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Handwritten Notes on the Kindle Scribe

I take a lot of notes and I prefer to write by hand

The primary reason I take notes is for retention. There are a handful of studies indicating that hand-written notes improve learning, memory, and retention.

These days I’m using the Kindle Scribe. Before that I was using the Amazon Fire Max 11.

The Kindle Scribe feels like paper

The Kindle Scribe really does feel more like paper. I know every product with a pen says that it “feels more like paper” these days, but the Kindle Scribe comes closer than anything else I’ve tried.

The Kindle Scribe reduced my eye strain

As a Software Engineer, I spend a lot of time in front of my computer. On nights and weekends I continue to write, create software, and make things. It’s not unusual for me to spend between 10 and 14 hours in front of a computer.

Besides my computer there’s my phone and reading.

When I got the Amazon Fire Max 11 I started to both take notes and read on the tablet. That increased my screen time even more. I often found my eyes to be dry, blurry, or both.

With all that screen time, my eyes were tired.

I chose the Scribe because I wanted to read and write, at work, on a single device

I was already using the Amazon Fire Max 11 for my personal notes so I decided to try the Scribe for my work notes. I wanted to read and write on the same device and I wanted my work and personal notes separate.

I have a small annual training budget that I hadn’t used yet.

I got permission to use that to buy the Kindle Scribe.

The Kindle Scribe is less flexible than a tablet

The feel of paper is so good that I’m willing to live with the limitations. It may also be less distracting than a full fledge tablet.

Studies show that handwriting improves learning, memory, and retention

There are several studies that show handwritten notes help with learning, memory, and retention and I find this to be the case in my own writing.

I’ve written more about these studies on my article about the Amazon Fire Max 11. I also included links to many of them in the links and references section at the bottom of this article. These studies confirm my own experiences.

The book, Refuse to Choose, taught me how to keep a notebook

I’ve always written a lot of notes. But I didn’t fill a full notebook until after I read Refuse to Choose by the late Barbara Sher. Prior to reading that book I had dozens of barely used notebooks laying around and I had thrown away dozens more.

The idea of creating a Scanners Daybook and Barbara’s permission to let my mind wanter gave me what I needed to fill a notebook.

Written by Joel Dare on November 7, 2024.