Ya, it's not for everyone. More people should give it a legit go and see if they like it. I've been all in on computers since the late 70s, but the slowing down and tactile experience is pleasing to me, atleast at a tactical level. I have thousands of items in Omnifocus, but use paper or brightly colored index cards for my weekly task sheets. My penmanship looks like I had a stroke, but I still consider it fun AND valuable to write the stuff out. Perhaps its the slowing down that internalizes it better or something.
I'm with you on that.
That’s a really interesting perspective to me, because my use of conventional word processing and spreadsheet programs is very limited. I use Pages a few times a year, for letters of recommendation, and Numbers twice a year for final grades at the end of each semester. Instead of a word processing program, I use Markdown a lot now, across multiple apps and platforms. Plain text is just so much easier and more flexible than messing with a word processor. I use TeX for both teaching and research writing. I know I’m not typical, but Microsoft should pay you to be a brand ambassador. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Word described as “fun” before.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Word described as “fun” before.
There is something strange with digital I also totally forget what I type and put in Omnifocus or what ever. On another hand I also alway remember what I wrote. However I still use Omnifocus. It helps me for organizing my information and make call for following them. I also use a bullet journal. I tried to put everything in it but it become a real mess even if I did my best for organizing and structure my lists and projects. Finally I use it as an inbox and a reporting tool.
It’s not really like vs. dislike, just utility. I do hate the tiny icons Microsoft adopted for common operations. I set up a template years ago for rec letters with letterhead and signature, so I continue to use it. There have been lots of apps I’ve discarded. I used to use OmniOutliner, but it was and is a complicated program, and there are simpler, faster alternatives, so I don’t anymore. To return to the thread topic, there‘s nothing more flexible than paper except that I suck at managing it.
Noted. I know certain members of my family think unicorns can make any document more fun.
Actually Word was fun once. But that dates back to the version 5 time frame. You could just use it and Get Stuff Done, rather than approach it like an ill mannered dangerous dog.I don’t think I’ve ever heard Word described as “fun” before.
Now I use Rollbahn spiral-bound notebooks that make it easy to rip out the pages when what I wrote no longer has value. The notebook shrinks and shrinks until it's just two cardboard covers (and some lovely clear page protectors at the end, that I never use) and then I throw it out and get a new one.
The "paper first" for ideas is a good way to insert a deliberate percolation phase into the process. Let the idea build a bit before committing it to your digital lists.I fairly frequently make a list of thoughts in a notebook, but I never actually work actions directly from that paper. The paper seems to clarify my thoughts, and then some of those things end up in OmniFocus--sometimes as a result of my transcribing them from the paper, sometimes just because the hand-writing solidified the thought and I remember, later,to add it to OmniFocus.
Once I realized this I stopped getting bound notebooks.
