Not really. Say you're playing in the key of G. Take the G scale. There's 8 notes in it, right? So number each note in the scale 1-8; so in the G scale 1=G, 2=A, 3=B, 4=C, 5=D, and so on. It's easier to change keys if you're using numbers, cuz if you're playing G, C, D (1,4,5) in the key of G, then to switch to, say, the key of C, you would just have to think, "What is 1, 4, 5 in the C scale?"
I seriously need to work on this. I'm not good at making myself stop to figure out what the numbers are. But, 'practice makes perfect.' (or so they say:))