The main problem with paper is that it's not searchable, so I've been using [0] since 2018. Each invocation just appends a timestamped line of text. I have a crontab that pops up a box every hour and I type in what I'm working on. Sometimes I'll add extra notes if I'm working through a particularly thorny problem. It's always right there on the terminal.
I'd say it's saved my ass at least a dozen times over the years, where I hit a problem that I've seen before but can't quite remember how to solve it. I also page through it quarterly to get a good summary of what I've worked on for that quarterly 1:1 with the boss.
You need highlighting pens! I have a couple of them to circle anything significant--a bright circle means "this is probably interesting!" It makes searching vastly easier.
The other thing is to date every page accurately. Notes are a time series.
I'd say it's saved my ass at least a dozen times over the years, where I hit a problem that I've seen before but can't quite remember how to solve it. I also page through it quarterly to get a good summary of what I've worked on for that quarterly 1:1 with the boss.
[0]: https://gist.github.com/mfischr/f1ee2967ec0181b934639c30f4e6...