Do You Use Paper?

Not a chance. My handwriting is shite.

I use paper. I prefer it as it does help me keep focused and I think things click faster when I do.

So I'll make out ideas or sales email sequences.

I also brainstorm story ideas for some writing.

Sometimes I use paper
Honestly for me at least I think it's the practice of switching contexts, like I'd move to a 2nd non primary laptop, or use my phone, especially out on a walk with the phone..
It lets me come up with plans and new ways to think about a thing.
I don't have consistency with something specific that is the separator.

After trying almost every productivity tools under the sun, Todoist, ClickUp, Trello, Ticktick and much more, I have finally settled with pen & papers for "To Do" Lists.

There is just no limit as to how I can organize and prioritize my daily/weekly/monthly tasks, work/time-blocking sessions.
I feel in pain thinking how much time I have wasted trying out all of these apps while the solution was simply going back to the basics.
At least for me.

I'll probably get some hate for this one but I even began writing on paper a few lines of "pseudo" code to help me memorize patterns and syntax.

As someone spending 8hours+/day behind a laptop, it just feels restful to write stuff on papers

I typically have post-it notes on my laptop PC for short lists of things I have to do in the next hour.

I also perform drafts and blueprints on paper, although I am also quite OK drafting diagrams on Microsoft Powerpoint.

I used paper for a long time, but recently switched to an ipad with Goodnotes 5, which gives me the flexibility of paper, but makes it super easy to break my notes into useable docs.

Not really paper, but I use my Rocketbook daily for quick note taking.

https://getrocketbook.com/pages/how-rocketbook-works

I generally avoid using paper.

Sure it is distraction-free to do so and it bears no “scrolling burden” on my eyes to track, but I still use the digital medium only.

Around 2017 onwards, I stopped buying dead-tree books as well. It just doesn’t feel right.

I feel as champions of technology we fail at our mission every time we promote a paperback or hardback print book carrying a work of knowledge that’d soon be outdated.

Not paper, but I've been pretty into e-ink lately, e.g. reMarkable, MobiScribe, etc.

Downside: price. Upside: all the other things.

My use cases:

• taking notes to audio media (podcasts, audiobooks, etc.)
• taking notes during meetings
• illustrations, diagrams, mockups, etc. for work and play

When I try to work on mathy problems I write them in a notebook or paper for full ability to doodle around it, cross out stuff, and other stuff that does not conform well to digital constraints of text having to be placed on a straight line.

Otherwise never.

I thought you meant Dropbox Paper :) I use that all the time.

Paper is love. I do all my planning, note taking and execution on paper and then move it to my notion for the sake of archiving :)

I love the good ol' notebook, but it isn't searchable. I'm writing everything in my mind to Notion now. I use notebook only when I need to draw something only. But I'm buying a iPad, so sadly, saying goodbye to paper very soon 😎!

Oh man! Sometimes I have that urge in me to put something on paper!

I keep a notebook on my nightstand.

Before I go to bed I write down anything and everything I’m my head. Tomorrow’s todos, things I’m worried about, exciting thoughts.

Not necessarily a journal, I’m just trying to get stuff out of my head.

Crazy idea in the middle of the night? Write it down. Who cares if you can barely read it tomorrow. It’s out of your head. And you probably would have forgotten anyway.

And then I sleep better. Much better.

I've gone back to writing lots down on paper lately. Even to the extent of doing daily journalling on paper.

As others have said, my handwriting has gone to shite from not using it for years, so now I am making a concentrated effort to improve my handwriting deliberately.

But in doing so, I am finding that writing my thoughts down helps my brain to work a lot better. I find I am expressing myself better in day to day conversations, and coming up with new ideas from doing so.

Yes.

I think using pen & paper is best for unstructured, ambiguous tasks or reflection. You can sketch, underline, connect, cross out,... that kind of freedom is not possible in the digital world. Whiteboard can serve for the same purpose.

I also like small paper cards for daily to-do lists, as I've written about here.

I have gone back and forth. When my mind was swimming with ideas / projects, I found it useful to capture everything in a moleskine (blank paper, and I used pencil for my notes).

Now that I'm focused on one product and my thoughts are a bit more structured, I haven't picked up the moleskine in over a year. My kanban is more than sufficient to capture what I need to get done.

Interestingly, just this week I've thought about picking up the moleskine again because I need to help a friend with a small web project. So I think a pen and paper is good for that stage - early primordial soup stage of ideas where you just need to get everything on paper to make sense of it all.

In a previous life I used pen and paper to write the manuscript of a 216 pages book that was traditionally published. It was painful and inefficient. I swore I would never touch pen and paper again, so I have been using only digital writing and notetaking tools since PCs and mobile devices became practical and affordable.

I'm happy now. Using digital tools doesn't limit or affect my ability to focus or think. I actually feel more productive.

You'll have to pry my digital tools from my cold, dead hands.

Absolutely. Nothing like a good 'ol notebook.

I still find building wireframes 100x more effective on paper!

Curious to learn how you're structuring a paper-based CRM. Do you eventually migrate the contacts into a sheet?