The Five Best Note-Taking Tools

Lifehacker has the roundup. Here's what their readers listed as the best note-taking tools (in no particular order):

1. Evernote (Windows/Mac, Free)
2. Pen(cil) and Paper
3. Microsoft OneNote (Windows, Shareware)
4. Google Notebook (Web-based, Free)
5. Personal Wiki

I've used all of these at some point or another, with the least experience with Google Notebook. All of them are good -- I particularly like OneNote and Evernote.

Another one of my favorite note-taking tools is my AlphaSmart Neo. It has one of the best keyboards I've ever used, lets me beam notes to my Treo or synch them up to my laptop, is instant-on, and probably gets over 1-year of battery life off of 3 AA batteries. (I've had mine for 3-1/2 months now and it still has 92% battery level after significant use.)

Moleskines are by far my favorite notebook. For those who use Evernote or OneNote, Evernote just released a OneNote import function. I look forward to testing this out soon. (The beauty of Evernote is that it synchronizes across multiple computers and stores all of your notes online as well.)

Eugene Volokh has a post with excellent recommendations from his readers on how to take notes for research.