Paper is still worth it

Sometimes it feels like paper is a legacy tool. I confess that I use paper all the time. When I want to dump something out of my brain, nothing is faster than grabbing a notebook and writing it all down. No figuring out which app, where something should go, or the filename to use. Just grab the notebook and write on the first open page.

Paper is more useful when it’s not just writing down text. Sometimes I want to draw a graph or capture the relationship between several items. That can be ridiculously slow on the computer. It’s instant on a piece of paper.

The biggest argument against paper is that you can’t easily search it. This isn’t a problem for me:

• Typing in from paper is remarkably easy. The paper version is the first draft, so I want to make many changes anyway.
• You can scan the paper and put it into your system if you really need it.
• You can search for material you’ve written on paper. Here’s one of the simple systems I used at one time:
  • Write your ideas in a notebook.
  • Number the page.
  • Open a spreadsheet. Record the notebook name, page number, and a few tags.

  That little bit of metadata is all you need. I don’t use this system any longer, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use it again.

True minimal theme