Admitting Defeat

 Back in the early 2000s I had a Palm Pilot. I didn't have meetings, many appointments, or too much of a social life. I did a surprisingly robust amount of things on my Palm Pilot. I took a lot of notes. I did a fair amount of writing. Pecking out things with a stylus was fun if not efficient. I was still a bit into programming and my Palm Pilot had tons of code hidden away in its memory. It gave me a device to play around with while I was out and about and still get a lot of things accomplished. 

The Palm Pilot eventually gave way to a Blackberry Phone. Now my cellular connection gave me access to always on email and web browsing. Oddly enough, the writing and journaling I did on the Palm Pilot stopped. It was probably because I had that fantastic QWERTY keyboard. This caused me to be a less focused and organized person. 

One day during my lunch break I was walking through Barnes and Noble. I still didn't have any real need for a calendar. My address book (or little black book) had already made the jump to digital, though this would cause me some pain later. I found myself contemplating a few nice leatherbound journals for my writing when I stumbled across a product called Moleskine. 

The first thing I picked up was a lined journal. I remember sitting at my desk at work tearing off the cellophane. I immediately fell in love with the feel of the cover. When I started thumbing through the crisp pages I was hooked. I was tempted to just jot something down, but I held off. 

I was still actively drawing at this point in my life. I didn't like just doodling in a new sketchbook. I chose carefully what I put on the page. Idle doodles happened in the margins of job aides and on scrap paper. Some of those were much better than things I produced intentionally, but you couldn't have convinced me to just scribble in a sketchbook. Likewise, I was unlikely to just write something aimless in my new journal. 

When I sat down that evening and put my thoughts to paper in a way that is eerily similar to these blog posts, I knew I had found something of value. I filled up a few Moleskine journals over the following months. Then Kismet would happen again. I needed a new journal around the same time that calendars were on the shelves at the bookstore. I discovered the Moleskine Daily Planner.

For several years after this I wouldn't leave the house without my Planner. It was a part of the reason I have always carried a bag with me. I had pencils or markers to draw with. I carried a sketchbook. I typically had a few Moleskine journals for specific topics floating around. After a few busted cellphones I temporarily went back to a little black book. 

These eventually gained positions of honor on my bookshelf. I had a system built through trial and error that kept me very organized. Then I started riding a motorcycle. I also started recording and producing a podcast. I had two new needs that happened around the same time. I needed to lighten my every day carry load. I also needed to upgrade my laptop for the show. 

I bought myself a Microsoft Surface Pro 7. For the better part of a year I still carried and used my Moleskine Planner. These days I have all sorts of meetings and appointments. I have to admit I forgot the rule of, "If it ain't broke don't fix it." 

I started using my Microsoft OneNote heavily. It really is solid software. Since my most recent promotion, I don't have as many meetings on my schedule. As a result, I have changed my habits about looking at my calendar. I had a protocol with my Moleskine Planner where I spent about a half hour each day reviewing my day and week. 

It really worked for me. I suppose the good habit is what drove me to not screw up dates and times. The cue for the behavior was pulling out my Planner and doing a little ritual of reviewing and writing. I have never been able to make that happen with a digital calendar and notepad. 

This Monday I signed the kid out of school and headed off to the dentist with her. The good part was I arrived early. The bad part was that I was a week and twenty minutes early. That hasn't been my only schedule snafu. I have found myself sending things to school on the wrong days and just generally feeling disorganized and a bit frustrated. 

The tools aren't the problem. My Surface is amazing. My habits about using it, or even my cellphone, for organization absolutely stink. I haven't used my Moleskine Planner in a couple of years. It is time to reverse course. I work things out better with a pen and paper. 

On a similar note, I tried a hybrid system of having a journal (not Moleskine) and an Squire pen. The pen is alright. It ran out of ink... or at least isn't writing consistently much more quickly than I expected. My relatively cheaper Cross is two years old and still is writing very smoothly. I put the Squire away and admitted defeat on two fronts. Hopefully, reversing course will restore me back to a higher functioning state.