I'm in the same boat. In university, folks would ask how much I study to get good grades (20 years ago). I would write my notes and review them once or twice. When looking at the written word, I recall where I was sitting, what was going on in the environment, and often a lot (a lot a lot) of context that I would have otherwise forgotten had I not reviewed the note once or twice.

However, for myself, the keyboard creates some disconnect when reviewing notes. It's got to be hand written and, like mentioned, I usually only need to review it once or twice over the span of a week or two and then I'll retain the info. Lots of scaffolded and reinforced-by-association information.