digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: build a hybrid productivity system that uses paper for planning, thinking, journaling, and daily focus, and digital tools for calendars, scheduling, and final output. Carl Pullein argues each medium should be used where its strengths apply, with the goal of eliminating low-value tasks rather than accumulating more. He presents this as a "perfect productivity system" built by combining analog and digital methods.
Key Points
- Use paper for the initial planning stage, with screens off and distractions removed, then scan the notes into your digital notes app so they are accessible everywhere.
- Keep digital calendars, since they handle shared appointments and automatic entries from scheduling links and airline emails far better than paper.
- Write journals on paper, since Pullein stopped using a digital journal (Day One) because he never revisited entries, and found the paper journal more engaging.
- Use a small paper list of 2 to 3 "must-dos" for each day to keep key tasks visible without notifications or battery drain.
- Plan the week on paper for 10 to 15 minutes, sorting items into core work, projects and issues, personal, and a "radar" list, before checking the digital calendar and to-do list.
- Pullein notes that paper slows thinking and encourages varied formats and colors, whereas screens tend to put the brain on autopilot.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Planning: Turn off your phone, set aside 30 to 60 minutes, and write the details at the top of a notebook before planning freely. Afterward, scan the page into your notes app, place the planning note at the bottom, and move the key next steps to the top.
- Daily must-dos: Each morning, spend about 50 seconds copying the two or three most important tasks from your digital to-do list onto a small A7 notebook (Midori MD A7 is one example, around $15, though cheaper ones cost roughly 50 cents) written with today's date at the top. Keep it flat on the desk.
- Weekly planning: Draw a grid with sections for core work (paid work), projects and issues, personal, and radar (items to be aware of but not act on next week). Fill it in on paper without a computer open, then open the digital to-do list to ensure items are captured, and check the calendar to confirm the week is realistic.
- Journaling: Keep a paper journal, use blotting paper (a card kept as a bookmark) to close it without smudging if using fountain pens, and optionally keep a morning routine checklist in it.
- Pullein's Franklin Planner test showed it works well for tasks but not for calendars.
- Pullein gives a historical example: Steve Jobs's digital journal entries from the early 1990s could no longer be printed by the time Walter Isaacson requested them, and Leonardo da Vinci's paper notes from 500 years ago remain readable.
- He mentions he plans to switch to Midori MD notebooks next year because he likes how they work with his fountain pens.
Bottom Line
Use paper for thinking and focus, and digital for scheduling and output, applying each where it works best.
