If you haven’t used the app Notability yet, I think you’ll find it to be an indispensable part of your toolkit once you learn how to use it. This guide and tutorial sums up everything you need to know to start using Notability.
[65% of people are visually inclined](https://www.inc.com/molly-reynolds/how-to-spot-visual-auditory-and-kinesthetic-learni.html#:~:text=Approximately 65 percent of the,remember best through visual communication.). This means that we make connections much faster when visuals are involved. Often times, we may be working on a product or deliverable and we make the mistake of starting out in the final delivery app (for example PowerPoint or Excel). The issue with that approach is that you have to contend with the app. Meaning you end up spending more time formatting things than refining your actual ideas. That’s why it’s helpful to start “on paper”. There’s a special relationship between pen and paper that allows ideas to flow freely out of our brain and that make thinking and brainstorming more effective. That simply can't be replicated with a mouse or keyboard.
Notability feels a lot like working on paper, only digitally. Armed with a stylus, ideas can flow just as freely on a tablet screen as it does from pen to paper. Actually, you can even start out on paper and digitize a photo of your scribbles inside Notability. The benefit of having this content in a digital form rather than on paper is of course that it is easy to update, manipulate, highlight, re-organize etc… So to conclude, Notability can help replicate the pen to paper experience while allowing ideas to freely flow. Digital scribbles can be updated and organized as needed. It’s a great tool for visual thinking.
NOTE: Notability is often compared to Goodnotes which has a huge community of digital planners. Goodnotes’ navigation works great for embedding planner templates. On the other hand, Notability's interface works much better when it comes to making free form scribbles and organizing individual notes. And it feels much more similar to paper in terms of being able to quickly jot down notes and ideas.
Think of Notability as a personal whiteboard or notebook. It’s a place where you can capture ideas, thoughts, notes digitally, in a freeform manner.
<aside> 💡 To get started, you'll want to download the app. Notability is only available on MacOs (Concept or Sketch are the closest alternatives on PC / Android for for visual thinking purposes). My preferred way of using Notability is on a tablet (iPad) with a stylus although it's also available on Macbooks. Still, I recommend downloading it there as well for referencing purposes.
</aside>