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Edited to add a fourth principle
Anna Havron gives us two principles to consider when determining whether to use digital or analog formats:
We could add a third:
The question Anna was answering was (obviously) asked by someone who had the ability to use both digital and analog, and was looking for guidance when making the choice between them.
It is not my intention to put one forward as superior to another. We could, then, assume a fourth principle:
I recognise that discussing a choice between digital and analog tools is not relevant to people with, for example, vision or motor impairment, but perhaps the principles for them might be applied to the digital method or systems they choose to use. I suspect there are good ways to apply the mode change and slowing down that make analog tools useful, to the digital sphere.
Elizabeth Tai likes the idea of a plain text to do list (and even once worked for a company that used a simple text file as their editorial calendar), but she gets distracted by devices, so paper works best for her. I like both, choosing which one to use based on the first two principles plus where I currently am on the distractibility scale.
Systems that attempt to bridge the analog-digital divide by including specialised bullet journal icons in apps like Obsidian (there’s a plugin for that) work well for some people, but they might not be for you. See the three principles above.
What if you’re not sure where to begin or how to continue and you’re feeling in a bit of a mess?
Cultivate curiosity.
Think of whatever problem you’re facing as a ball of tangled string, and settle in for some quiet, gentle, deadline-free unraveling time.
Think of untangling something like string or even worse, string lights. If you do so gently and hold in your mind that this is possible, that you are capable, the strings will lessen in tension and release their knots. But if you approach a problem holding in your mind that this is impossible, and perhaps even a waste of your time, you will make that be so. Whether it is string lights or corporate taxonomies you are untangling. What goes on in our mind has everything to do with how we solve problems, and a huge part of that is how we see ourselves, and our own capabilities. — Abby Covert
I recommend taking notes on what you observe about your wants, tendencies, and how you react to particular situations. Use those notes to guide the next thing you try and take notes on that, too. See Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s book, Tiny Experiments, for a step-by-step guide on how to do this.
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