Capturing or thinking in either is an improvement over people trying to keep everything in their heads, something we're are in the USA completely not taught in public schools.<p>There are various tools I've tried from this classic HN discussion regarding digital tools, from my infatuation over time with fancy pilot g2 pens, to Casio pdas, to palm treos to the HP Compaq TC1000 with Onenote 2003 (pen computer with electronic notebook!) to my ongoing fountain pen habit to my current desire to make the Microsoft courier concept real life by buying an expensive Lenovo Yoga 9i (why are booklet PC form factors so impossible to find!? I would ask), the tool search is a worthy and never ending hobby.<p>But it was only when I wrote applied the mental process of "capture clarify organize reflect and engage" taught in David Allen's Getting Things Done system did I manage to find what I was looking for: a mental algorithm to respond to all the novel information in my life so it can take its proper place among my existing life landscape.<p>I was capturing reams of notes in analog or digital but then I never knew what to DO with them, so I just held them just in case I needed them again.<p>The GTD book is reputed as a personal organization / filing and email advice and that's useful in its own area, but besides the point of the book, which is to equip you to properly assess, digest, and see the landscape of your life.<p>I really love the mental clarity and confidence that, armed with these great analog fountain pens or great digital capture with Dragon pro 15, the captured notes not only exist, but I know what they are, what they mean to me, what I need to do with them (if any).<p>I still try out new personal wikis and other new digital (1) and analog tools (steal like an artist book talks about switching between creating in analog and editing in digital as both are more suited those in a general sense), but I now do it knowing that I don't have the nagging desire for 'something more' that I used to expect the tools to unlock, when the tools really function to be force multipliers for how I approach my life's horizons and projects, both old and new, i get to just enjoy the new toy.<p>(1) I still try to avoid being nerd sniped trying to write my own digital notebook app like Lorien but saving on sqlite with onenote .one file import so I can have Windows and Linux app parity.