Two item that always come with me in my day bag along with my laptop are a simple A5 notebook, and a pen.
In my case any design be it software, a drawing, or project or something else needs to start with a couple of rough diagrams and notes on paper. I have tried numerous times to do this electronically and it has failed every single time.
Not sure why, but there seems to be something about the fluidity of writing that allows you to get thoughts and expressions down quickly in a way that boxes and flowcharts just don't facilitate.
Most of the time I view these notes for a few days while I work or write proper documentation and after that they are left behind. I have several stacks of various notebooks lying around filled with stuff like this.
Same here, though I recently got a reMarkable 2 to replace my paper and love it more than I could have imagined. It’s a magical device for me (no affiliation).
Don't just go for the remarkable, it's mainly for designers with a need for sketches. For storing, searching, etc. of notes there are better alternatives without a subscription model, for example the Supernote.
I decided to return mine and the entire process took nearly 2 months.
If you buy one, assume you will never get it repaired or return it and that you’ll either keep it forever or buy a new one even if you’re under warranty.
My experience, would not recommend. I’ve heard better things about Supernote.
Personally, the transfer-ability of the notes themselves and the ability to use it to present over video conference. I can email notes directly to others, I can OCR them to text and send to myself to then transfer to whatever I need them in on my computer, and with remote sharing I can hook it up via USB to my computer, share my screen, and have the nicest digital whiteboard for meetings I’ve ever used.
For ‘thinking process’ specifically, I think it’s the ability to have unlimited notebooks in one device. Often while writing notes for one thing I’m inspired about something else, so I can quickly switch to that notebook and jot it down.
In my case any design be it software, a drawing, or project or something else needs to start with a couple of rough diagrams and notes on paper. I have tried numerous times to do this electronically and it has failed every single time.
Not sure why, but there seems to be something about the fluidity of writing that allows you to get thoughts and expressions down quickly in a way that boxes and flowcharts just don't facilitate.
Most of the time I view these notes for a few days while I work or write proper documentation and after that they are left behind. I have several stacks of various notebooks lying around filled with stuff like this.