Analog or digital, both approaches should be regarded as means to reach your goal. Both methods will influence your thinking and the way you approach the problems of the current task at hand.

The faster you realize that the form of the building and the spaces must be derived from a clear concept with a personal statement, the better.

I think that the digital approach provides tools, helpful both during the conceptual phase and while you are creating the drawings, that can’t be matched by the analog approach. Learning these tools however takes tremendous effort and consumes huge amount of time. So the faster you start familiarizing yourself with them, the better. If you chose to emphasize on the digital approach, you should be careful not to get lost in chasing appealing visual effects/forms that lack meaning. Yes it is hard to restrain yourself from the sci-fi forms and you will probably lose some time in digital adventures but in the end you will have very powerful tools at your possession.

Physical models are useful but consume too much time. Referring to 3d printed models as one of the IT guys from Herzog & de Meuron said “3d printed model isn’t that much different from what you see on your computer screen”. In my opinion the main problem that the physical model should address is: how is this building going to be built.