Deciding Between Digital and Paper Notebooks

This may end up just being a scary look at how I make decisions. Since I am writing this around Halloween season, I guess this could be considered a scary story. If you read this to the kids, and they, in turn, have nightmares, I take zero responsibility.

I have a day job where there is a huge part of the job where taking notes is an important thing. There are a bunch of meetings, many of them more time wasters than product makers, but there are nuggets of important information that can leak out of these meetings. There are also bits of information that present themselves accidentally at times. 

There dilemma that I find myself stewing over is what, from a tools stand point, do I use to take notes. I have read and really like Mike Vardy’s idea of “The approach is more important than the app.” I don’t think that is my problem. I have a pretty solid method of identifying quickly what information to write down and what to let fly by, but, I have a bit of hang up about what to write in. 

This is the issue of collecting the information digitally, such as an app on my phone or my tablet, or writing things down, by hand in a physically notebook with paper. I am not making a decision as to what to buy, i already have all of the tools in place to do both, i think I am trying to settle on a process and stick to it.

What I have been doing most recently has been to carry my iPad to every meeting that I go to, open Evernote, set up that note so that I have documented what the meeting is and when it is. After that, I sit, listen intently, and wait for that nugget of data to drop before I can type it into my iPad. Often times, there is no nugget to fall. When that happens, I digitally recycle my note with a new date, and or topic and continue. 

The benefits of this process is that I can write what is happening and it is easily read later when I have act on something. Anyone who has had the challenge of reading my own handwriting can testify that it is a big challenge. My parents thought I was going to be a physician based on my handwriting. I guess engineers don’t have great, artsy script either.

Also, I have lost bits of paper from time to time, but, the only time I have lost my computer is when my house got broken into. Since the notes that I write are ported to a cloud based software, I can open them on pretty much any computer with an internet connection. 

The internet connection is possibly one of the drawbacks. In my case, my personal devices, i.e., my phone, my iPad, or my personal computer, if I took it to work, are not allowed on the work network. As such, any notes that I take on my iPad will not be saved until I get my iPad on a wireless connection. This means that I have to wait until I get home before I can save the notes. With that, there is some risk. The iPad could be stolen, or broken, or some other cataclysmic event could make my notes go bye-bye. 

The other method that I have used in the past is to carry a physical notebook with where ever I go. I can stop, whip out the notebook and write down whatever information that I need to. I doesn’t matter if I have an internet connection, or not. I don’t run the risk of my paper notebook running out of batteries, and, if my pen, which is a favorite, gets lost, I can feel pretty confident that I can find one to use to write down what I need to write down.

The downside to the paper notebook is the whole crappy handwriting thing I talked about earlier. The other thing about the paper notebook that could be problematic is the possibility of losing it. I have been working hard toward only having the things that I need and use in my life, so, the minimization of clutter helps promote finding my stuff when I need it. I have a bag that I keep my critical gear in, an my notebook is in that bag. Then again, my iPad is in that bag, unless I am using it or charging it.

I could minimize the damage caused by losing a notebook by typing my notes from the day into Evernote and use that to make the notes searchable and recoverable. It is also a good Idea for me to review my notes when I have the best chance to be able to read what I wrote down and turn it into something useful. I also will give myself the best chance for my action items to actually make it into my task management system. 

So, it sounds like I might have a plan. Let’s see how this goes. I would like to know what you use and how that works. Please leave me some notes in the comments.

Retread-Why do I run anyway?

After the finish of the 2016 North County Wine Run Half Marathon.

As I write this, I am recovering from running in the North County Wine Run. The race was a half marathon and this is the third half marathon I have completed since June. As I have been thinking about writing, in general, and restarting this blog again in particular, I don't think I have written much about my adventures in running. No secrets, and admittedly, I haven't written much about anything, but I just haven't really talked about it.
About two years ago, I had the experience of having to start wearing size 40 pants. That event really messed with my head for a long time. I think that it shattered my sphere of deniability. I was truly more than chubby. I was fat. I was a dangerous kind of fat. It wasn't until about 6 months later that I actually started to do something about it.
Toward the end of June 2016, I got on the scale and it said that I weighed almost 300 pounds. There are some people in this world were that weight is expected. They are NFL linemen and centers in the NBA. Since I am about 6'2" and my day job is as an engineer, so I don't think that I can tell the truth by saying that 300 pounds was a healthy weight for me. If you have ever heard Dave Ramsey talk on his show, or in his books about the "I've had it!!!!" moment, than you can understand what I was feeling. He talks about it in the frame of reference of getting out of debt, but, for me, it was in terms of my weight. I had that moment in my mind when I screamed, to myself, "I'VE HAD IT!!!!!!" I knew that I had to do something, but I had to come up with something where my chances of finding a reason to give up was small.
I live in a really small community of less than 10000 people. We do have a couple of grocery stores, a post office and more than one stop light, but, it isn't like Portland, or where I grew up. As a consequence of this, there was no gym here. I like to lift weights and do other kinds of exercising like that. I quickly realized that the only real think I could do, for exercise, was run. I have a treadmill, which works perfectly fine, but, my foot strikes are kind of loud and I really didn't want to wake up the whole house with an early morning run on the treadmill.
I figured that the only thing I had really any control of was my schedule, so I started to get up early so that I could start to walk/run before work. Early is an interesting thing, because, it means different things to different people.

My early is 4am.

This is the time of day when rock stars start thinking about going to sleep and I get up that early. I really haven't had any trouble getting up that early. This is the time of day that works for me to run. Mt family is asleep, so I am not taking any time away from them. Also, there are very few people out, so nearly no cars on the road and I don't see many people outside. Running in the dark is not something that scares me, but, people my size don't get jumped often, unless it is by a mob. My experience has actually been the reverse. I have sensed a feeling of peacefulness this time of morning. It is just me, the road, and whatever podcast is playing in my ears.

Fast forward to today. As the titular question asks, why do I run? The physical reason is that it is how I like to exercise. I am about 60 pounds lighter as a result of running and changing what I am eating. There has been a social component to the experience. I have met people at races and started talking to people in running groups all over the country. There is a competitive aspect to it as well. The other night, my wife gave me a bit of a hard time calling the half marathon a race as opposed to a run. Yes, there is a price for first place, but, I see it as my racing against a former version of me. A slower version of me. A heavier version of me. I finished with a time of 1:57:35, which is my third personal record in 3 races this year. I get faster with each race. I also wanted to finish in under 2 hours today, so I am really happy with my performance. There are different kinds of results that can be looked at. During those times when my weight plateaus, I can see the gains in my time improving.

This journey is not over by any means. I am not the weight I want to be yet. I am not as fast as I want to be yet. I want to run longer races. I am still a work in progress. I don't think anyone is completely finished until the end. I am just being really intentional about who I want to become.

Penanoid

Sometimes, people get possessive over stuff. I am not talking about greediness or envy, or anything that would fall into the "seven deadly" category. It's like when a kid gets a new toy for Christmas, or when a person gets a new car and won't even let their significant other drive it.

I admit that I am pretty particular about the stuff that i use. I am writing at least part of this on my iPad mini I got for my birthday a couple of years ago. I use it basically everyday for something. I do most of my reading on it, as well as some basic web stuff that I don't necessarily need my computer for. It isn't the fastest tool for writing, but works well enough when I travel and don't want to pack my laptop on a flight.
My day job is as an engineer for an aerospace company. I am a Mac user at home and use a PC for my work stuff, so I needed to have all of my different productivity tools set up so that they would sync between both my work and home set ups. I have one of those jobs where ideas, thoughts and action items come to mind, even when I am not in my office. They come leave my mind as quickly as they get in there. It isn't just work stuff that this happens to. The idea for this post came to my mind as I was walking from one production area to another while I was at work. I would rather capture the ideas and process them later than hope that I remember them when I am at a good place to write them down.

The Fisher Space Pen with a standard size business card for scale. 

A tool that I use everyday is the common pen. I have to sign documents, write down changes to manufacturing processes as well as take notes in meetings. Me without a pen is like a mechanic without a screwdriver or a doctor without a stethoscope. For my most recent birthday, I got a pen from my family. It may sound simple, but my wife shares my particular bent toward being specific about my tools. She is also really particular about her pens, so she gets my quirkiness. I got a Fisher Space Pen for my birthday. If you are interested, please take a look at the link. I picked the pen, not just because they write upside down, or because they don't leak, but, because it closes up small. I can put it in a pocket in my pants and not feel it stab me in the leg.
The thing about a small pen though is that it has this magical power to disappear. I start and end my day with a clean desk, but as I get going on a project and I have drawings and specs on my desk and on the computer screen, it isn't hard to set a work order down on my pen and not realize it. I found myself to start to worry about losing my new birthday present. It is not a Smeagol kind of worry. I will not refer to my pen as my precious, but, I got it from my family, so it has some significance to me. I found myself getting penanoid about losing my present.
I think this is a feeling that most people get. It probably isn't about a pen, but it could be a family heirloom, or a gift from a relative that has passed away, or an award from a hard fought competition. I am not advocating that people should be possessive about their stuff, far from it. I like my pen, but I love my family.