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Hi, and welcome to Try AI for Growth, a baby podcast out of Make Space for Growth. Here, I share short and maybe surprising stories of how I’ve used technology to tackle everyday challenges—at home, at work, and in business. I’m your host, Sara Vicente Barreto, and today, I want to talk about something I know many of us struggle with: turning handwritten notes into something actually useful.
The Background
If you’re anything like me, you jot down ideas all the time —meeting notes, conference lessons, book quotes, random thoughts, a to-do list that somehow becomes a brainstorming session. But what happens next? Too often, those notes sit there, unstructured and scattered. And when it’s finally time to make sense of them, it feels overwhelming. I think I am on my journal #6 and in all of them I have noted down things I wanted to keep for future reference, learning or writing. They are still there.
This episode is for anyone who’s ever looked at their handwritten pages and thought, Now what?
I have tried many tools to help with this. A few years back, my husband investigated a few tools and offered me a RoWrite which ensures there is a digital copy of everything you write in the notepad but when the time comes to convert it, it is quite poor (and my handwriting is VERY neat!). I still use it but feel a bit discouraged. I used to have notepads for different things, now I take my journal everywhere and try and concentrate any thinking or note taking in there. But again, there it sits, even if neatly indexed. For last year’s WebSummit, I brought the tablet along and typed my notes directly into One Note. It helps me find them but I must admit I much rather write on paper, especially on 1on1 meetings or events where I am trying to learn.
Time for change
That’s where AI has stepped in for me, making it easier not just to transcribe my notes, but also to structure, analyze, and even refine them into something actionable.
Lately, I have been trying to consolidate some of my learnings as I am doing an increased amount of writing and also developing a course. So I thought I would yet again turn to my partner in crime, ChatGPT and see what it could do for me. I wanted ChatGPT to not only transcribe my notes but also help me make sense of them—highlight key points, identify gaps, and refine ideas.
So, I decided to experiment, and here’s how it changed the game.
How I Used AI to Transform My Notes
1. From Handwritten to Digital with Context
First, I took pictures with my phone from a couple of pages and uploaded my handwritten notes. I started with notes I had written about the book “Think Again”, as there is quite a bit in there about critical thinking that I want to work on. And I said:
“Can you help me decipher my notes and put them into a document, adding a structure? Please don’t change the content significantly, use what is in there and create a structure, don’t add any points yet”
With this, ChatGPT gave me a pretty amazing output of my notes, recognising my underlined words and (most likely) inferring my handwriting where it was less clear. It all made sense. Suddenly, I had my notes from different pages in a single place, already organized an easy to follow. The chaos had structure.
2. Identifying Gaps and Enhancing Insights
Once my notes were structured, I wanted to refine the content further. So I asked for an expanded version where it would give me perhaps points I had missed in the book or highlighted areas for me to dive deeper into. No surprise, this worked as well.
- Identify missing information—it flagged areas where I had ideas but lacked details.
- Suggest additional questions—if I had written a vague idea, ChatGPT suggested additional areas to ask like “How can you create a habit of rethinking with practical steps” or perhaps where I could look at additional literature
- Highlight errors or contradictions—I asked for the AI to spot errors or unclear notes and I was delighted to find it gave me points to clarify where my notes were either innacurate, contradictory or confusing. How about that?
This wasn’t just about transcription anymore. It was like having an assistant and a partner to review my notes and challenge my thinking.
3. Turning Notes into an Actionable Document
The final step was refining my notes into a proper document—whether a summary, an article, a structured report, or even a to-do list. You decide what you want to make of it, and the examples are endless:
✅ Extract key takeaways—if you need an even shorter summary or you want it to pick key lessons from the notes
✅ Create bullet-point action items—especially useful if you have meeting notes
✅ Rewrite in a polished format—whether I needed a professional summary or a simple email. I tried asking for a blog article (which I don’t plan to use) just to see how it was and it was remarkably good
✅ Create a course outline – to compare with the one I had already developed on this precise topic. I definitely have room for improvement in mine.
In the past, I might have spent hours cleaning up my notes and making sense of them. Or worse, I made nothing out of them. Now, I can go from scribbled pages to a structured document in minutes.
What I Learned from Using AI for Notes
1️⃣ AI Can See the your Handwriting AND a Structure – When you have pages of handwritten notes, it’s hard to know where to start. AI helps categorize and organize ideas, making everything clearer.
2️⃣ It’s Not Just Transcription—It’s Thinking Support – AI didn’t just copy my notes word-for-word. It asked questions, spotted gaps, and helped refine my thoughts, making my work stronger.
3️⃣ You Can Save Hours by Letting AI Draft the First Version – Instead of manually rewriting notes into something readable, I let AI do the heavy lifting. It creates the first draft, and then I refine from there.
How You Can Try This
If you have handwritten notes that you’ve been avoiding, here’s how you can use AI to make them work for you:
1️⃣ Upload your notes—Try scanning or taking a photo and asking AI to transcribe and organize them.
2️⃣ Ask for structure—Instead of just text, request sections, summaries, and headings.
3️⃣ Let AI highlight missing pieces—It can flag unclear points, contradictions, or areas needing more detail.
4️⃣ Turn it into an action plan—Ask AI to extract tasks, key takeaways, or insights so you don’t have to.
Give it a go?
Using AI for handwritten notes was a new experience for me and it has already helped me immensely. It’s not just about turning scribbles into text—it’s about bringing clarity, structure, and actionability to ideas. I can’t wait to go through my home office of piles of notes!
So if you have a stack of notes waiting to be processed, give AI a try. You might be surprised at how much easier—and faster—it makes things. If you’ve used AI for organizing notes, structuring documents, or refining ideas, I’d love to hear your story! Share your experiences, and let’s keep learning together.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of Try AI for Growth. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share your thoughts. Until next time, keep experimenting and keep having fun!
Photo by cottonbro studio