I was given this advice at university, but what I was always missing was what I was supposed to write down in them.

The post here mentions hypotheses, but I don't do experiments for the most part. It mentions writing down in the notebook before writing code, but I can't test my notes, I can't really send my notes for code review. I guess you could use it for design, but you'd lose all the advantages of word processing such as editing, links, context, etc.

I often have a scratch pad editor around with current working state in – that makes sense to me, but not on paper and that's not what's being proposed. I have also at times kept a logbook of what I've done, but it was very much an end of the day/week summary, not in the moment, not forward looking like this mentions.

The idea sounds great, but what is actually being written down?

One thing that has helped me keep to start keeping long-running notebooks (which I use as engineering notebooks at times, among other things) is to actually keep two: one for immediate notes that I treat as disposable, and then another for "permanent" stuff. The former is a little 3x5 pocket notebook that literally lives in my pocket (or beside my keyboard), and I can jot stuff down in whatever order or format is convenient at the time. When I have a bit of time, I go through and "reconcile" the smaller notebook with the larger one (a regular composition book) by copying over the relevant information and indexing it. I then cross off the pages in the pocket notebook so I'll know I've dealt with them. (FWIW this is inspired by the bookkeeping practice of keeping a "wastebook" or "journal" that is just a list of transactions as they happen, and later "posting" or reconciling them into one's ledgers.)

This has a couple benefits. First, you always get better work if you go through more than one draft. Second, the idea of something being in the "permanent" notebook forever can cause me to freeze up a bit, not wanting to "mess it up". Having a place where I can "stage" or draft my entries helps with this.

For my side projects I have a dev log and every day that I work on them I've gotten into the habit of writing "What I want to accomplish", "What I did", and "What's next", which all seems to capture my thoughts pretty well. I don't get super detailed on them, but I can look back at previous days to see what I should work on next and it helps me goal set better. Also helps me when I need to pause on my work for the day so I can pick it up later.

I use Obsidian to record decisions, plan every day and take detailed notes. Very handy for recalling the nitty gritty for future reference be it performance reviews, writing blogs or updating my resume.

I do this but instead in a google doc. Even better because I can use LLM's to query it aftewards.

I think this is great advice. One thing that I think is simultaneously trite and under-appreciated is the degree to which writing itself drives strong memory formation, even if the notes themselves aren’t particularly good or detailed. I’ve been keeping technical notebooks for about a decade now, and I’ve found that I can open up to almost any page and remember exactly what I was thinking when I scrawled on it. By contrast, things I write in Obsidian need much more context (i.e. detail) to remind me what I was thinking.

I'd have a hard time with a physical notebook. Speed and search are key.

My workspace is just a markdown file, with dates and work-in-progress (scripts, bug investigations, design notes, task lists...), by date (reversed), rolled up to month files. If something (non-code) bears remembering, it's normalized and published to others, or put into my own topic space (leaving the WIP notes).

The key feature is global search over all such files. I can find any activity and any topic in seconds, with a search-bar overview of all places where I addressed some subject. (As a result I tend to create unique names.)

As a discipline, speaking directly and constantly to future self does help establish more methodical approaches, reinforces context awareness (and avoid ratholes); I restart even small projects where I left off, and scale the number of projects I try. Somehow the act of writing provides a reflective time/instant boundary (think: clocks in a functional universe) that orients the work in time/relevance to avoid wasting time on things that matter less.

Human journalctl. Probably a good habit to try. Especially with an LLM to search and aggregate it later.

Just wanted to flag the use of the little "jump back to where I was reading" links on the footnotes is a feature I'll be implementing and using on every footnote I ever write for the rest of my life now. Thank you!

In my research I take notes exactly as described here. I use plain-text files, one per week, with dated sections using markdown-ish notation where convenient. Display is never a goal; approximately 80-char column plaintext is the target format.

I agree with other commenters here that typing gives me more flexibility, in particular when writing arguments. I’ll format each point as a bullet and rearrange the list until I’m satisfied with the flow.

The notebook is essential for recovering tidbits learned along the way, e.g. what tricky steps did I need to get that one dependency to build. Weekly notepads are coarse enough to search by memory and contain enough context to get oriented quickly when going back several months.

We have a strong culture of engineering notebooks in my org. I tried for a good 5 years — i carried one and probably filled up 5 of them.

But i went back to them maybe 5 times in all those years. And the effort of writing actually distracts me more than the effortless action of typing. Plus the search and backup functions.

Even in high school in the early 90s I typed up all my class notes because the act of transcribing my written scratch to typed notes cemented it in my memory — i remember the sensation of recalling something for a test by air typing.

I guess with this history, its just how Ive trained myself so I carry laptop every where I go and type on that, but I al jealous of some of the well crafted and illustrated notes of some peers — especially the ones with multicolor pens for differentiation.

Surprised it’s not mentioned, but important for the sake of patents too

100% i've been using paper notebooks since I started coding

For me, this helps in getting clarity. I do it especially during meetings it helps me think criticallyb- talk just flows by otherwise.

I've been using the "Zim desktop wiki" like this for years. I do recommend it as well...super handy to be able to go looking for my thoughts or snippets from 6 months ago. I can also use git to sync between my desktop and laptop because it's all text.

I found a similar blog post like this years ago at the start of my career and started keeping a Rhodia Webnotebook A5. I've got over a dozen now from all my years of work. Nice for nostalgia

I use a physical notebook but not really an engeneering notebook as described here.

I make notes while working and notes during meetings. Honestly most of it never gets read after a eay but I still do it.

Very few of my colleagues carry a notebook around. Those who do are not seen taking notes too often.

I do the same thing, but with a Markdown file which I add a section to every day in a roughly append-only fashion