Paperless Productivity

I'm going to have to admit something. I am definitely one of those people that, if I don't write it down, I will probably forget it. That includes to dos, things I need to buy (yes I have walked into a store, brought a whole load of things I probably didn't need, and then left without the things I actually needed to get......so many times), and appointments. They just don't stay in my brain. And I'd love to say it's because I'm just so busy, busy, busy, but that would a lie. I'm not busy, that information just doesn't want to stay in my brain. I do, however, seem to be able to remember odd things like how bumble bees are able to fly in colder conditions than most other bees can. [If you're wondering it's by detaching their flight muscles from their wings and then vibrating them as if flying. It warms up their body so they can survive in the cold and they then reattach the muscles to the wings and fly off. But I digress, back to to dos and appointments.]

The strange thing is, of course, that when I do write things down and plan out my day I can be super productive. Getting a large number of my to dos ticked off and feeling very pleased with myself. I also find that by writing it down I can more efficiently spread tasks out throughout the week, increasing the chance of them actually getting done and reducing the chance of me feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelmed usually leads to me giving up and not actually getting any of them done. So writing down my to dos and appointments is definitely a must when it comes to being productive and just functioning like a normal human being.

But of course, writing everything down does come with a cost. An environmental one. There's a lot of paper and ink being used to keep up with all the things that need to go on in my life and it doesn't just include what goes on in my diary. I still make notes in paper form. Writing everything down when I'm researching and working out how I want to write things, either on this blog or doing initial scribbling for things like covering letters. All of it goes down in a notebook to be looked at later. I know that theoretically it would probably be better to do everything digitally, but it's been difficult to make the switch. And there is a sense of security by writing these things down on paper rather than using a digital format. I don't have to worry about it running out of batteries, it won't just malfunction and stop me being able to look at things (though I might loss it of course), there's no worry of me accidentally deleting everything or forgetting to hit save, and then there is, of course, the feeling that if I write it down it'll go into my head. I suppose there is also the counter argument that by using digital formats you are using up electricity which mostly uses fossil fuels to run. However, that's pretty easy to get around and make more green.

I have dipped my toe in a couple of times and already use Google calendar, which is linked to my mobile and laptop and which contains all my events like birthdays, doctors appointments, and working hours (all with reminders set for different times). And, to be, honest I've found Google calendar really easy to use and I don't feel the need to have a paper equivalent of this at all. But I haven't really taken the plunge into making all my daily activities digital and I figure it's probably time I do.

Before I had thought about this properly I had already brought a beautiful paper diary by Mairi Hedderwick for next year and I am still going to keep using this throughout 2020 to keep myself organised whilst I test out some of the digital options there are out there. And there are a few. To begin with there's the task option on the Google calendar (which will hopefully show up on the calendar on my mobile as well) and Microsoft To-Do, there's also well known software like Evernote, Todoist, Wunderlist, Habitica, and Toodledo. But I've also heard that Moleskine has brought out a popular app called Actions by Moleskine and one I've come across whilst doing my research called Any.do. The reason I want to look at these other forms of software over just the Google calendar task is that I would also like to keep my notes on there as well as they are usually connected to the to dos.  It would just make sense to have them both together.  That being said I will also test out programs like One Note and Google Keep to go with their counterparts and see if that works to.  I also still have a couple of notebooks that I will also finish before I go completely digital as I've already started using them and it seems silly to just throw them in the recycling half used.

This is, of course, all a test and it may be that I just don't do well going completely digital when it comes to organising my life. If that's the case I'll have to try and come up with a different way of reducing my waste, but it should be interesting to see how this goes. I guess going digitally organised will be one of my goals for 2020.