So I tried playing with a modified bullet journal, more as an inbox than the master data source. And I discovered something that I didn't realize before:
- I don't trust analog.
- But I LIKE analog.
Sitting down to type in ideas doesn't have the same appeal as writing them on paper. Now, I say "ideas". When I want to actually write, sentences and paragraphs, I enjoy the computer and the keyboard. But the process of recording a thought, thinking for a minute, and recording another thought, works much better for me on paper.
So with a journal inserted in my personal system, the system is much more cluttery and I'm using it much more effectively. I've crossed that line from forcing myself to use the system, to the system drawing me in. I thought I preferred a single place to put things. It appears, so far, that I'm wrong.
So right this minute, my system (again, this is my personal system, unrelated to my work system) consists of:
- Scrivener, as the "warehouse". Permanent lists, reference, project support material, Someday/Maybe, Waiting, project ideas, etc, etc.
And I do all my actual writing in Scrivener. (Actually, that's not true. I'm writing this in bbEdit. Why do I write forum posts in bbEdit? Huh.)
- Reminders, as a capture tool and a way to share tasks with The Guy.
- The standard Mac calendar, both as a calendar and as a place to put ticklers that I want to "ping" as opposed to ticklers in Reminders that I don't want to "ping".
- A paper journal, primarily as a capture tool. I'm doing the daily bullet pages, but almost everything gets moved somewhere else before it gets done. I also have pages for various projects--two planned trips, home decluttering, etc.--but I suspect that after those projects "gel" to a certain level they'll land in Scrivener.
I think that if I were to evalute the flow of everything, I would find that the journal appears to just slow down the entry of ideas that I could enter faster on the keyboard. But since I like it, I think that I enter ideas that I wouldn't enter without it.
- OmniFocus, where the actual actionable projects, contexts, and tasks end up.
I find myself forming a metaphor of a buffet. I do the "cooking" in Scrivener and the journal and Reminders. Most of the food lands in steam-table pans in Scrivener, though I may now and then nibble as I'm cooking. And then I "fix a plate" from that buffet, and OmniFocus is that plate.
Weird.
- I don't trust analog.
- But I LIKE analog.
Sitting down to type in ideas doesn't have the same appeal as writing them on paper. Now, I say "ideas". When I want to actually write, sentences and paragraphs, I enjoy the computer and the keyboard. But the process of recording a thought, thinking for a minute, and recording another thought, works much better for me on paper.
So with a journal inserted in my personal system, the system is much more cluttery and I'm using it much more effectively. I've crossed that line from forcing myself to use the system, to the system drawing me in. I thought I preferred a single place to put things. It appears, so far, that I'm wrong.
So right this minute, my system (again, this is my personal system, unrelated to my work system) consists of:
- Scrivener, as the "warehouse". Permanent lists, reference, project support material, Someday/Maybe, Waiting, project ideas, etc, etc.
And I do all my actual writing in Scrivener. (Actually, that's not true. I'm writing this in bbEdit. Why do I write forum posts in bbEdit? Huh.)
- Reminders, as a capture tool and a way to share tasks with The Guy.
- The standard Mac calendar, both as a calendar and as a place to put ticklers that I want to "ping" as opposed to ticklers in Reminders that I don't want to "ping".
- A paper journal, primarily as a capture tool. I'm doing the daily bullet pages, but almost everything gets moved somewhere else before it gets done. I also have pages for various projects--two planned trips, home decluttering, etc.--but I suspect that after those projects "gel" to a certain level they'll land in Scrivener.
I think that if I were to evalute the flow of everything, I would find that the journal appears to just slow down the entry of ideas that I could enter faster on the keyboard. But since I like it, I think that I enter ideas that I wouldn't enter without it.
- OmniFocus, where the actual actionable projects, contexts, and tasks end up.
I find myself forming a metaphor of a buffet. I do the "cooking" in Scrivener and the journal and Reminders. Most of the food lands in steam-table pans in Scrivener, though I may now and then nibble as I'm cooking. And then I "fix a plate" from that buffet, and OmniFocus is that plate.
Weird.