Anna Michel, I Was A Kid

I Was A Kid @ Anna Michel

Anna, the chief scientist of the National Deep Submergence Facility, made a shift from research into more of a administrative position (more meetings) and had to shift notebooks as well. Now she uses ReMarkable, a digital notebook. 

“I use it like I would use a paper notebook, really. When I took over my new role I felt like I was suddenly going to a lot more meetings.  I need to keep track of stuff, especially because I was learning new things. I felt like I needed to write more stuff down. So I could like keep that information with me.” It’s not like if I lost this it would be the end of the world, it’s just to help my own memory of what happens in meetings. 

“I like to take notes in meetings. I don’t like to type in meetings. I like to hand write. And I’ll star something that I need to do or remember. So in the end it’s got every meeting on it. Let’s see, today I went to a ship operations meeting, so these notes are here. I had a meeting with a collaborator yesterday, then an Arctic data meeting. Everything is here, as opposed to a million papers or stacks of notebooks. 

In the field (usually at sea), Anna uses a lab notebook, but still relies on a digital record. 

“I can it before I even leave the field, using my iPhone or iPad. That was I don’t worry about losing my physical notebook.

“The digital notebook is very clean, and it’s easy, too, super portable, I can just throw it in my bag. And I have everything with me no matter where I am. And it syncs with your computer, and you can also have it convert your handwriting to text.” 

Because she is a scientist, Anna was asked for advice by science teachers about science notebooks. 

“They were trying to decide if the kids could use digital notebooks. They wanted to know, ‘Do you guys use them?’ And I said yeah. A lot of my students keep digital notebooks for their lab notes. I think the trend is going that way. But I still like to handwrite, so I’m glad ReMarkable allows that. It’s important to me; it makes me remember things, and it also makes me pay attention. Taking notes is an active way to pay attention, for me.”