Typing vs Handwriting Notes

AUGUST 2021

There’s a big push to type notes and go digital, and there are many benefits to taking digital notes including speed, secure storage and less paper waste. But what about the things we are missing out on by giving up handwritten notes. Are there real, cognitive differences between typing and handwriting notes? 

BENEFITS OF ELECTRONIC NOTES: TYPED OR HANDWRITTEN

There are many benefits to taking your notes online. Some of these include: 

• Easier to edit and fix notes – rather than breaking out the eraser or white-out, you can simply fix misspellings and change formatting of notes for improved organisation and readability.
• Improved search - finding specific references and terms is a breeze when your notes are online.
• Secure storage and reliability - no need to worry about misplacing or spilling coffee on your notes. They are stored on your device and often backed up into the cloud where you can access all of your files.
• Improved sharing – having your notes online helps get everyone on the team on the same page, as it is easier to share and edit documents and files.

Typing is beneficial when you are trying to take verbatim notes quickly, like in a lecture or transcribing an interview, or copying and pasting large blocks of text. However, just because it is easier to capture the information doesn’t mean you are gaining a deeper understanding of the concepts. One of the disadvantages of typing your notes is that you don’t process the material as well as if you were handwriting them.

BENEFITS OF HANDWRITTEN NOTES 

What are the benefits of handwriting your notes instead of typing?

• Deeper comprehension - many studies have shown enhanced comprehension and understanding of the material when people take their notes by hand as opposed to typing them.
• Better recall – enhanced understanding leads to better recall of the material and because you are more selective in what are writing, it is easier to remember the most important details.
• Less distractions – when taking your notes by hand you are only transcribing the most important information, not every word being spoken, so that you don’t get information overload.
  
  

So why are handwritten notes better than typed digital notes? Handwritten notes allow you to develop comprehension and understanding, not simply accumulate as much information as possible. Written notes involve a deeper cognitive processing of the material as opposed to typing. Certain notes, like math problems, formulas or notes on body charts, are better expressed with handwritten notes. 

HANDWRITTEN DIGITAL NOTES 

With Notud you can get the best of both worlds – as a cloud based app, you can type or handwrite your notes as you see fit on the exact same page. You get all the benefits of taking handwritten notes while at the same time getting the advantages of digital notes. 

At Notud we believe you shouldn’t have to change the way you work in order to go digital – so you can keep handwriting your notes and have your paperless solution too! 

You can start handwriting your notes online with Notud here.