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Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

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Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#51

Post by nunodonato »

vbsteven wrote: post #40
nunodonato wrote: post #11

How about a middle ground? I've been looking into the new generation of eink devices that are great for notetaking. Remarkable etc Best of both worlds and no more dead trees

While I love my Remarkable 2 for taking notes, journaling, drawing and sharing/exporting the results, it lacks search/discoverability/navigation. In a physical notebook it’s trivial to flip back a few pages to recall a note from last week. On remarkable that takes a lot more time, and the time cost is paid twice, once for finding the old note, and a second time to get back to the page I was writing. (Imagine working…

Onyx boox allows split screen

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#52

Post by raju »

Brilliant post!

This system reminds me of Bullet Journaling (https://bulletjournal.com/), which I have used on and off for a long time now. Folks who have adopted Bullet Journaling have come up with some very interesting symbols to capture parts of the day (some which I have found more useful than others).

I do find that any paper-based system breaks down for things that are recurring, and I have to resign and use some calendaring system to accommodate those (think changing the air-filter on the HVAC). I also feel that longer-than-a-day projects are harder to track on paper (If anyone has suggestions here I am all ears). I often find myself thinking of a project, breaking it down, then using paper to take one or two everyday till I feel like I am done.

My approach to finding balance between paper and electronic is

- Use paper daily (for the same reason that the OP suggest). Object permanence is real. I can't tell you how many times I just _remember_ writing something down on the left-hand side near the top that has saved my life. - If a recurring reminder comes through, add it to the list of Todos for today (on paper) - At the end of the day I usually end up transcribing my day into markdown notes (using https://bear.app/)

Over time I have learned that not everything works well in one format (I have been thinking about getting the Remarkable but my god that's steep)—What I end up doing is "linking" from one medium to another.

For example, if I start by writing an entry or a note on paper that I feel will be better described in a diagram or a code snippet I simply put a note on paper telling me to go to Bear (Since all notes are dated this is relatively easy). Or vice-versa—if I doodled out a diagram on paper, I simply put a "See notebook" in my Bear notes.

Looking forward to seeing how others are doing this.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#53

Post by esalman »

I kinda use Google docs in same manner. I have separate documents for different professional projects and personal goals. I use them in append mode only, and simple colors to differentiate to-do and done items- red/black.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#54

Post by NaN1352 »

I would love to. The most cumbersome thing about notebooks, even larger ones like A3, is 1) they dont lie flat, and 2) even if (eg. rings) when I want to write on the left page, my hand hits the "spine" between the pages and its not comfortable writing.

When I used paper I got used to have a stack of A4, put a title in one corner, I?d keep them on my left beside the keyboard. There are nice a4 in 4 light pastel colors, easier on the eyes than white, and simple memory cue when looking in the pile.

I’d have cheatsheets and tasks, the task/feature pages with lots of check boxes. I’d keep some cheatsheets for a long time, like css/typescript, and the task ones i would throw away when that feature is done.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#55

Post by xena »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #34

Lately I've been writing a lot in paper notepads and I've favored pens over pencils. I don't remember where I heard this idea originally, but there's something about using a pen which makes you grow a bit more comfortable with accepting that errors and mistakes will always happen but you can take action later on to correct those mistakes. With a pencil you often erase your mistakes and pretend they never happened. Yo…

Author of the post here, I use pencil because it's easier for me. Pens work fine (and I've used pens some days) but I mostly use pencil because I prefer pencil. I have a mechanical pencil that I've been getting a lot of mileage out of.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#56

Post by beebeepka »

dijit wrote: post #33
beebeepka wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take a shower immediately after a dump

Have you done the math on this? My gut says this seems, worse somehow. Using a 9 l/min shower head for a 6 minute shower results in 54 litres of water being consumed. 54 litres heated from ambient (say; 15 deg C) to shower temperature (say; 40 deg C) requires 1.6 kWh of energy. Most toilet paper is recycled so it’s a matter of figuring out how much the recycle process consumes per roll, then dividing it by the amount…

I simply answered the question. I have zero doubt taking a bath is worse than using sane amounts of TP

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#57

Post by xena »

arichard123 wrote: post #12

I use 8 pieces of A4 folded in half and stapled. You need a long-necked stapler, (or cotton and thread I suppose) and you're done. It always lies flat. A4 is super cheap. You can print covers or different types of page if you're interested in that kind of thing.

Author of the post here, I looked into that but my handwriting is so bad that I needed to have lines on the paper. It was cheaper to use crappy premade notebooks from Amazon.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#59

Post by abdullahkhalids »

nunodonato wrote: post #11

How about a middle ground? I've been looking into the new generation of eink devices that are great for notetaking. Remarkable etc Best of both worlds and no more dead trees

How many notes do you actually take? It takes about 113kg co2 to produce an iPad[1] and other tablets may produce more as much as 200kg. That's roughly equivalent to the emissions from producing 2000-6000 sheets of paper [2].

But we are not including the running electricity emissions of of the Remarkable, plus the co2 emissions of their cloud service. Plus electronics produce a lot dirtier pollution on disposal than paper.

I taught 4 courses this year, plus research work. And I think I got through about 500 sheets of notes. If I had a Remarkable, it would maybe last 4-5 years. I think lifetime pollution from a tablet like Remarkable is always going to be more than from just using paper.

[1] https://newzik.com/blog/ipad-environmental-report/

[2] https://www.goodenergy.co.uk/good-stats-on-carbon-saving/

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#60

Post by novosel »

NaN1352 wrote: post #54

I would love to. The most cumbersome thing about notebooks, even larger ones like A3, is 1) they dont lie flat, and 2) even if (eg. rings) when I want to write on the left page, my hand hits the "spine" between the pages and its not comfortable writing. When I used paper I got used to have a stack of A4, put a title in one corner, I?d keep them on my left beside the keyboard. There are nice a4 in 4 light pastel color…

Just stating the obvious. All people writing with a fountain pen know that writing in notebooks of any sort is more pleasant when said notebook is rotated 90 degrees, with its spine going across. From left to right.

Then, the angle of the paper to the tip point does not vary across the line.

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