What is the role of paper as a modern productivity tool?
Is our use of paper just a habit we need to get rid of or is it something more? Is it still a useful tool, or should we be trying to break some sort of addiction to it. This is inspired by a LinkedIn post by Chris Mullen. He’s talking about the glories of paper with respect to it’s limited ability to distract us. And I think that’s absolutely on point.
I think that any tool that allows us to get our thoughts out of our heads is good. We should have a habit of spending some time thinking. And by thinking, I don’t mean feet up, pondering, daydreaming. That’s not what I mean, although that does have value. I mean wrestling with what’s going on inside of our skulls, and a very suitable way to do that is to realize your thoughts in some medium. I think many media can work here. For example, I’ve believed that I think well when I’m talking, when I’m trying to explain my thought to somebody else, and they’re asking questions, and they’re forcing me to be clearer about what it is I think. I believe paper does the exact same thing.
I’ll talk about why paper is good, where it is lacking, and what we can do to get the best of both worlds. Spoiler alert: I love paper, buy maybe not for the reasons you think.
Paper is great
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Paper is never out to lunch, out of battery, or needing an update. It is amazingly hard to break and its very flexible.
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Lack of distractions? Sort of Environmental cues? Possibly, but they’re somewhat weak
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Yes, paper could signal your brain that it’s time to focus – parallel to sleeping environment
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Your brain knows what to do with a piece of paper – it has no idea what to do with a mobile computer – there are too many options
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A ‘real piece of magic’ – Paper provides useful Constraints
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Our brains are magical – few constraints
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Paper imposes constraints and gives structure. This is a good thing for realizing our thoughts.
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Any structure will do – it’s better than no structure there are other things like paper that can provide structure e.g.
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Many realizations can provide this structure and constraint: whiteboard, talking, any external mechanism that involves some symbol set
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There are also “Pure” thought tools – a “mind palace” provides structure, but is hard
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It’s outside our skulls
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Capture makes our thoughts better and removes clutter from our brains
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An idea that’s stuck in your skull is useless – definition of information
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So, “realize” the thoughts – outside your skull
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Paper – love me some paper (perhaps you’re surprised at that)
Weaknesses of both paper (as a placeholder for analog) and digital
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Neither paper not digital do anything (really) to protect us from distraction, although paper is less active
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Chris’s post is also about its lack of a means to distract us True but… people can be just as distracted with paper in their hands as with a keyboard in their hands
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it’s not paper itself that helps, but our habitual use and the need for structure
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True, digital is worse, but paper ain’t magic on this front. We still have to control the environment
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The advantages of electronic/digital media
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Paper is very flexible – diagrams, words, pictures, etc. – but you’re almost definitely a faster typist than handwriter, even on mobile
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The fundamental problem with paper or any physical manifestation… what do I do with it?
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Everything has to be digital at some point, so we might as well get there as early as possible
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Paper has been out-evolved on storage, search, and transmittability
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we’ve got to get it into a computer, somehow, to take advantage of storage, search, and transmission
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I would argue that digital paper is not a great improvement and has some negatives
The #1 challenge is to then bring these non-digital artifacts into a system where we can use the best organizational tools.
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Take a picture (or scan) of the piece of paper and throw the piece of paper away. Transcribe the audio. Get the analog to digital.
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Paper is great, but use it like a Kleenex – get done with it and throw it away, don’t let it linger around can clutter
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But TANSTAAFL (“there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” – Heinlein) – we still have to control the digital environment
The #2 challenge – any modern computer is an interruption machine – you’ve got to discipline it
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Paper (and other analog) disciplines you in certain ways
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But your computer doesn’t – because you haven’t set it up that way and It doesn’t come that way; Your software and OS developers are not helping you here
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Most people wind up with a tool for maximum distraction and maximum interruption. You do not need to be instantly reachable by the whole world and trying is bad for you
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Stop letting your computer ding at you every time you get an email
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I get ads on a web app that I have paid to subscribe to – these businesses cannot resist
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The trend in tech is against your effort to discipline
We have to do the hard work to discipline our devices. Just like we have to train a new VA.
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This is a big part of what we talk about in Attention Compass implementation.
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Example: Windows virtual desktop – use it to hide things from yourself
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But most of discipline is limiting what your computer does, as compared to adopting new apps and new features
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Decide how you’re going to work and discipline the device to support that
Once your devices are disciplined properly, then this divide about “paper is better than digital” goes away.
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Digital becomes better than paper in most cases. But, if you see me, I probably have a piece of paper in my pocket.
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This is a challenging piece of work and it won’t stop anytime soon, but you’ll get better at it.