I have a few friends who are mechanical and electrical engineers and they always use a notebook.

Apparently its so that they can document their work and thought process continuously, just incase they ever need to justify why they did something.

I've started to do it myself because it seemed like a good idea. It definitely beats having random pieces of copier paper that are piled up in a mess all over my desk.

Indeed. If you ever need to provide evidence for a patent, this is the way to do it.

I always keep paper around me to jot down ideas, sketches of interfaces, uml, whatever. The problem for me is retaining the content of the paper for later use, and being able to find it.

I tried a OneNote on a tablet PC for a while but having to wake/boot a sketchpad before capturing your thought just doesn't flow. I also tried OneNote (great program) on my main machine but the mouse and keyboard just isn't conducive to sketching.

What do you guys do?

Get a spiral bound (so it opens 359 degrees) 8.5 x 11 sketchpad with detachable pages for about 4 bucks at CVS or Walgreens. When it fills up, file it away. Remove any pages that apply to a certain project and put them in that file. I attach 4 different color markers to mine and carry it everywhere.

Lefties like me can't use spiral notebooks as they hurt the wrist.

Try using them upside down, spirals on the right.

What about one with the binding up top?

Yeah, being a leftie as well, spiral notebooks are incredibly uncomfortable, unless the spiral is on the top. Even reversing them can feel awkward.

I tried keeping a notebook for a while (as many of the other replies have said), but I found that it was awkward because either the book would be too big to keep easily in my pocket, or it was so small that writing in it would go through 10s of pages easily, which was then a huge pain to read later.

So what I do now is keep 5-10 pieces of normal 8.5" X 11" paper with me, folded into quarters. I put the date and time on the top-right corner of a page when I start writing on it. This makes it easy to figure out the order of pages later, as well as separate out into different projects.

If you're feeling hipster-ish, the paperback-sized Moleskine notebooks are great to take with you, but I have pretty sizeable stack of these : http://www.mead.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product3_10051... by my desk. The pages are perforated, so you can refile things later without jaggedy edges if you're so inclined (and they're cheap -- buy them from Wal-mart, etc.).

your basic highschool composition notebook. Small enough to carry around, and easy to stack on the bookshelf to archive.

Get an actual notebook with binding, so the pieces of paper don't get lost. The notebook itself is usually quite hard to lose too, just carry it wherever you carry your laptop.

I have a standard, cheapo exercise notebook (27.2cm X 16.7cm, it says on the back). I just jot stuff down in it, keep what I need and throw away the notebook.

I use OneNote. I use a scanner to capture the bits of paper, and add them into OneNote.

I agree, it's a great program.

The best tip I can give non-designers or non-artists is to read Dan Roam's Back Of The Napkin. It's about how to use basic sketching skills to both capture and express your ideas.

We're holding a discussion on it on Sept 10th at our next UX Book Club, for those in the bay area:

http://groups.google.com/group/ux-book-club-san-francisco/br...

They are also better than using a computer for exploring ideas, because paper is more flexible.

http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2006/05/26/pen_and_pa...

The comments including many by engineers, and a couple of musicians, are especially interesting.

Is it white on pale yellow and unreadable for anyone else?

If you are intending to keep them for some time, look for pH neutral/buffered paper, and a permanent (and non-toxic) marking device.