Digital notes are clean, minimal, and organized, whereas notebooks are scribbly, messy, and disorganized. That’s ok. They’re both aesthetically pleasing to me. Although I do realize that with doodles and strikethroughs that my paper journals are more mine than an app will be. Software note developers box you into a certain set of parameters, but in your notebook anything goes. You are in charge.
Notebooks don’t rely on batteries, an internet connection and no subscriptions. No forced upgrades and the format is time proof. It will still be there waiting on you to jot down your notes and doodles. If it is preserved properly, the journal will outlive you.
A paper journal will never require notification alerts and have a tactile feel that digital note-taking doesn’t. That feel of your writing implement against the uneven surface of the paper is more real than fingers string the keys on a screen.
Paper notebooks allow the ability to end and fold. You can chew it, set it on fire, cut snowflakes out of it or paper airplanes. Try that with any screen, and you’ll end up replacing the screen.
I’d rather draw marginalia faces, spirals, tacos, or flowers in the margins rather than rely on emoji in a straight line to express myself.
While I do find myself oscillating back and forth between analog and digital, the computers almost always wins out. But it is nice to know that if they fail, I have a wonderful backup device in my paper journal and typewriter.
How is your digital life? Feeling overwhelmed by all the clutter in your inbox, hard drive and cloud service? I know I was.
Though I consider myself to be a minimalist essentialist, there does come a time when I get lazy and the discipline slides. Clutter, digital or otherwise, can get distracting over time. Now may be the perfect time to clean up your digital room, so to speak. If not daily, then weekly because a well-organized computer will yield positive results for your state of mind and your workflow productivity.
Here’s how to get started:
Backups
When was the last time you backed up your data? If you can’t remember, then it has been too long. I set a calendar reminder for once a week, then plug in the dedicated external hard drive, flip on Apple’s Time Machine and let it do its thing-creating and preserving a snapshot image of everything on the MacBook’s drive. Before all that, I suggest sorting through your Downloads folder and assign to a proper folder or delete. How are your other folders? Photos, Music, Videos, Documents all need to be sorted. Toss what you have been holding on to for some reason. After all that, then take out the Trash and delete everything in that folder.
Cloud
Just as the computer gets cleaned up, so too your Cloud backups. My Cloud mimics the desktop with everything in place. Run Time Machine again and ensure good backups.
Software
If you have dozens of software programs and apps, it is time to have a think about what you are actually using. If you haven’t used a program in say six months, then uninstall and free up space on your machine. It will thank you for it. Do you really need four calendar apps, two music players, three browsers and who else knows what? Pick the right tool for the job and stick with it. Uninstall the rest.
Desktop
A cluttered desktop can be overwhelming and distract from your focus and productivity. A messy computer desktop is akin to a messy physical desk. Nobody wants to see that. Sort that clutter into their respective folders, empty your Trash can folder and enjoy the serenity.
The MacBook desktop
Web Browser
Now, wait just a damn minute, Chris. This is sacred. If I don’t have multiple tabs open or bookmarked, I run the risk of losing and forgetting them. I might even return to them…someday.
That mentality is an old way of thinking that needs to be corrected. You won’t go back to them. You don’t need it. One of these days, your browser’s memory will slow to a crawl, and you’ll be forced to reboot the thing and potentially lose all those open tabs you’ve been saving.
Inbox and RSS feeds
If you cringe every time you access your email inbox, then you are doing it wrong. Email should be assigned from an inbox to a folder, replied to or deleted. Don’t forget to take the trash out again when done. If the mail is piled up, and you are overwhelmed, most email applications have a search feature.
RSS feed readers are a remarkable resource to stay current on the websites and blogs you enjoy. Shameless plug inserted here- https://chrisdenbow.website/feed But how does your “Unread” count look? Either read the article or save it to the “Read It Later” folder. Everything else can be deleted. The same can be said for podcast episodes!
One Password To Rule Them All
I dislike passwords, and captchas and just about every modern day credential grabber. Who can keep track of them all? I used to and failed. Then I tried a third-party password manager. I only needed one password to log in to that, and every time I needed to sign in elsewhere, that application would pop up and log in for me. That was fun until their data center was hacked and everyone’s passwords were in the open. I currently use Apple’s Password manager.
I’m already signed in to an Apple account, so I don’t have to remember a password there. Any website I visit, the Password app is ready to log me in, or help me create a new username/password. Once credentialed, Passwords will retain the info and be ready to use again. All it requires is my Face ID or Touch ID.
The Takeaway
Our digital usage over multiple devices can overwhelm us, and we open ourselves up to clutter. Who has the time to organize when we just want to scroll a feed or watch a video? I find that currently we need to be more mindful. Digital simplicity, essentialism, and minimalism is more important than before.
Give yourself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
This website has seen a lot of documentation on tools, workflow, and productivity. I would rather not have a workflow, I don’t want to talk about it anymore and just do something rather than talk about the process or the tools used to achieve it. Less talking and more producing because I want to create.
Moreover, I, oscillate between digital and analog based on however I am feeling on any given day 1or hour, honestly Do I grab a digital camera and notate with Bear Notes or do I grab a film camera along with a pen and journal?
Of course, we all know that I will waffle and then proceed to discuss my tools, workflow, and productivity. This helps me understand the thought process when I look back through the Archives and to track progress.
The iPod is a discontinued 1(as of May 10, 2022) portable media player designed by Apple in 2001. At 20 years, the iPod brand is the oldest device to be discontinued by Apple. It’s the end of an era, that’s for sure.
Apple iPod Classic (5th Generation, 2005)
I fondly recall my first Sony Walkman that had the ability to not only listen to AM/FM radio, but play 90 minutes of music on cassette tape. We maxed in as many songs as we could on that tape drive, but it was never enough, so we had collections of cassette tapes lying around to keep track of.
And when Steve Jobs promised “thousands of songs in your pocket”, most of us were amazed and just.had.to.have.it. It was portable music freedom. I’ve owned three iPods, the original (sadly lost forever, a 5th generation classic iPod (shown below) and an iPod Touch that closely resembled an iPhone. My toddler daughter quickly assumed ownership of that last one.
The iconic iPod adverts
After this month’s announcement, I decided to grab as many compact discs as I can find to then load onto my MacBook and transfer my songs to the iPod. It’s a multistep hassle for sure, but they are there. They are mine. I don’t have to pay a monthly subscription for them. I don’t need Wi-Fi or cellular connection to play them. There are no notifications or interruptions when I have those wired earbuds in. I’m amazed at how much I have relied on Bluetooth wireless AirPods and streaming music.
This 5th gen iPod was the first to play video, review photos and still retain the classic, iconic scroll wheel. Podcasts, audiobooks, videos, and photos are all synced to the device when plugged into my computer via iTunes. Can a podcast still be called a podcast without iPods? What do we call them now, “Netcasts?”
This iPod projects me back in time, and I am overwhelmed by the nostalgia. It feels less like a novelty item, but a more pure form of music ownership and enjoyment.
I waffle a lot between digital and analog. I enjoy paper books for the tactile aesthetics, but love the convenience of a digital book (thousands in a pocket-sized device!) Paper books have been around for eons, still available, and we have seen how durable paper can be. No one knows how long a digital medium will last. The Classics have been reprinted and stored in multiple locations, but digital information is tied to proprietary formats. I just bought a fifty-year-old typewriter. Can my MacBook last that long? Will my website survive another 20 years? Forty years? Sure, I can convert the entirety of my Archives to a PDF format and print it out, but who would want to read it?
I try to use open standards and future-proof my writing, mostly in a non-proprietary .txt format, but sometimes that isn’t enough. I’ve lost the early years (2001-2011) because I didn’t know enough to back them up when swapping laptops, hard drives, etc. Such as buying a computer that did not have a floppy disk or CD drive, and then have that information stuck on formats I could no longer access. Or, they were erroneously deleted when doing a cleanse. Oops.
The stuff I printed years ago is still okay. My parents possess old family photo prints which have existed for over fifty years. Paper can be a perpetual format to store information. All digital storage formats using a tape will rot away over time. Hard drives will fail or become corrupted. We can, ourselves, accidentally delete precious memories or ransomeware can invade and encrypt your files, so back everything up. I have multiple hard drives for this plus cloud storage, but this all implies I back up regularly.
Paper is a simple medium that can store limited types of information. I can print text, write on it, print photos on it, etc. Paper can be stored in a binder, folder, metal cabinets that help organize and protect. Of course, it can be damaged, but that is every file format wether it is digital or analog.
So, my solution to the issue is to try to do both analog and digital where I can. Back up everything, everywhere I can. Make it consistent and redundant.
