I’ve been on the hunt, for several years, seeking a simple tool that will help resolve the messiness of my brain.
Let’s put aside the instant knee-jerk reaction of “Mindfulness!” and “Meditation!” as a cure-all solution. As a scholar of Religion and practitioner of its contemplation strand, I show a bit of (pretentious?) disdain for those who wish to strip those practices from their context and market it.
Sorry, it’s not that simple and I’m aiming for clarity of thought… and also remembering appointments, bills to pay, projects to finish, etc.
Anyway, it’s this hunt that led me to the cult of productivity.
The best advice still comes from my first foray into the subject while reading David Allen’s, Getting Things Done:
Get it out of your head.
Your brain sucks at remembering things and you need to get what’s in there, out. Allen developed a system that relied on writing everything down, collecting all relevant papers, and sorting it at the end. Each paper you touched was put into a system where you would deal with it.
The crux was using the system as it was intended so your mind can be free in knowing whatever was on it, will be dealt with. Brilliant.
Then the digital tools streamed in, followed by a massive cultural shift of mass communication dependent on the digital world. Suddenly, the likelihood of someone carrying paper and pen shrank significantly as we all put phones in our pocket.
It’s not a bad thing as digital offers convenience on a scale we’ve never been used to–each person gets their own personal assistant. However, digital tools have their limitations and aren’t all encompassing.
Each one promises to be that way (while making it simple, of course), but a system that can capture everything and deal with it in one place? That’s a no and it should be that way.
Our brains aren’t that simple. Give ourselves time to sit and think and our thoughts will race in many directions (and yes, please, I know about meditation, you don’t have to mention it again).
How do we capture those thoughts?
What if we want to elaborate on one?
The advantage of pen and paper is that paper can be anything. You can change the medium to your liking.
Make some index cards, have a sketch pad, bind a book, write a list, make an accounting sheet, whatever. It’s also tactile and visual, allowing you to spread a bunch of papers over a tabletop, or put a ton of index cards in a box to pull out as needed.
A digital tool is still limited by screen size with multiple screens being a solution, albeit a cumbersome one.
The fallacy people run into when trying to convince others of the “superiority” of paper is it can do all the above in a way digital can’t. However, the form in which paper takes varies according to what is needed. Every time you switch the type of paper you are using, it’s the equivalent of firing up another app.
However, this isn’t an either/or situation.
Our brains are complex and for years I’ve ignored the fact in the hopes of finding that one tool that will be my be-all-end-all solution. A tool with a built-in system that will solve all my needs.
Then I accepted that I’m a full-time working parent of a young family, who also writes and publishes in his non-existent free-time.
My daily life is complex and until things simplify (the kids leave and I retire… or so I’m told), I need a complex system to match, accompanied by an assortment of tools.
After several years, I think I got it now. It’s messy and I don’t recommend anybody replicate it, but it makes sense to me.
No single tool will be an instant fix, but many tools can be used together if you’re willing to work it out.