Why Physical Notebooks are a powerhouse for PhD Productivity
Do you feel overwhelmed by the endless tasks and responsibilities that come with pursuing a PhD? Do you ever wonder: is it supposed to be this difficult? You’re not alone. Most people struggle at some point during their PhD. However, what if I told you that there was a simple tool to manage the chaos and regain control?
Is it a fancy app with an expensive subscription? No!
It is an advanced methodology that requires you to completely overhaul your workflow? No!
It's something as simple as the physical notebook. And I hope I can convince you of why this tool is surprisingly amazing.
Reason #1: Focus on Fewer Important Things
Notebooks are poor at keeping extensive lists of tasks and projects organized in complex fashions. This is an excellent thing! You should stop trying to do everything all at once and rather focus on the essential tasks that actually bring you closer to your goal (e.g., completing a thesis, getting published etc.).
Several bestselling productivity books and systems have this idea as their core message: Focus on the most important task.
Some notable examples include:
All of these methods may seem fairly advanced, but you don't have to learn them. Using a physical notebook helps you automate this productivity hack by making it difficult to collect every single task, but instead focus on the most important.
Reason #2: Avoid Overwhelm of Information from Apps
Digital apps are everywhere, and they all promise to make life easier. The dream (or should I say illusion) is that an app can automate your life so you don't have to do anything right now and your future self will effortlessly get things done.
However, your future self is simple you in the future. And that person is just as lazy and overburden as you are.
Using productivity apps, you may end up spending considerable time refining your system to make future you do the work for you. Instead of chasing that dream, the physical notebook offers a simpler approach where you are forced to actually decide what you want to do and then just do it.
Reason #3: Avoid Digital Distraction
It's 9 o clock, and you take up your phone to check your tasks for the day. 5 new emails, 3 messages, 20 new stories on social media. When you look at the time again, it is 10.
A substantial part of your day may be spent like this.
It's not your fault. Most of the digital world is built with the purpose of grabbing your attention.
The physical notebook offers some substantial benefits here, since it only contains what you put in it and is not very distracting — albeit a bit boring.
Reason #4: Physical notes are easy to discard and difficult to reuse.
Taking notes is a substantial part of taking a PhD. When writing in a digital format, you can easily copy and paste content from one file to another.
This also means that you have to assume that what you are taking notes on in a digital setting should be of a certain quality, since they may have to be reused several times.
Over time, you may amass a large collection of notes that may become important. But they probably won't become important.
These potentially important notes end up cluttering, and it becomes impossible to actually find what you need.
The physical notebook allows you to jot down things quickly because the nature of the notebook is fleeting and temporary. At a later time, you may assess whether something is important and deserves to become more permanent — by being included in your work.
Alternatively, it is easy and quite satisfying to rip a page from your notebook and accept that many of the ideas we have are not brilliant.
Conclusion
Physical notebooks offer numerous benefits that can significantly enhance productivity for PhD students. From helping to focus on fewer important tasks to avoiding distractions and overwhelm, physical notebooks provide a flexible and controlled environment for note-taking. They also act as a natural filter against the collector’s fallacy and help avoid perfectionism. Try incorporating physical notebooks into your routine and experience the boost in productivity for yourself.