Pen or Pixel?

knowledge work in action

Pen or pixel?

Discover your work style in 4 questions

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Knowledge worker style

In today’s digital workplace, people engage with information, tools, and collaboration in different ways. This short test offers a quick reflection on how you navigate daily work tasks — from note-taking to planning and communication. Based on your responses, you’ll discover your knowledge worker style: tactile, digital, or hybrid. Understanding your style can help you make more intentional choices, avoid productivity pitfalls, and improve how you align with tools, teams, and tasks. The test takes less than two minutes. There are no right or wrong answers — only useful insights.

Next

You go into a meeting and you decide to take notes. You reach into your bag and pull out …

Pen & Paper

Digital notebook

The boss asks you when your project is due. You can’t remember the deadline so you check your …

Calender app

Paper agenda

Your work bestie returns from holiday. You're eager to catch up, so you ...

send a chat

head on over

A colleague asks you to review an important document. You give them your remarks by annotating …

A digital copy

A printed copy

Option A

Option B

A new idea just popped into your head and you want to brainstorm with your colleagues. You collect the troops and put post-its on a …

Virtual board

Whiteboard

The company asks you to organise a training. You’re invitational meeting request reads …

Virtual only

In-person required

Room + link

A co-worker asks for something only you can provide. You tell them you’ll get to it in a few days and add the task to your …

To-do app

Written to-do list

You have a must-read report you need to get through. You prefer to read the document on …

An e-reader

Paper

A friend comes to visit you at work. When they arrive at your desk they find IT infrastructure and …

a reading stand and paper stacks

a paperless desk

scattered paperwork

Your knowledge worker style is

Digital

Digital styles shine in fast-paced, connected, and collaborative work environments. Digital tools make it easy to organize, search, share, and automate tasks across teams and locations. This style is particularly effective when scalability, consistency, and remote collaboration are key — such as in project management, asynchronous work, or data-driven roles.

⚠️ What to look out for

• Tool overload can lead to clutter and confusion.
• Always-on notifications may disrupt focus and deep thinking.
• Relying on screens for everything can lead to missed human signals or less engagement.

💡 Top tip

• Build small screen-free rituals into your day — like walking meetings, sketching ideas on paper, or reflecting offline — to support creative and strategic thinking.

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Your knowledge worker style is

Tactile

Your style excels in environments where physical interaction, real-time co-creation, and sensory engagement add value. Tools like paper, whiteboards, or face-to-face meetings often support clearer thinking, stronger retention, and creative problem-solving. This style is especially useful in workshops, early-stage ideation, or when working through complex ideas that benefit from being seen or touched.

⚠️ What to look out for

• Information may stay stuck in physical form — hard to access or share.
• Manual systems don’t always scale when projects grow.
• You might rely too much on in-person exchanges, which can slow things down in digital or hybrid teams.

💡 Top tip

• Create simple routines to capture and digitize key ideas or outcomes — like taking photos of whiteboards or typing up key notebook insights. This keeps your tactile input connected to the broader workflow.

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Your knowledge worker style is

Hybrid

Hybrid styles bring flexibility and context-sensitivity. By using both tactile and digital tools, you can adapt your approach to suit the task, team, or moment. This style works well in complex, evolving work environments where one-size-fits-all solutions fall short — for example, shifting between strategic planning, client work, and team coordination.

⚠️ What to look out for

• Switching tools too often can drain energy and attention.
• Without habits, it’s easy to lose track of info between analog and digital.
• You might default to “whatever’s most convenient,” which isn’t always what’s most effective.

💡 Top tip

• Define your go-to tools for key activities (e.g. where you capture ideas, how you track tasks), so you stay consistent even as you flex your style.

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