Tools: Fun, Easy and Cheap

Posted on July 28, 2008 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Productivity

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I’ve been falling into habits of both not writing things down, or writing things down on bits of paper. I decided to take a look at this, because my backsliding into these habits indicates to me there is a problem with how I am capturing information.

Why Don’t I Capture?

1. Inconvenience. My PDA would logically be the primary target of capture, but it takes too much effort to get it out, turn it on, and write the information – even if I don’t write it in the correct place. My online methods, currently through Jott/Sandy/Remember the Milk, require having an Internet connection, navigating to the correct page, and typing it in.
2. Hard to Use. My online capture methods are too difficult to get into my tracking system without me having to rewrite it. And I don’t even want to go into the difficulty of Graffiti on the PDA!
3. Expense. I have invested in some moderately-priced and high-priced tools to get me motivated, only to find out I don’t want to use them for fear of dropping/destroying them. I love Moleskine notebooks, but knowing that a bunch of famous writers used them makes me think I can only put profound ideas in them.

The Solution: Finding Tools that are Convenient, Easy and Cheap (and Fun!)

Looking over the tools that I have, I have decided I needed to go with tools that are convenient, easy and cheap. Adding an element of fun makes it more likely that I will use them, as well.

What did I decide on? A cheap notebook with a fun design, small enough for me to carry, but quality enough to take any type of pen. For my writing instrument, my fountain pen (fun in purple ink) or any other pen I have handy.

If you are having difficulties with any part of your system, I urge you to look at why it isn’t working, or why you are backsliding, and take steps to remedy the problems.

Photo by tim_d

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