My pocket notebooks 📓 showed up earlier than I thought, and I was eager to write some thoughts down over my morning coffee.

A couple of things come to mind so far:

  1. My handwriting ✍ī¸ is (still) horrible. I can barely read what I write. If I wait a week, I’m sure half of the stuff will become indecipherable.
  2. It’s slow. Not terribly slow, but much slower than dictating my thoughts to text, as I do with Orgzly. Slowing down, however, can be helpful.
  3. I worry about losing my written thoughts. they’re only written down in once one place, after all.
  4. I can sketch! I can draw! It’s so easy to add arrows or emphasize words! This also showed me that…
  5. …I suck at sketching. Not a shock there.
  6. I enjoy the feel of the pen on paper, and this notebook is too small. I know what writing in a good (and flat) notebook feels like, and this is not it. I also have better pens I should use.

As with everything else, I can’t expect results overnight. When I kept a written journal, my handwriting was slightly better. I remember teaching myself to slow down and connect my letters correctly. It was painfully slow. I couldn’t keep up with my thoughts at all. I gained speed eventually. Writing was about discipline and stubbornness; nowhere near to the extension of my brain org-mode is for me these days.

Despite all this, I hope I can still find a compromise. I know that can I enjoy writing and sketching. It’s a matter of balance and time. I guess we’ll see.