the hybrid note-taking system I wish I learned earlier

Yo, welcome back to the channel. So,

previously I made videos about my analog journaling system and also my digital journaling system. And a lot of you guys

journaling system. And a lot of you guys asked me how I balance my digital note-taking from my analog note-taking.

And I actually have a pretty simple heristic that I use that helps me organize all of my notes. So, in this video, I'm going to share with you when to use digital notes, when to use analog notes, how to use a combination of both, and also the setup I use after using

this for nearly a decade. There are

three main categories of notes that I always use a digital assistant for. And

the first category is if they are searchable notes. So from a purely

searchable notes. So from a purely utilitarian perspective, anything that needs to be looked up later, like for example, how to do something, certain documents or even important numbers, I always put that into a digital system.

Later, I'll share with you the app and system that I use, but ideally use one that has offline access just in terms of the best for security and speed of looking up. But for these type of notes,

looking up. But for these type of notes, it doesn't really make sense to capture them in an analog system because it's really hard to categorize them. it's

hard to have access to them if you're on the go and it's also hard to find something. The second category of notes

something. The second category of notes I use a digital system for is if it has to be modifiable. So any type of note or entry where I have stuff moving around, for example, an essay or a outline for a

video that I'm writing, then I will plan that in my digital system because it makes it easy to leave comments or strike things out and it makes it easy to go back to them. It's also modifiable in terms of the length. Like if I know I

want to add stuff to it later, maybe it's a super long lecture series, it makes more sense to do that digitally because if you did that in your notebook for example and you didn't finish, then it would be disjointed into many

different places. The third category of

different places. The third category of notes I use a digital system for are sharable notes. So anything that I think

sharable notes. So anything that I think I would need to send to somebody or work on together uh in a shared doc, it definitely makes more sense to do that in a digital system. So, if you ever

have something that you want to write down or plan and you don't know whether or not to do that digitally or in your analog notebook, then you can just refer to this heristic, which is if they're searchable, modifiable, or sharable. As

far as taking notes digitally, my favorite place to do that is actually on my iPad. And the reason is because the

my iPad. And the reason is because the iPad has multiple forms of input. I can

either capture something really quickly with the Magic Keyboard, or I can also use the Apple Pencil and sketch something out, or just handwrite notes if I feel like it. If you also use an iPad, I recently got the screen

protector that makes the Surface really premium for writing, and it's made by this company called Paperlike, who's also kindly sponsoring this video. They

just recently released their latest screen protector, which is the Paperlike 3. And it uses a special material they

3. And it uses a special material they invented that emulates premium paper when you just write or draw with the regular Apple Pencil. I think if you regularly use the Apple Pencil, then

this is a clear winner. They spent three years developing this technology, designing it in Germany, manufacturing in Switzerland, and they obsessed over tiny details like how it feels underneath your hand, how the Apple

Pencil feels on the surface, and they even trademarked the surface, which they called the nano dot surface, because of the micro texture technology. To improve

the end-to-end user experience, they even created this super easy to apply system that lets you apply the screen protector perfectly in just 30 seconds.

and they engineered their screen protector to be thinner than the Apple accessory design guidelines to be at only 0.095 millimeters, which is pretty insane. Using the Paperlike is also

insane. Using the Paperlike is also really amazing for drawing. Over the

past few years, I've made a deliberate effort to try to improve my skills with sketching, and it's great to practice on the iPad because I can easily discard drafts without wasting a bunch of paper.

The benefit of using the Paperlike screen protector is that it makes it feel closer to what it feels like to just use a pencil and paper without having to bring any art materials

around. But besides the main categories

around. But besides the main categories of digital notes, one common mistake I see people make is spending a large amount of time building out perfect productivity note-taking systems on their computer. So, after using digital

their computer. So, after using digital note-taking apps for nearly a decade, there are a few things that I think is very important to remember when it comes to these note-taking apps. The first is that digital apps will almost always

fail at longevity. I've used different note-taking apps like Apple Notes, Evernote, Notion, and currently I use Obsidian. But the way that I approach

Obsidian. But the way that I approach these note-taking apps is that I try not to get too attached to them and I don't spend large amounts of time building out complex systems. The reason for that is

no matter what note-taking app you're using, it's very likely that it's not going to be the last one that you use.

And because of that, it's very likely that you might lose access to your notes or you might even never see journal entries that you write digitally ever again. A lot of these super popular

again. A lot of these super popular apps, they get bought and sold by different companies. They may introduce

different companies. They may introduce subscriptions. They might even become

subscriptions. They might even become unusable, which has happened before with Evernote. or maybe you use the default

Evernote. or maybe you use the default Apple Notes, but you decide to change your phone in the future for whatever reason, and then it becomes hard to access your old entries. So, this is one

of the main reasons I don't track my life or journal diary entries in any digital system. It's very unlikely that

digital system. It's very unlikely that you're going to continue using Notion or Apple Notes for the next 30 years because these apps haven't even existed for more than 15 years. Whereas analog

journals, they've been used for literally thousands of years and they've been successfully passed down through multiple multiple generations. So while

these apps are super useful in terms of fulfilling those three categories like being able to search stuff up quickly, being able to edit and modify notes really easily and also share them. The

incentives of these companies is to lock you into the app. And you see this with iOS and Android. iOS and Android have their own note-taking and journaling apps. Android has their own note-taking

apps. Android has their own note-taking and journaling apps. So it becomes higher friction to switch to them. And

when you do switch to them, then you kind of just lose all your old entries.

So there's two things that I do to sort of combat this. First, I use a note-taking app that is crossplatform.

So if I switch devices, it's more likely that I can continue to access my notes.

And two, I assume that these digital notes won't last multiple decades. In

the past, when I've tried journaling on my phone or on my computer, I found that I actually never go back and read my old entries. I think one of the main reasons

entries. I think one of the main reasons for that is because your digital notes don't exist in any physical space. So,

it's natural for them to get buried and lost over time. And with my analog journals, because they're on my shelf because I spent a lot of time investing in them, and you can see the character from these actual journals, I actually

do go back and read my old entries, and it's actually what inspired a recent video that I made. So, I think one of the best ways to treat digital notes is to assume that they're not going to last

forever and even assume that this isn't the last app that you're going to use so that you don't waste a lot of time buying different templates or setting stuff up and locking yourself into a very complex system. For me, the digital

note-taking app that I use is Obsidian.

And if I take Hammond notes with the iPad, then I just use Apple Notes because it has the best native support.

But for me, the reasons why I like Obsidian is first, you own all of your files. So, they exist offline in a

files. So, they exist offline in a folder and computer, which is unlike a lot of different apps. And second,

Obsidian is really just a text editor, which is free that lets you access and search your notes really quickly. The

third reason I like Obsidian is because it has this really passionate community of developers that make these plugins that enhance your digital notes. For

semi-digital notes, it literally can't be done with an analog system. I have

embedded different maps for restaurants that I've been to in different cities of different places I've gone to. I've also

used it as a rolodex for people and also taking notes of different meetings. And

that kind of stuff is really hard to do with an analog system. I actually made a more video about Obsidian that you can check out. I'll link it somewhere there.

check out. I'll link it somewhere there.

With that being said, I want to share with you what things analog systems really shine and what I only use a physical notebook for. The first is life tracking. So, this notebook, this A5

tracking. So, this notebook, this A5 size notebook is the main notebook I use to track my life every year. I've made

multiple videos on this that you can go check out, but essentially this notebook is what I use to write notes about my life. I have this monthly page where I

life. I have this monthly page where I use it to track my daily highlights, my habits, and my goals. And in between, I have my diary entries and things that I'm thinking about. The reason why this type of stuff makes most sense to use

with an analog system is because it has the highest modularity, the highest longevity, and the highest satisfaction.

This has been the medium that has worked for thousands of years and it will likely continue to work for thousands of years. The physical notebooks that you

years. The physical notebooks that you use to track your life become these really valuable items that you can pass on to future generations. Whereas if you had all your notes in something like

notion, it's very unlikely that a future generation will be able to access that.

This specific notebook is also really convenient because there is a small pocket at the back. So along with capturing everything that happened to me in that year, I also put in different Polaroids, different cards, and movie

tickets into this space in the back, which has been super nostalgic to look at over the years. Personally, I think that life tracking and keeping a journal is one of the highest utility of notes that you can have. You are essentially

capturing a proof of life and you can read through them to see how you've grown through different situations and extract learnings from your own life.

There's also so much information that is captured when you actually write things out by hand. For example, what your handwriting looks like when you're feeling sad or really motivated or really angry is going to look different and that's going to be captured in your

notebook. It also makes it easy to

notebook. It also makes it easy to emphasize certain things like you can circle things, you can strike things out, you can write things in different languages or sketch something out that you saw. And in terms of habits, an

you saw. And in terms of habits, an analog system is also the best way to track it because you can design what metrics are the most important to you and how you want it to look like.

Whereas, if you did it digitally, you might have to find like a notion template or find a specific app that could track something that is very simple. For me, because I've been doing

simple. For me, because I've been doing this system for a while, I can go back 8 years to when I was 20 and see what happens I was tracking. Whereas,

whatever app I was using, I don't have access to that anymore. The second thing that analog notes are the best for are consolidated notes. So, this is actually

consolidated notes. So, this is actually something I learned from Leonardo da Vinci, who's this super legendary man in history. If you're not familiar with him

history. If you're not familiar with him somehow, he's this Renaissance man who's really well known in his works for engineering, for philosophy, even as an artist. And he was always really well

artist. And he was always really well known for his journals. So he always taught his students to carry around two notebooks. So one is a pocket notebook

notebooks. So one is a pocket notebook like this and another is a bigger notebook like this. So what he taught his students is that they should take notes or write down any fleeting ideas in their pocket notebook and actually

distill them and summarize them into one main notebook. And when it comes to

main notebook. And when it comes to learning things from a lecture or a book, this really accomplishes two things. First, it forces you to

things. First, it forces you to consolidate the things that you've learned into a one pager and actually organize it. And two, it also makes it

organize it. And two, it also makes it easy to go back and read because a lot of times if you're taking notes digitally or you're just writing everything down that you see, it's actually kind of hard to go back and

review those notes. But when you actually consolidate into a one pager, it becomes way more organized. You

actually thought about it and it's easier to review. I do this a lot with different books that I've read. I

consolidate everything I learned into one page in my notebook so that I can easily go back and look at it. This also

helps a lot with consolidating that information into your memory. I

previously talked about this in the video that I made about how to absorb books like a sponge, but there are a lot of benefits that they've observed scientifically from actually synthesizing your notes by hand into a

physical piece of paper. The beauty of consolidating the things that you learned or a book that you read into a single page is that there is a finite amount of space. So it really forces you to think about what are the most

important things and how to put things in a more easy to understand way. Maybe

you had this experience before too, but when I was in college, sometimes I would make this mistake of taking notes on a lecture, but writing out literally almost every single thing that the

professor says and then my notes become more like a transcript or even a duplicate of the slides than actually thinking about the things that they're talking about and the things that I've learned. So, one advice I have for that

learned. So, one advice I have for that is for things you actually want to learn and remember, always consolidate your notes. There's two more categories that

notes. There's two more categories that I always use an analog system for. But

for the next two, I actually mostly use my Pocket Notebook for, and I'll explain why. So, the first thing I always use my

why. So, the first thing I always use my Pocket Notebook for is for productivity.

So, even though I keep track of different tasks and deadlines on an app on my computer, what I do every morning or the night before is that I write down the three to five things that I want to get done. The reason I do this is

get done. The reason I do this is because it forces me to be more realistic about the things I can get done. And throughout the day, I'll just

done. And throughout the day, I'll just work off of the pocket notebook and cross things out manually, which is actually super satisfying. There are

some analog productivity methods like the bullet journaling method, which talk about how you can do everything on paper and pencil. But in my realistic, what's

and pencil. But in my realistic, what's been the best is a combination of a digital system and an analog system for productivity. Because for stuff like

productivity. Because for stuff like deadlines and events, those things are often changing. you might move things

often changing. you might move things around and it doesn't really make sense to do that on paper and pencil because it's really hard to modify them. So, I

only do that the day of or the night before to figure out what are the things I want to get done. So, the second thing I use my pocket notebook for is creativity. I do things like sketching

creativity. I do things like sketching here. I come up with different video

here. I come up with different video ideas, ideas for different apps and tools that I could maybe make in the future. And the reason why both the

future. And the reason why both the productivity and the creativity, I like to use a pocket notebook is because I actually go through these really fast and it lets me be more free in writing

down ideas that could be really bad.

Whereas the way that I see my main journal is that I only use one per year.

So I try to keep it as clean and organized as possible. So yeah, that's pretty much how I separate my analog system with my digital note-taking system. I use the analog system for

system. I use the analog system for tracking my life, for productivity, and for creativity. Whereas, I use my

for creativity. Whereas, I use my digital system more as a functional database when I want to search things up, when I want to modify different things or share them with different people. If you enjoy the video, consider

people. If you enjoy the video, consider subscribing, but I'll see you in the next video. Let's get it.

next video. Let's get it.

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