Typing, taking notes and reaping the benefits: my route to better lecture discipline
7/9/2026
Translation: Megan Cornish
For three semesters, I revamped my note-taking method: from keyboard to pen, and finally to where I now make my notes – before the lecture. The device was never the problem.
A typical day in student life: sitting in lectures, trying to take notes. Sometimes the information comes thick and fast, other times I feel like I’m falling asleep. My focus quickly fades. Suddenly, important facts or figures are mentioned, and I’ve missed them because I was engrossed in smartphone games such as BlockBlast or Hay Day.
Maybe I just have the wrong hardware. Is that why I’m not concentrating enough? There are a lot of opinions about hardware: a tablet with a stylus is much better than a notepad, app A has far more features than app B, you can’t match the feel of paper, what about the short battery life? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. The problem was never the hardware or software. It ultimately comes down to strategy.
Firstly, you often have to try things out and develop strategies to find what works for you. It took me three phases to adapt my method. In the end, I optimised it so I can manage my everyday student life.
Phase 1: keyboard = maximum efficiency, but minimal effect
I started with a laptop and keyboard: listening, typing, then summarising. If you’re just taking notes, the keyboard’s far superior. I can easily keep up with the keyboard, no matter how fast the lecturers speak. At the end of the lecture, I have a document that’s almost a verbatim transcript of the presentation. But the learning effect is zero.
Why is that? I’ve noticed that when I type, I’m not listening; I’m transcribing. The sentence goes from my ear to my fingers without stopping along the way. Nothing sticks. On top of that, I wasn’t filtering or prioritising anything – I could easily just write everything down. But eight pages of text after a double lesson’s too much for learning.
Source: Joel Brändle
Phase 2: writing by hand
I’m much slower writing by hand than typing. But that’s the point: I have to select, summarise and put down what I’ve heard in my own words. What ends up on the page has crossed my mind at least once. So, I switch things up: the lecture PDF goes on my tablet, and I add handwritten notes next to it.
This has improved a lot of things for me. More clarity, less text and everything’s stored digitally. An added plus is that I can edit my digital notes. If I make a mistake or jot something down in the wrong place, I can delete or move it straight away. And if I need to search for something during my studies, I can easily find the relevant information using the search function. Best of all, there’s no paperwork, and I can access my notes from anywhere – as long as I save them in the cloud.
If you try this method, there are two things to keep in mind. Firstly, the stylus: an active stylus with tilt and pressure sensitivity feels much more natural than one that always draws the same lines.
Since I travel by train a lot, I chose the Surface Laptop Studio 2 with the Microsoft Slim Pen. I find these 2-in-1 devices practical, and they last a long time. I have a stable keyboard for writing documents and e-mails, and then with one swift movement, I also have a tablet for taking handwritten notes.
Your choice of screen protector is equally crucial: glass is slippy. A matt screen protector such as Paperlike slightly reduces the speed of the pen tip and provides better grip. It also makes your handwriting more legible. Around 30 Swiss francs is well worth it for the peace of mind of not writing on an unpredictable, slippery surface.
My note-taking routine does have its limits, though. Sometimes lecturers just read the slides aloud. When they do that, there’s nothing to add. The information’s already there.
With my attention span, that’s not a break; it’s an invitation. I often drift off. By which I mean the lecture turns into an extended Hay Day session with voices in the background. And once I’m out of the loop, I can’t get back in.
Source: Joel Brändle
This is when I realised that my approach to the problem was wrong. Because I never asked myself what to do with the time when nothing new was being said.
The hardware detour I didn’t take
There’s an obvious solution to the distraction problem: a device that doesn’t offer distractions such as games. E-Ink tablets including the Remarkable Paper Pro are built for reading PDFs and annotating with the stylus. Nothing else. No app store, no notifications, no games. The smaller Remarkable Paper Pro Move even fits in a jacket pocket.
I decided against this for one simple reason: my phone always ends up next to me anyway. Even if I put it in my bag, I have a tendency to get it out. A device without distractions only solves half the problem. As long as the other half’s in my bag, the problem’s still there.
Phase 3: preparing instead of regretting it later
My solution sounds simple, but it made my last semester easier: I now take my notes before the lecture, instead of during it. This requires a lot of discipline, but it’s doable.
I go through the lecture materials before the lecture starts. I create a kind of handwritten yet digital bullet point list on my Surface. They’re not quotes from the slides, but short sentences explaining what’s on the slide. Essentially, it’s a guide or theory in my own words. If I realise while writing that I can’t explain it, I mark that.
During the lecture, I keep the slides closed. I just don’t open them anymore. I only have my list open on my laptop. When the lecturer reads the slides aloud, I don’t miss anything because I already know the content – I’ve written it down in my own words. My role in the lecture hall has changed: I wait for what isn’t on the slides. The explanations, the examples, the contextualisation, the subordinate clauses.
It’s these small pieces of information that I add, filling in the gaps. At the end of the lesson, instead of eight pages of notes, I have a concise list that reduces the material to the essentials and is ready to be studied.
Source: Joel Brändle
Why this maintains focus
The side effect was more important to me than the learning effect. With this method, for the first time, I’m not trying to absorb everything in a lecture; I’m just trying to fill in the gaps. This is an active, searching approach. I listen differently when I know what I’m listening out for. And when nothing new’s being said, I’m less likely to drift off because I’m waiting for something instead of just sitting there.
Honestly, it doesn’t come easy: the preparation takes around half an hour per lecture. That sounds like a lot, but it’s far less time than I used to spend reviewing my unusable lecture notes. Not to mention the slide method, where I ended up with gaps in my knowledge because I kept getting sidetracked. And that review process also garnered much worse results.
What about in everyday life or at work?
The principle can be applied just as easily to everyday life. Anyone who takes notes in meetings knows either you write down almost every word – which nobody reads in the end – or you tune out as soon as someone reads slides that everyone already has.
Here’s an easier way: briefly review the topics and materials beforehand. If you haven’t received any materials, it’s best to briefly ask the boss, the presenter – or whoever will be speaking later – if you can have them in advance. This will be helpful and also show that you’re interested. Win-win.
You can then jot down a few lines for each point – what it’s about, how it affects you and what’s still unclear. During the meeting, you’ll only have these notes open and can add anything new. What you end up with is already the complete summary, not a long document.
The bottom line is: it doesn’t matter whether you write on a tablet, an e-ink device or a notepad. What’s important is what you record and when – and what you don’t. If you think about it and make notes beforehand, you’ll be better prepared, get an initial review of the material and only need to add what you’d previously missed or anything that was unclear.
What helps you more to combat distraction: the right device or the right method? And what specifically worked for you?
Header image: Joel Brändle
Joel Brändle
Retail Sales & Service Professional
Joel.Braendle@digitecgalaxus.chBackground information
Interesting facts about products, behind-the-scenes looks at manufacturers and deep-dives on interesting people.
Show allThese articles might also interest you
Show all
These articles might also interest you
7 comments
later