Where to write it down, is not as important as being able to write it down.

Processing thoughts and ideas, while trying to keep everything in my brain, is hard. I could spend a good amount of time thinking about something, then my brain will switch gears and think about something else, and I lose most of what I thought about prior to the new idea popping up.

That's because we can only hold on to at most, four to seven items in our head at any time. Which means our brains are not designed to think through or remember multiple things at once. It also means that if we try to keep everything in our head, we will be taxing our brain. It is not an efficient way to think. And so, I have to write my thoughts down.

Writing down my thoughts and ideas helps clear them off my brain. This frees up my brain from having to make multiple context switches between different thoughts and ideas. This allows my brain to focus on thinking through a specific topic or task at hand.

It's been a boon for me really. I've noticed that I'm able to think through things better when I write it down. And so I'll end this post with what I use to write down notes these days.

• For pen and paper, I prefer the Zebra Sarasa Grand Retractable Pen and a hardcover Rhodia Goalbook. I have found these two to be the best combination, when it comes to writing down notes the old-fashioned way.
• For digital note-taking apps, I mainly use Obsidian. It's what I use to archive all my journal entries. It's also what I use to build and publish my digital garden. If for some reason this is not accessible to me, and I don't have my journal with me, I use OneNote.
• On my mobile phone, I previously used OneNote, preferring it over Apple's Notes app. But now that there is an available Obsidian app on iOS, I only use OneNote as a backup.

Tags: #NoteTaking #Notebooks

If you've been following this online journal, you probably already know that I keep a Bullet Journal. I mean I only ever mention it every other post or so. I also have a Work Journal. I also have a number of Field Notes notebooks lying around. I use these Field Notes notebooks in a variety of ways. One is a Food Journal. Another is Baby Caleb's milk, temperature, wet/dirty diaper, health tracker. Another is a backup satellite Bullet Journal. Another is a catch-all notebook for whatever needs to be written down.

So, why do I like paper notebooks so much? Why do I like them over using my smartphone or my PC to write down notes? The main reason is that, just like the title states, they are distraction free. There's no social media, or browsers, or games, or other apps in it to distract me from the writing process. It keeps me focused on writing down what I need to write down. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is not to say that I don't ever write down notes on my smartphone or my PC. For certain situations, I do. But for the most part, if I had a choice between writing down my thoughts on a paper notebook or a digital device, I would choose the paper notebook most of the time.

This post is Day 19 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

Tags: #Notebooks #DigitalMinimalism #100DaysToOffload

The pocket notebooks I decided to get were the Field Notes Pitch Black Memo Books. These are small notebooks (3.5 x 5.5 inches) that can literally fit in either my front or rear pockets. The covers are flexible, so they don't really bother me that much when I'm walking or sitting. The paper is of good quality, a lot better than the paper in the Moleskine notebooks that I have. Overall a pretty good pocket notebook. And based on the research I made, people love these notebooks and they use it for note taking everywhere, even in place of their smartphones. Sounds exactly like what I was trying to achieve, right? So, what could go wrong?

The problem is/was, if you don't have a table to put the pocket notebook on, it can be challenging to write stuff on it.

I am right-handed so writing on the left side of the notebook is manageable while holding the notebook on my left palm, however writing on the right side can be downright frustrating. It doesn't help that I have big hands.

Imagine writing on the right side of a small flexible pocket notebook, using your left palm as support, your writing hand gets closer and closer to the edge, and at some point your wrist will end up floating in the air while you are trying to write stuff down. Yeah, that can be hard, and in my opinion, is a totally inferior note-taking experience compared to simply jotting down notes with a smartphone. Having a pocket notebook with a hardcover would have helped, but then it would be uncomfortable in my pockets, not to mention having to sit on one.

I tried writing down notes on my pocket notebook while I was taking a walk; nope I ended up just using my smartphone instead. Even when I was not taking a walk, just standing outside the office parking lot taking in the view, an idea came to mind and I tried to write it down on my pocket notebook; it was challenging. Honestly, the only time I enjoyed writing down notes on my pocket notebook was when I had access to a desk or table, like when I was at home, or at the office, or at a restaurant. Anywhere else without a table, jotting down notes on a smartphone was way better in my opinion.

Now some arguments can be made about the benefits of pocket notebooks over smartphones.

• They don't run out battery.
  • That's true, but ever since I embarked on my digital minimalist journey, my phone battery never dropped below 70% during weekdays, so that argument won't apply to my use case.
• They do not distract the user from the writing experience.
  • I totally agree. However, I have found that if the smartphone user is disciplined, it is possible for them to pull out their phone, open their preferred note-taking app, jot down notes, put their smartphone away and they are done. In my case, since I have no social media or entertainment apps on my smartphone, there is even less of a reason for me to get distracted with my smartphone.
• Writing down notes on paper helps you remember what you wrote.
  • There is an easy workaround to this if you recorded notes on your smartphone; you can simply migrate the notes from your smartphone into your notebook at a later time, like at night when you get home. The act of migrating notes means you will write them down on your notebook, so you don't lose the benefit of being able to remember them more easily.
• Pocket Notebooks look cool.
  • This is subjective, but I totally agree with this and I don't have anything to counter this argument. For example, just take a look at these limited edition National Parks memo books from Field Notes! I think they are beautiful, and if I didn't have 2-3 unused notebooks at home, I would be buying them already.
    

Anyway, to wrap this up, I was so convinced I would end up loving the use of pocket notebooks and that it would totally replace my smartphone when it comes to note-taking. The reality of it was, unless there was a table to put the notebook on, I preferred to use my smartphone if I needed to quickly jot down notes. This is not to say I won't use pocket notebooks anymore, just that there is a time and place to use them.

Digital minimalism is not about stopping the use of all things digital, it is about picking the appropriate tool for the task at hand. In this case, when there is no table nearby, writing down notes on a smartphone is perfectly fine.

Tags: #DigitalMinimalism #Notebooks #NoteTaking #Smartphone