In the Eras Tour movie, Taylor Swift talks about how when she was writing Folklore, she pictured herself as a “woodsy Victorian lady” wandering the forest collecting feathers to write with quill and parchment.
I can’t be the only writer who immediately related. I’m pretty sure I even own a feather quill and ink somewhere in my stash of writerly supplies. Plus, I’ve got my share of glitter and even fountain pens.
But I rarely write with pen and paper anymore, and especially when making lists and taking other steps toward organizing my writer life. Digital wins every time.
It wasn’t that long ago that I started my day with a paper list. There was something incredibly satisfying about planning out my day and then crossing off each item as I finished a task. But there was a point where that just wasn’t practical anymore. As my responsibilities grew and I took on more and more, I wasn’t just writing that list at the start of each day. I’d have to remake it again and again, and it was so long that my brain became overwhelmed with all I had to do.
Plus, if my plans were complicated, writing it out on paper could be more confusing than leaving it all in my head. Especially when the situation changed, as it often did.
Likewise, I was a paper-planner user for years. I loved picking out a new planner every year (the Smithsonian Institution publishes a particularly beautiful one), but it became just one more thing to carry from place to place. And if I left it at home, then I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing and when.
But it probably wasn’t until the appalling whiteboard (I told you in the intro I’d get to this story) that I realized it would be better to go digital with as much as possible.
I call it appalling because I was appalled, but perhaps that is a bit too strong of a word here. I had been hired to help an editor with not just their editing load but also their organization. When I met with them, I found that they were keeping track of their story flow on a big whiteboard that covered one wall. Which wasn’t a bad thing. They had a method of organization that worked for them.
But there were problems. The first was that only that editor could see the tracking system. Anyone who didn’t have access to her office, especially people who worked remotely, couldn’t see it. Those people could only find out about a story’s status if they emailed or called the editor. Plus, keeping track of everything fell on that one editor only; they could never get any help.
But I had a bigger worry. We were standing on the top floor in a century-old building that hadn’t been renovated in decades. A fire or roof leak could wipe out everything.
The editor hadn’t thought of that.
Moving away from print
Giving up our systems, even when they don’t work for us, isn’t easy. I kept with that written list for far too long, for instance. When I finally accepted that I needed a digital system, I found it difficult to decide on an app. None of them were perfect. And the one I eventually chose, Wunderlist, went out of business not long after.
I’ve now settled on ToDoist (a topic I’ll delve into in the future) after realizing that it had the features I needed: There’s a free version that is fairly robust. The Upcoming view lets me focus on what I need to work on now or in the near future, so I can’t get overwhelmed by everything. And I can access my list on my computer or phone.
Likewise, moving to a digital version of that whiteboard (first Microsoft Excel, then a Google Sheet and finally Airtable) gave everyone access from anywhere. And even if the building went up in flames, the record would still exist.
And that’s why I recommend digital over paper, even if you don’t mind dragging that notebook or planner from place to place: Your systems are backed up and, for many of them, you can access them from multiple devices. This last one is especially important for any shared system.
But if the system that is working for you involves a notebook and a set of glitter pens, or a simple pad of paper and a chewed-up pencil, that’s OK, too. However, I encourage you to think about your systems from time to time. Do they really work for you? And what about other people that may need to interact with your systems? If they’re not working for everyone, maybe it’s time for some change.
What I’m reading
Homes & Gardens magazine asks: Are rainbow-organized bookshelves an outdated trend? “It might still be a great way of organizing children's books for a fun pop of color when designing children’s bedrooms, or maybe even organizing cookbooks where we rarely have complete series, but for a regular shelf? It is best left in the past.”
The Washington Post, 15 years late to the trend, tried out the organizational method with two people, one of who absolutely hated it. So should you try it? Or get rid of it if your books are organized this way?
John Nakamura Remy/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
My take: If you have bookshelves arranged in a rainbow, like them and can find what you need, ignore these articles and keep your books the way they are. But if you can’t find what you’re looking for, maybe you should consider another way to organize your book collection.
Next week: How I became an Airtable superfan.
— Sarah
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