Everyone is talking about resolutions right now and I’m not immune to it. Instead of resolutions, I choose a word to represent my intention for the year. I’ve also been thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2013, aka goals. The more goals I write down in my , the more I realize that I’m missing something.
I miss writing on paper.
I started last year using a cute little notebook that I decorated just for the purpose of capturing my blogging ideas. Then I would leave it on my desk or forget to return it to my purse. So I “jotted” my ideas down in Evernote. Evernote was always ready for me on my smartphone. I began using Evernote more and more. I made shopping lists, packing lists, stored ideas for projects, etc.
I’m making a weekly date for me, myself, and I at Starbucks. On New Year’s Day I snuck out for a couple of hours for this date. I pulled out my little bag of ink pens in various fun colors and wrote as fast as I could to keep up with the flow of ideas. The orange and aquamarine colored words made me happy as they filled up lists and danced across my workbook.
The words were pretty. And probably only legible to me, but that’s not the point.
I never gave up paper completely. Even though I love my Google calendar, I use my Do It All paper planner every day. Its grids just help me see everything much better. I still make my grocery lists on the back of envelopes and junk mail because my kids keep stealing my notepads and Post-Its. I realized I stop using paper to record my thoughts and creative ideas.
I have this entire drawer full of blank books and journals. Some are plain. Some are beautifully decorated. I even have a couple of Moleskine notebooks left from my buying binge two years ago. I put one of the smaller ones in my diaper bag. My bag of fun colored pens is still in there as well.
The tactile feel of picking up one of my old sketchbook-journals cannot be replaced. The air that blows at me when I flip through the pages. Or when it opens to a random page and I realize, That’s exactly what I needed to see at this moment. Uncanny.
I love my smartphone and technology, but the sound of my purple ink pen scratching across a blank page makes me happy.
Do you carry a journal or notebook with you?
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