Using Google Notebook as a Lab Notebook
I love Moleskine notebooks, first of all. I have used them as lab notebooks for the last 2-3 years, and they are excellent all around. However, they suffer from the main drawbacks of hard copy anything:
- They only exist in one place at a time.
- They are not searchable in any modern sense of the word.
- Sometimes I can't read my own writing [not a drawback for everyone].
- One notebook per month: Each month, I create a new dedicated monthly notebook.
- Old notebooks are moved to Google Docs: It is possible to export a notebook directly to Google Docs. This is a more appropriate place for a long-term, large collection of documents, and it keeps the Notebook uncluttered.
- One entry per day: I started off with each logged item in its own entry. This became cumbersome. Now, I use one entry per day, with timestamps throughout the entry whenever a new item is added.