My creativity and effectiveness have been absolutely crushed.

I’ve loved every second of it.

The past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with replacing my productivity Apps with paper.

I purchased the UGMONK Analog set with task cards and the weekly cards.

I’ve been journaling in my paper notebook again instead of Apple Notes.

I thought I could replace my apps with paper.

I wanted less distractions, less stress, less places to go to find what I was looking for.

I wanted to slow down and really focus on the most important things throughout the week.

I wanted to spend no time managing the system and more time being thoughtful about what I was working on.

The physical and tangible relationship with pen and paper still holds a nostalgic place in my life. The off white paper of a Leuchtturm 1917 notebook with dot grid paper and a Studio Neat Mark One pen with a blue Schmidt Easyflow 9000 fine tip ink cartridge. There is something about that combination and the deliberate nature of writing with pen on paper that allows me to process what is going on inside of my head more so than digital ever will.

In this world, the reality is, trying to use pen an paper for everything was never going to work for me.

I knew this but what I learned during this has helped me to take on yet another challenge in my digital productivity life.

There are too many times where I only have my phone and that is it. No iPad or Mac. I just need to jot something down quickly or take a note while driving.

At the same time I get obsessed with efficiency. Trying to over optimize things that don’t need to be optimized, when a simple system would do the trick.

I am constantly trying to replace apple notes, reminders and calendar with something else, something more substantial, with better features and more glamor.

It almost never works.

What if I did the opposite then? When everyone else is showing off their fancy dashboards and extensive automations, what if I went back to analog?

Turns out there is a good reason we use computers for the tasks we do, but it was not all bad.

A smaller, visible set of priorities

One card, right in front of my face, all the time. Almost all the time. At least when I am at my desk, which is the time I’m most likely to be focus anyways.

Physically crossing something off has a psychological impact that I can’t express through words on a page.

Because this list is right in front of me it gives me more space to think about the task at hand and I spent less time navigating trhough an interface on a computer to be “productive”

An almost zero percent chance of spending time reorganizing instead of doing.

Something about knowing I have a limited number of cards and having to purchase more when I run out, means the most important stuff goes on the list.

The list is finite. 10 spots to fill, which on most days is more than I could ever reasonably fit in. The first card I actually used the backside too, it felt like a bit of a waste to put only 5 things on the front of the card for that single day and then just toss it in my drawer.

Using pen means, once its not he paper, I’d better do it. No adding things that I might get to “someday” as digital baggage that I’ve carried with me through multiple different to-do list applications.

That is a lot of positives, but it isn’t all great.

Capture is an important piece to me. I am almost never without my phone, if I am, I have my Apple Watch with cell service. I can input information into my notes or to-do list app of choice from anywhere.

Using paper means I would have to carry this card with me, or some other form of notebook, like the Field Notes style, with my and transcribe those notes into to-dos onto my UGMONK card at some later time.

Not a horrible burden, but unnecessary in today’s digital world.

I already said it. Once done with a card it goes into a drawer, or a recycling bin, never to be seen again. No way to look back at all of the hard work and accomplishments throughout the year unless I made a concerted effort to save these into a journal or scrap book of sorts.

Digital apps have great search and retrieval, especially now with AI, you don’t even have to attempt to organize it, there is some way to find things that you’ve written or thought about with just the press of a few buttons.

I like that better about digital as well.

Managing things that you need to do over and over again, or being notified about a specific event at a specific time is an obvious benefit of digital systems.

With the weekly planning I can block out specific things, but once away from my desk there is no way for me to check in on it.

I often have additional information related to a project.

The benefit of files and folders is they take up no physical space.

If I were going to map articles, quotes, videos, pictures and other reference material to one specific video that I wrote out by hand, my room would look like the red string board meme from It’s always sunny.

Finally picking up your work wherever you are.

I know some people do carry around their notebook everywhere. I have tried that and didn’t find it to suite my lifestyle, especially with digital tools like the iPhone or iPad with me on the go.

The seamless sync between all of those devices, housing the same information is a true benefit to my workflow.

I can look back on years worth of writings and videos that I’ve made, instantly.

Pulling up my thoughts and remembering what I said in a specific video is easy.

It would be impossible to carry around that level of context in paper form.

The secret then is intentionality.

There is not one winner takes all system here.

Paper didn’t end up replacing my digital tools, but it did teach me about my personal process.

I’ve long known my digital system isn’t perfect, which is one catalyst for me continuing to try new apps.

Adding in some analog methods helped to limit the overwhelm, simplify the distractions and keep me from endlessly tweaking my digital system.

I’m using paper strategically, with no hard and fast rules, but following the vibes of what feels right in the moment.

That has been my mindset with digital tools for awhile now and is why I have things spread across Apple Notes, Obsidian, iA writer and Notion.

Picking the right tool for the job and not worrying about having some perfectly organized second brain.

Digital tools help me capture, store and automate.

Paper tools help me focus, plan and reflect.

I recently took a look at how to get into the Apple Ecosystem on a budget.

It is amazing how far the technology has come and how much power you get on a budget these days.

Check it out and let me know what you think about combining digital and analog tools together as a part of a complete productivity system!