This pocket notebook is (slowly) replacing my phone
Summary
TLDRThe speaker shares a personal journey of embracing the simplicity and value of a notepad, as an antidote to digital distractions. Initially skeptical about the benefits of pen and paper, they recount how a notepad expert inspired them to try it out. Despite the allure of modern apps, the speaker finds that a notepad offers a unique space for unadulterated, organic thinking, free from the agendas and distractions of technology. This leads to a profound realization about the importance of capturing and preserving one's own thoughts without interference, advocating for the notepad as a tool for creativity and focus.
Takeaways
- 📓 The speaker uses a notepad extensively despite its abuse, valuing it for its unique utility.
- 🤔 Initially skeptical about the benefits of note-taking, the speaker was influenced by others' experiences and decided to give it a try.
- 📚 The idea of note-taking was sparked by Nathaniel Drew, who is portrayed as a notebook expert.
- 👀 The speaker noticed that successful individuals, like best-selling authors, have used notebooks to capture their thoughts and memories.
- ✍️ The speaker experimented with various notepads, including tactical ones, but struggled to consistently use them.
- 💡 Life circumstances led to the birth of an idea to treat a notepad like a phone, carrying it everywhere for capturing thoughts.
- ❤️ The speaker fell in love with the notepad and its non-distracting nature, appreciating its permanence and tactile experience.
- 🔒 The notepad offers a distraction-free environment for capturing organic thoughts without external influence.
- 🧠 The absence of the notepad, similar to being away from a phone, allows the brain to refocus and engage more deeply with the task at hand.
- 📱 The speaker contrasts the notepad with a phone, highlighting the phone's tendency to distract and the notepad's simplicity.
- 💡 The notepad is used selectively for capturing important ideas during their discovery phase, ensuring purity of thought.
Q & A
What does the speaker find valuable about carrying a notepad everywhere?
-The speaker finds the notepad valuable because it provides a distraction-free environment for capturing organic thoughts, ideas, and emotions without any outside influence or potential for digital distractions.
Who is Nathaniel Drew and what does he suggest about note-taking?
-Nathaniel Drew is described as a notebook expert who suggests the benefits of taking notes with pen and paper, an idea that the speaker was initially skeptical about but later embraced.
Why did the speaker initially struggle with using a notepad for note-taking?
-The speaker initially struggled with using a notepad because they couldn't get into the habit, often starting and stopping, and eventually quitting due to frustration and the belief that it was only suitable for a select few.
What historical figure did the speaker mention as an example of someone who used a notepad effectively?
-The speaker mentioned C.S. Lewis, who would use ink that took longer to dry, forcing him to pause and think before writing the next phrase, as an example of effective note-taking.
How does the speaker describe the experience of using a notepad compared to a phone?
-The speaker describes the notepad experience as one that never goes dead, never distracts, and has no agenda, unlike a phone which can be distracting and has its own set of distractions.
What does the speaker consider as the most valuable commodity in today's world?
-The speaker considers attention as the rarest and most valued commodity in today's world, emphasizing the importance of capturing and holding attention for opportunities.
Why does the speaker believe that technological tools are good at capturing our attention?
-The speaker believes that technological tools are good at capturing our attention because businesses invest millions of dollars in learning how to best capture it, which is their business.
What is the speaker's experience when they pick up their phone with a specific task in mind?
-The speaker often forgets the original task within seconds of picking up their phone due to distractions, illustrating how easily our attention can be hijacked.
What does the speaker define as 'organic thinking'?
-Organic thinking is defined by the speaker as thoughts and ideas that pertain only to the individual, without any outside ideas mingling with their own.
How does the speaker describe the notepad's role in their creative process?
-The notepad serves as a medium for the speaker to capture creative ideas quickly without the risk of losing them due to distractions, providing a space for pure and undistracted creativity.
What is the speaker's suggestion for others who might want to try using a notepad?
-The speaker suggests that others should try carrying a notepad and pen with them for a few weeks to see if it helps them capture their thoughts and ideas more effectively without digital distractions.
Outlines
📓 The Value of a Notepad
The narrator describes their heavily used notepad, which has served many practical purposes beyond writing. Despite initial skepticism inspired by YouTubers like Nathaniel Drew, the narrator experimented with various notepads, including tactical ones, but struggled to make consistent use of them. This changed after learning about authors who used notepads for significant creative and personal writing. The narrator ultimately decided to treat their notepad like a phone, carrying it everywhere, leading to a newfound appreciation and dependence on it for capturing thoughts without the distractions of modern technology.
📱 The Power of Undistracted Thinking
The narrator reflects on how using a notepad provides a distraction-free space for organic thinking. Unlike a phone, a notepad allows for uninterrupted thought processing, which is crucial for creativity and personal reflection. They discuss the frustration of losing creative ideas due to phone distractions and emphasize the mental clarity achieved by being physically removed from potential distractions. This shift in focus enables the narrator to solve problems and generate ideas more effectively. They share their experience of using the notepad for several months, highlighting its reliability and importance in capturing important thoughts and ideas.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Notepad
💡Tactile Experience
💡Organic Thinking
💡Distraction
💡Permanence
💡Attention
💡Creative Idea
💡Prolific Author
💡Ink
💡Media Consuming Era
💡Distractions
Highlights
The speaker discusses the extensive use and abuse of their notepad, using it for various purposes beyond note-taking.
They highlight how carrying a notepad everywhere provided them with unique value they couldn't find elsewhere.
The idea of using a notepad stemmed from Nathaniel Drew, a YouTuber who experiments with note-taking methods.
Initially skeptical, the speaker was influenced by various YouTubers who touted the benefits of writing by hand.
Despite trying different types of notepads, including tactical ones, they struggled to maintain the habit.
The turning point came when they learned about prolific authors who wrote extensively by hand, including one who documented every childhood memory.
Historical figures like C.S. Lewis used slow-drying ink to force contemplation, influencing the speaker's perception of note-taking.
In the modern era, some people are moving back to pen and paper despite the availability of advanced apps and software.
The speaker was fascinated by the tactile experience and permanence of writing on paper, despite initial failures.
Mechanical problems led them to the idea of treating a notepad like a phone, carrying it everywhere.
They found that a notepad offers undistracted, organic thinking, unlike digital devices that often capture our attention.
The notepad provided a place for organic thoughts without the risk of distraction or mingling with external ideas.
They experienced frustration when trying to capture creative ideas on a phone, often losing them to distractions.
Physically removing the phone, rather than just silencing it, significantly improved their focus and attention.
After several months of using the notepad, they found it invaluable for capturing important thoughts and ideas without distraction.
They emphasize that while not practical for everything, the notepad is essential during the discovery phase of an idea.
The notepad's simplicity and lack of agenda made it a preferred tool for capturing and developing ideas.
Encourages others to try using a notepad, suggesting it could be transformative for capturing and refining thoughts.
Describes a social experiment where using a notepad instead of a phone in a group setting had surprising effects on attention.
Transcripts
This is my notepad it's been you know sat on a few thousand times used as a wedge so my
chair wouldn't Teeter and hopelessly abused in many other ways [Music]
I do I carry this thing everywhere with me in short it provides me with something incredibly
valuable that at least to my knowledge I haven't been able to find anywhere else this all started
from a very well-meaning Nathaniel Drew who is kind of a notebook expert if those
even exist it is amazing to me how few people actually do this I was intrigued but like very
skeptical you know as as one should be because not everything you see on the internet is true
and I kept bumping into this with other YouTubers where they would experiment with taking notes
um you know with a pen and paper or writing video scripts with a pen and paper or scheduling or
journaling and things like that so I played around with it a little bit I even bought some like super
bad to the bone tactical notepads that are like waterproof and practically indestructible but
for some reason I just I just couldn't quite get into it like I kept like starting and stopping
like start stop start stop back and forth until eventually I got tired of it and just quit so
I decided that it must be for a very select few grouped people and I was not in that select few
but then I started hearing things that I just I just couldn't quite ignore for example I found a
best-selling author who wrote like every single memory he had as a child in a notebook as as an
adult he would go back and remember and write them and he literally has like shelves of notebooks
it's like whoa or an incredibly prolific author now who writes his books with a pen and paper
and then has some one like convert them even back in history I found people like C.S Lewis
who would intentionally use ink that took longer to dry because it forced him to stop after every
phrase and wait and think before he wrote the next thing like what is going on here and now
in our fast-paced media consuming era there are a select few that seem to be moving back to that or
at least trying it out and despite all the fancy new apps and softwares coming out there's just
this nagging thought that perhaps we are leaving something behind that we shouldn't and I really
really wanted this to be me like I just loved the idea of the the tactile experience and expressing
my thoughts on paper and like the permanence of it and the feel and the sound it just oh I know
I'm such a weirdo about this but it's the sounds it's the feeling it just sounded so like cool
but I just couldn't and that's when life circumstances AKA mechanical
problems led me here to this moment to wear a completely absurd idea was born [Music]
what if I bought a little notepad and a pen and
treated it like a phone taking it literally everywhere with me
the rational part of my brand was like dude it's the 21st century
like come on but the emotional part of my brain was like oh you know who
knows I mean what if something amazing were to happen [Music]
you can guess what I decided [Music] I instantly fell in love with it we went everywhere together
and I never left the house without it I even took it a few places that I didn't take my phone
my phone was very offended unlike my phone my notepad never goes dead never distracts
me and above all it has absolutely no agenda if I ignore it it doesn't even try to get my attention
okay this all sounds a little facetious right but I'm actually like dead serious and here's why
attention attention is one of the rarest and most valued Commodities in our world today if you can
learn how to capture someone's attention and hold it you instantly have opportunity that no one else
has and from all around us there are hundreds of intruders that are constantly competing for just
a tiny little slice of our attention so that they could fill it with their message or their product
or their ideas and what's interesting is often the best and most useful technological tools that we
have are oftentimes the best at capturing our attention so you're probably wondering like um
are you like anti-media or something here Austin uh no I mean I'm I'm kind of a YouTuber so would
kind of defeat the purpose but I do trust and acknowledge that businesses that spend you know
millions of dollars learning how to best capture my attention are probably really really good at
it like that is their business I'll give you an example and tell me if you can relate to this or
not but uh have you ever have you ever picked up your phone to do something specific like you know
send a message or or make a note or look something up and within like three seconds you had no idea
like you had completely forgotten why you picked up your phone in the first place and if that's
ever happened to you then that's a prime example of you you stepping in to use a a tool to further
your own agenda but instead you gotta hijacked by something that looked a little bit more enticing
in the moment in a completely derailed what you were originally trying to do at least for the
moment but if you're you know trying to avoid a problem or not face something that you should be
facing and you just wanted a quick distraction it's great for that but what it's not great for
is organic thinking and here we come to the most important thing that this little notepad offers
me that I haven't been able to find anywhere else one of the first things I noticed when I started
carrying this thing around with me is it provided me with a place to just spill organic Thoughts
with zero like get that zero potential to ever be distracted or for outside ideas to mingle with
my own and by organic thinking I'm specifically defining that as like something that only pertains
to you that you don't want any other ideas to be mixed with and speaking from past experiences this
could be anything from you know making a grocery list that I'm sure my friend Zach remembers
um to you know trying to process emotions and figure out why I'm angry at a friend or another
aspect of this is putting down creative ideas because a creative idea can come very quick
and it can just pop into your head and if there's any kind of distraction you can lose that at least
I can and I just I can't count how many times I've picked up my phone to write down a creative
idea that I've had and just completely lost it because something caught my attention or something
distracted me before I could get it all and that is really really frustrating honestly and there's
one more aspect of this that I think is really really important and it's worth mentioning it's
like have you ever have you ever forgot to take your phone somewhere with you like for a couple
of hours not that you had it with you but on silent but you you literally didn't even have it
with you if you're anything like me there there's something different about physically being removed
from something that can distract you like your phone versus just having it like with you but on
silent it's like suddenly your brain like realizes oh there's like literally no possible way for me
to be distracted or pulled in that direction and it seems like it redirects your focus onto
other things like your surroundings another way of thinking about it is it at least for me it keeps
me from sleeping with one eye open as it were you know like where you're that analogy of like
sleeping and you're always just like you're always aware like just in case something pops up that you
you need to be alert for that's kind of what it feels like sometimes and so when you remove that
completely it's it's literally gone then suddenly energy refocuses and that's something that again
using this really does very well is it it removes any of those distractions and it actually allows
your brain to refocus that energy and this is huge because this can literally make the difference
of solving or jeopardizing a solution or creative idea okay so I've been wandering around with this
notepad and pen in my pocket for several months now sometimes I go a week without even using it
it doesn't care sometimes the table is out of balance at a restaurant so I stick it
underneath the leg to keep it from wobbling seriously it couldn't care less now I don't
use this for everything obviously there are some stuff that is wildly impractical for me to use
a notepad for and now my phone or my laptop just does way better at and so it's not even
a question in that regard but when something pops up that makes me stop and go oh that's important
nine times out of ten I will at least during the discovery phase of an idea I will often choose
a medium where it is literally impossible for any other agenda other than my own to be present where
nothing will mix with my idea this will cost you one dollar so feel free to try it out for a few
weeks and just see if it works for you what I love to do is whenever I'm in a group and then
like everybody's on their phones and it's all bored and stuff instead of pulling out my phone
I'll pull out my notepad and just start writing it's amazing like literally no one sees it coming
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