A Month With A Supernote
A month ago I received my Supernote A6 X2 Nomad. My first impressions were very good and I thought it might be a good idea to write an update one month on.
The TL;DR is that I’ve had a paper-free month of notes and I’m still delighted with the Supernote. The size and software both click with me and there is very little I would change although I am slowly tweaking how I organise things. The initial issue I had with occasional pen strokes not being recognised seemed to resolve itself, perhaps as the screen and pen started to get some wear.
So in the last month I have not written any notes on paper. I did come very close when I was on the phone, had some unopened post on my desk, and needed to jot something down and reached for a pen to scribble it on an envelope. I didn’t however and that sort of thing will inevitably happen but it is not something I am going to worry about. My main aim was, and still is, to stop using paper whilst I work; whether that be whilst I am writing code, in a meeting, brainstorming or performing some other task.
I’m hugely enjoying the form-factor of the Supernote and a device roughly the same size as an A5 notebook is definitely something I prefer to a larger form-factor. In the last month the Supernote Manta, a 10.7 inch device, was launched which is a similar size to my reMarkable 2). I have zero regrets about not getting it. There are plenty of people who will prefer the larger screen and bigger form-factor and one-size does not fit all, but for me the Nomad is perfect.
The software on the Supernote was also very easy to become familiar with and I have particularly appreciated the Quick Access and Headings functionality and love being able to put two fingers on the side of the device and then draw around text to clear it. I have yet to properly get into using features such as links and keywords (see my article about Navigation for an overview of them) but I think that as I refine my workflows over time I probably will. Adding and deleting pages, and navigating between files and within notebooks is quick and easy and I still feel that the hardware and software were designed by people who wanted a digital notebook rather than, say, an e-reader with annotation capabilities.
Talking of workflows, my original idea was to have a few main notebooks… one for work meetings and projects, one for notes whilst I write code, and one for general, non-specific things. Overal this has been working well (and chapters have been incredibly useful) but I am going to break the meetings notebook up into multiple per-‘topic’ ones. This is because there isn’t much benefit in having a single notebook which I then have to insert pages into the middle of and make sure I am doing so in the right chapters when the note writing tends to be scheduled (an upcoming meeting or sitting down to work on a task) so finding and opening the right notebook file is not something I need to do on the fly. Instead I will have them, one or more coding notebooks (perhaps one per major coding project is a good idea), and my one general ‘scratchpad’. If necessary, I can scribble a quick note in the general notebook and then move to page or pages into a more appropriate, more permanent place.
I am hugely enjoing not having piles of unsorted paper on my desk and it makes me feel much more organised and in control of things. It is much less messy and chaotic and I no longer have to flick through pieces of paper wondering where particular notes are, which pieces of paper relate to each other, or if I am safe to shred something.
The only downside is that my daughter, unaware of my change of habit since she was away at university, bought me a lovely pen for my birthday. However, partly inspired by my current reading of Michael Palin’s diaries and partly because I think it may benefit my mental health to have an outlet for thoughts and ideas, I am going to start a handwritten diary which means that the pen will have a very specific, and hopefully special, use.