Using Paper for Everyday Tasks • Hacker News Board

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#91

Post by ecspike » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

raju wrote: post #52

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…

I'm pretty similar except for the digital portion software. My final work notes live as an org-roam database because it has really rich linking, export and embed options. Day to day is in paper and the pertinent stuff is "elevated" to digital.

Diagrams get inserted as an image as-is and can be tagged with pertinent info. I do have the benefit of having decent handwriting that most can read as is or be OCR'd.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#92

Post by topaz0 » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

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…

Sewn bindings will lie flat if the book is thin enough, like 100 pages.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#93

Post by rbonvall » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #86

I think that ultimately any paper task tracking method that cannot be summarized within one or two pages of text is turning into that thing you do to procrastinate on actually doing shit, instead of a useful tool to help you decide what you want to do. Once you pass the preamble of "other ways I used to track tasks and why they don't work for me", this method passes that test. :) Her method looks a lot like the old B…

I've been using mostly paper for my notes for more than 15 years. Of course I have a system that works for me, and it has evolved effortlessly over that time through practice. If I had to explain it to you it may sound convoluted, but it's not like I sat down one day and tried to design a complex system from scratch.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#94

Post by icey » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

Everything about this is great.

Over the past 15 years, I've tried to break my paper notebook addiction numerous times, and have failed every time. It took a year of interacting with people over screen only to realize why paper has worked better for me (and why I'm going back to it after a year of Roam):

Writing things on paper forces you to be a better listener, AND when people realize you're writing things down, they tend to speak more concisely. It's not that hard to type at the speed of most conversations, but it never feels like it's really listening. Watch people who do it! They nod, type furiously, and when they have something they want to add they will change their facial expression to signal that they want to finish typing their sentence before they want to interject.

Saying "hold on, let me write this down" gives everyone a moment to refocus, and it's a lot more natural to say that than "hold on, let me type this". Plus, it makes it much more natural to revisit topics and let the conversation flow.

Roam, Notion, GitHub Issues, etc are all great for asynchronous communication and coordination, but I don't know that any system will ever beat writing things down by hand for talking with people. (Although, the hype around ReMarkable is tough to ignore...)

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#95

Post by rbonvall » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

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…

You may like to try wrist-friendly soft-ring notebooks:

https://www.jetpens.com/Kokuyo-Campus-Soft-Ring-Notebook-Sem...

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#96

Post by icey » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

sdevonoes wrote: post #62

Am I the only one that does write down stuff in paper to realize that I never come back to it at a later point? In fact I just throw away all my notes after a few weeks. The only reason I write down stuff is because: it "liberates" my mind. I can't keep all the details in my brain. Example: designing a system. I can see the system in my mind but at some point I need to dump it to paper, so I can keep thinking about i…

I use a similar system to the article, just a bunch of checkboxes and stars in my notes. At the end of every day, I review and make sure everything is up to date. A couple of times a week I'll do a deeper review and either do the thing or formalize the work in an issue somewhere. My handwriting is an abomination, but this system has always worked pretty well for me.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#97

Post by mikub » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

cortesoft wrote: post #90

Sounds nice, but I can barely read my own handwriting and my hand starts to hurt after writing like one word.

I have the same problem, I tried so many ways of holding a pen, but nothing works. Like you said, it starts already after writing one sentence or something like that. Made my schooltime really complicated.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#98

Post by jonnycomputer » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

beebeepka wrote: post #56

dijit wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A bidet uses far less water than a shower.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#99

Post by Zababa » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

kstrauser wrote: post #75

I keep thinking I’ll like paper, but I just don’t. A few years ago I started keeping a daily journal: not so much a diary with today I feel… but a record like changed the van’s oil. Drove the kid to camp. Called Mom. . [0] I was using Drafts on my iPhone as a kind of bullet journal, with an action group I wrote. [1] After a year of this, articles like this one convinced me to switch to a paper journal and to get a ni…

I personally don't like paper much because I write terribly, so either it takes a lot of time, or I can't read half of it. This makes writing either frustrating or useless.

Re: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks

#100

Post by Zababa » Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

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

> no more dead trees

Doesn't paper comes mostly from managed forests? Or maybe you attach a higher value to the life of trees than most people? (which is fine, just surprising to me)