I am so glad that you found a way to sink deep into the writing again, @Silverdragon! That is a wonderful feeling, isn’t it?
I boggle at your burning through multiple erasers per pencil. I’m left-handed, so writing with a pencil results in graphite smudges from my elbow to my little finger and an illegible page.
I go for quick-drying fountain pen inks. Swapping colors each day helps give me a sense of making progress in my notebook. And, the slower speed of the fountain pen means I can mostly read what I have written.
Whenever I’ve tried OCR tools, they haven’t handled the irregularly slanted writing that those of us who are southpaws often use when we write.
(And, as an aside, may the sadistic person who invented spiral-bound notebooks with that horrible little coil of wire on the left-hand side be afflicted with boils in delicate places.)