I like to think on paper. When I work, it helps me to assimilate a large amount of new information, because, as they say, "qui scribit, bis legit" ("who writes, he reads twice"). Participating in discussions, brainstorming, working meetings, I outline the main points: I draw diagrams, make notes, write down ideas. So I unload my head from unnecessary information at the moment in order to generate a new one. In addition, recordings help you not to lose something important in the stream of thought. I can always come back to them and look at them from a general perspective to see something new. It helps a lot.
In this article, I'll talk about my search for the perfect note-taking solution and the gadget in which I eventually found it.
Search for the ideal
I always keep two things on my desktop: something that you can write on, and something that you can write on. I've experimented. At first they were just notebooks and pens. Then I bought the adhesive stickers that we usually see on the monitors of office workers or on the high-tech supercomputers of chief guards.
One It was inconvenient. First, the stickers were small. It was necessary either to write in extremely small print, or to make something like a puzzle out of each sticker and assemble the big picture on the wall. Secondly, I could paste over all the walls next to the table. And thirdly, there was not enough of such stickers for a long time: they quickly peeled off and lost. In general, it is ineffective and unaesthetic.
The next stage was various online drawing games: draw.io, autodraw.com and others. The services are really high quality and interesting. Especially autodraw.com, which, by the way, is part of Google's AI Experiments project and uses AI to make drawing a lot easier. However, drawing is uncomfortable (the problem is partially solved by a graphics tablet), the services are sharpened for each individual task and it is difficult to integrate them with each other. In addition, you have to solve the problem of storing records: upload them to the cloud or computer memory, and sometimes just drop links to yourself in Telegram. Of course, this is more convenient than storing notebooks and pasting stickers, but still there are too many body movements.
The experiments lasted for some time, but I could not solve my problem, periodically returning to the classic notebook and pen. And then one day I decided to take a look at interesting, smart and technological things that are often found on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. And I saw there such a miracle as the Rocketbook, which eventually became the solution to my problems.
Rocketbook
Rocketbook is an endless notebook. No, the number of sheets of the notebook is, of course, limited, but you can write on them as much as you like, because everything that you write can be erased ... with a damp cloth! It's just like on the blackboard!
There are other interesting modifications as well. For example, a notebook that erases ink due to high temperatures is the Rocketbook Wave. Yes, you just throw a completely written notepad into the microwave for a few seconds and get the "newly made" one! Also from the interesting in the development of the company there are special beacons. They are sold in sets of 4 and are placed in the corners of the writing board. Beacons make it possible to "scan" information from the area they have selected. You can save information from such an improved board with one button, in good quality, in any selected storage.
Stop! I have not yet mentioned the killer feature of this notebook. She is not just endless, but also smart. The "smart" functionality of this notebook is added by a special application - the Rocketbook App. With it, you can make scans of notebook sheets, organize a search for them, put various marks, automate the delivery of a scan to the cloud storage (automatically) and much more, which I will definitely tell you about.
It is also worth noting that notebooks differ from each other. For example, markup: there are diaries, calendars, diaries, squared and ruled notebooks. Sizes and formats: pocket versions, notebooks that open from the side or top, in tablet format, and so on. Finally, they are also different in design.
But first things first.
Appearance and equipment
I bought myself a Rocketbook Matrix. The standard equipment for all models is the same: a notebook, a black pen and a cloth. Additionally, I bought a case.
The case is quite comfortable with a magnetic rivet. There are special fasteners - for pens and rags, additional pockets for cards and business cards. The notebook can be inserted into the case on one side, like a cover. Thus, the notebook will open along with the case.
The dimensions of the entire folder with the notebook are approximately A4. I usually carry it in a backpack along with a small laptop.
Wrote and erased
Initially, I became interested in the notebook precisely because everything written in it can be erased. And this opportunity is provided by a special pen - Frixion Pen. It feels like an ordinary gel pen with erasable ink (many, I think, remember such "magic" pens, popular 10-15 years ago). But if you use a pen with ordinary paper, then not only ink will be erased, but also paper (just like an eraser), and they will not be erased very well.
Rocketbook uses recycled plastic as the paper material, making the pages thicker and smoother. And from such pages the ink is erased with a bang. And the planet Earth will thank us for such a reuse.
Finding a new pen when out of ink or you've lost it is easy. You can buy it at any online store. I suppose that left-handed people may have difficulty using the pen (they can smear what they have written with their hand). But I'm right-handed, and this problem got around me.
Photographed and sent
Personally, I fell in love with the Rocketbook already for the ability to wash. But now I will tell you about the Rocketbook App. This is the application that digitizes your recordings. In fact, you open the application on your phone, press "scan" and point it to the page of the Rocketbook notebook. And then the magic happens: the page is already in your smartphone.
Not convinced? And if I tell you that the picture is of excellent quality: the text is distinguishable, and the colors too (pens are of different colors). You do not need to hold your smartphone level and adjust the page to certain frames, as it will be scanned from almost any angle. If desired, you can adjust the scan settings in the application itself. You can also choose the format: jpg or pdf.
Let's go further. There are special icons on each page of the notebook. In the application settings, you can associate these icons with any service.
You can choose from the following list:
- Email,
- Google Drive,
- Evernote,
- Dropbox,
- OneDrive,
- OneNote,
- Trello,
- Slack,
- Box,
- iCloud,
- iOS messages.
Then, when scanning the page, you need to cross out the necessary icons. And after scanning, in addition to the phone memory, the scan will be sent to the selected service and saved.
Rummaged through the archives
The app doesn't just do a scan, but it also performs handwriting and tag recognition. This allows you to use a convenient search across all your pages. The function is called OCR - Handwriting Recognition - and consists of three parts:
- Smart Titles,
- Smart Search,
- Smart Lists.
Smart Search - smart search - allows you to search for pages by the words that are on it.
Smart Titles are smart titles. To use them, a name is indicated in a special Titles field, which must be highlighted with a pair of hashtags on both sides. For example, ## Title ##. Thus, you can immediately specify the name of the file under which it will be saved in the smartphone's memory and selected services. It is much more convenient than going into archives every time, looking for and renaming the file yourself.
With the Smart Lists function active, when scanning lists in a special section of the application, to-do-lists will appear. Specifically, I do not use this feature at all, since it is more convenient for me to manage to-do-lists in other applications.
Alternatives
There are other endless notebooks. The most interesting is Dobrobuk. Unlike the Rocketbook, this notebook is used with dry erase markers. You can watch the following video . It shows that ink dries quickly and can be wiped off with a tissue or dry cloth. However, they do not provide any “smart” functionality. If someone does not need it, you can save on "extra" functionality.
Conclusion
Rocketbook pleased me: writing is pleasant, erasing is pleasant, all these integrations with a smartphone are superb. When I found information about this notebook and wanted to purchase it, the only place where it was possible was Amazon (the official Rocketbook store).
Then the purchase cost me about 6,000 rubles. I will clarify that this is the price for a notebook, a case, as well as the services of an intermediary through whom the parcel went to Russia. Now the situation has changed, and you can buy it in Russian online stores. The price, of course, is higher, but you can get it much faster.
I hope someone will find my experience useful for themselves and begin to use it in order to subdue the stream of thoughts, select the best ideas and the most useful knowledge from it, and also structure them in a convenient form.
