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Walk into any college lecture hall, presentation space, or meeting, and you’ll likely see two kinds of people: those typing away on laptops or tablets, and those who reach for paper and a pen.
Taking notes is a highly individualized process — many people have different note-taking systems that work for them. There are many different reasons for taking notes, as well as note-taking strategies you might use. And, in the digital age, there’s another big question: is the best way to take notes analog, or digital?
Of course, there isn’t simply one right answer to that question. The key to effective note taking is finding the right system that works for you — though it may help to take into account everything science tells us about how note taking helps us organize and retain information. Here’s what you need to know.
What makes note taking effective?
Note taking comes with tons of benefits, including better learning and better retention. According to the science on the subject, it all has to do with repetition. Repetition is one of the strongest learning tools we have — repeating a habit, task, or piece of information creates neuron pathways in your brain that make it easier for you to recall it. Recall becomes even easier the more times you make the repetition. Note taking is a form of repetition, because you hear the information the first time, and repeat learning it by writing it down. If you review your notes later, that’s even more repetition, and further increases the likelihood that you’ll remember the information for longer.
Taking good notes could mean choosing a note taking system (more on that below!) or it could mean choosing to write your notes by hand rather than typing them on a laptop or tablet. Because despite what Bill Gates said, studies show clear benefits to taking notes in one specific way: by hand.
Is the best way to take notes analog or digital?
Students, educators, scientists, and other experts have been debating this question since laptops became common place. The short answer is that the science seems to indicate that writing notes by hand leads to better retention of information. But the long answer is, of course, more complicated than that.
One 2024 study compared test performance between two groups of students: one that took digital notes, and one that took handwritten notes. Researchers found that those who were typing their notes were more likely to write down what their teachers said verbatim, and this led to a shallower understanding of the concepts they were learning. Those students performed more poorly on a conceptual exam than those who took notes by hand.
Researchers at the Norwegian Center for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education may have discovered at least part of the reason why handwriting notes seems to be more effective in helping us remember information. They found that writing notes by hand activates different parts of the brain than typing them. When you handwrite your notes, the physical movements it takes to create each letter by hand activates more parts of the brain, which boosts the encoding process by which your hippocampus decides to either store information long-term, or let it go.
Scientists have also pointed to another potential reason we remember less when we take notes digitally: distractions. A 2010 study published in the Journal of Information Systems Education showed that students who took class notes on laptops were only engaged with the class material 58% of the time. The rest of the time, they were distracted by the internet, games, messages, and other apps.
At the end of the day, though, the best way to take notes is the way that works best for you. To hone your own note taking skills, it can help to try out some different frameworks, which can be used with either digital or analog note taking.
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