This post is sparked from a discussion I had with friends around “What do you use to keep notes?”.
Well, the tl;dr answer to this for me is Evernote. I got an Evernote subscription when I bought a LiveScribe. The LiveScribe did not stick, but Evernote sure did. Anything that I may use in the future (99% chance I won’t, but I keep in a bucket for just in case) goes there. That is mostly papers and blog posts that I find interesting at the time I happen across.
But a longer answer includes more than Evernote. I keep hand written notes in a variety of media:
– I use a Wacom One because when I do on-line teaching, I need to draw figures and share them. Originally I used Jamboard and Whiteboard. Now I am simply using jspaint.app.
– I have a Mi Writing LCD tablet. I use this for either very temporary notes and doodles, or when late at night in the sofa watching TV and need to dump an idea that just sparked. Next morning it will either find its way to Evernote or get deleted because it was not as cool as I initially thought it was.
– I was gifted a Rocketbook. I use it for work. Whatever notes I keep during the day to keep track on my work. Like that ticket I was working yesterday and it still needs something, other notes that you need to not forget while working on something stuff like that. If anything needs permanence, then the Rocketbook app makes sure it gets saved.
– Since I follow Conway’s recipe, I have more than one interesting projects open. Some of them personal. And I need to keep notes and write them on paper. For that I use a Moleskine Smart Writing System (again a gift). Please do make fun of me for using Moleskines.
– Other Moleskines because I like writing with a fountain pen.
– When I don’t have any of the above handy, I fold a PocketMod just to dump whatever on my head on paper.
Do you need all that? Does this sound overwhelming and unnecessary? Most likely yes. If you feel that is the case, you need only a few of things:
– A book about making better sketches.
– Any pen and paper you can write on.
– Your phone’s camera and a scanning application to capture your thoughts.
Do I have that many great ideas? Most likely not. But I like to write them down in order to evaluate them.
Managing organized complexity 
There are much better papers and notebooks than Moleskines for fountain pens. Try Rhodia which are rather easy to find. I also use a lot of https://berlin-notebook.com/
Very convenient in terms of size and excellent paper!
Oh I own Rhodia and Clairfontaine too!