Why I still keep a paper notebook

I use a phone, a laptop and a small home server every day, and I still carry a plain paper notebook. This is not a manifesto. It is just a short list of what works for me.

What it is good for

It starts instantly. There is nothing to unlock, no update to wait for, and no notification to distract me from the thought I wanted to write down. A page cannot be half-synced.

It also limits itself. A page is a certain size, so a plan has to be short enough to fit. I have caught more bad ideas on the first page than anywhere else.

Where it stops working

Searching is slow, and a notebook cannot be copied. Anything I need to find later goes into a text file on the computer, with the date in the file name. The notebook is for thinking; the files are for keeping.

My small rules

Date at the top of every page. One topic per spread. A line at the bottom for "what next". When a notebook is full I flip through it once, move the useful bits to files, and put it on the shelf.

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