - so I name that. Then I look for a source of it. This is generally a technical problem that's energy-intensive to load into my mind. So I write about the complications that make me see it as energy-intensive. By then it's started. [I've mentioned this before on hn and apologise if I get boring]
- meric 11y ago
  Thanks for the trick. (Writing about the issue)

cnvogel 11y ago

Also my approach. I always (try to) bring some notepad and pencils. Most often it's not even notes for myself, but just writing down a few points I find remarkable, or on which I'm going to ask questions or make a remark at a later time into the presentation or lecture when they might be relevant.