Mixing Digital and Analogue

We’re a pen shop. We sell pens, and we love them. We also sell paper - notebooks, diaries, journals. And we love those too. But we’re also an online pen shop, so we use computers. And, if we’re being honest, we love those too.

So if you’re finding you’d really like to use both digital and analogue tools, you’re not alone. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, often in ways that can complement each other rather nicely. There are plenty of ways to use pen and paper to add to your life without throwing your phone in the sea and running off to live in the woods. As tempting as that may be some days.

Planning and Calendars

This can be a tricky one, because shared calendars, synced automatically by some sort of cloud, are so convenient. And your little pocket rectangle can remind you when you need to be reminded, while your diary will just sit quietly in your pocket if you forget to check it.

We use shared calendars and reminders on our computers and phones all the time, and some of us would be quite lost without them. Some of us are still young enough to have working memories, but not all of us!

But there’s something really nice about a week or month all laid out on a page or pair of pages, there to just scribble your annotations and events. Lines can go anywhere, things can be bigger or smaller as they need to be. And that paper can sit right there beside you even while you’re working on your computer. And sometimes it’s just kind of nice to look at something that isn’t a screen.

So there’s a pretty good case for using both - a digital calendar for reminding you and sharing what you’re up to with other people; and paper for thinking through the week or month, and working out what to concentrate on when.

Notetaking

Taking notes on paper has been shown to help you remember things better than taking the same notes with a keyboard. And they can be more freeform, easily going from lines of written words to mind maps to quick sketches, whatever works for what you’re doing.

But digital notes can be searched later, and an endless archive of them fits in your pocket. They can be copied and pasted, and sent to other people.

So here, perhaps the most important question is why you’re taking the notes in the first place. If it’s a way of thinking, paper is probably best. If you’re making rough plans, to tidy up later, paper is great. If it’s notes you’re going to want to keep around and refer back to later, digital is the more obvious choice.

If it’s a business plan, you might want to start on paper to get the ideas down with as little friction as possible, then tidy things up into a digital document later, to present as a PDF or slideshow.

A journal may be best on paper, as it’s more about the process than the result.

If you’re learning something new, paper is more likely to help you remember the notes you’re taking, though there’s something to be said for getting things tidied up into computer-based notes you can search later too, especially if you’re going to have to revise the notes or refer back to them later.

And if you just want to make your paper notes findable later, you can always scan the pages with your phone, and add a few key words as searchable notes.

Communication

There’s something nice about actual written letters or cards, so hand-writing a letter to someone is probably going to be very much appreciated. But at the same time, it’s not very practical for most of our communication these days.

If you want to show a close friend how much you miss them, a letter will do just that in a way an email never would. But if you want to check if someone’s free for coffee this afternoon, you’re probably going to text them.

Relaxing

Both definitely have a place here. Doodling, sketching or colouring can all be really nice ways to relax. But it’s hard to play Stardew Valley on paper. That said, paper can still play a part - keeping notes on what you’ve planted, what little tasks you need to do (because you keep forgetting to take that mountain of geodes to Clint), or a little table of what crops are best in each season.

So we’d definitely go with a mix for relaxing, but it’s nice to get away from the screens sometimes. Even the little ones.

Making Paper Aeroplanes

Paper takes a massive win here. Very difficult with a phone, difficult with an iPad, and not good results in either case. Would not recommend.

Resilience

This is kind of a tricky one, honestly. A paper notebook will never run out of battery power. Notebooks and paper diaries don’t usually break when you drop them - phones are getting stronger, but glass screens can still break a bit too easily for comfort. Water can be a big problem or not much of a problem for either - a lot of modern phones are at least fairly water-resistant. Paper can take quite a bit of water before being damaged too much, but some inks can wash away fairly easily, and paper is usually pretty wrinkly after getting wet. Waterproof inks and pencils will be fine.

Your phone can (and should!) be backed up, and depending on your setup, may be syncing things to 'the cloud' as you go, so if it breaks, you may at least keep your notes. But they do tend to be much more expensive to replace than a notebook.

Thinking

Pen or pencil and paper can be a great aid to thinking something through. You can capture your thoughts as you go, and freeform lines connecting your thoughts can really help you to map your ideas out. There’s software for doing the same thing on computers, but paper is just more intuitive, without having to stop and guess which of those little icons is supposed to mean creating a connection between things.