Hello Anna, My wife discovered your blog and shared it with me. We both really love reading your articles and get a lot out of them. I’m writing to you because I’ve found myself becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the potential methods and tools, unable to really make a good decision about how to proceed. I’ll give you a little background. I stumbled across the Zettelkasten…
Really enjoyed this article by Joan Westenberg, about how she recovered her ability to think for herself. “Week three brought the first breakthrough. I was writing by hand about a conversation with my brother, and suddenly I understood something about our relationship that I’d never seen before; I’d sat with the complexity long enough for insight to emerge. And the insight itself…
Here at Analog Office World Headquarters, we are spending lunch hour reading our new book, The Power of Cash by Jay L. Zagorsky 📚 Highly recommended. Zagorsky compellingly argues that: the disappearance of cash particularly makes life difficult for the poor, forcing them to pay for access to electronic funds if we don’t use cash regularly (not just saving some for emergencies), fewer…
This system is a mini tickler file system. But rather than tracking things through a year, this one is based on a weekly rhythm. I use it to track my prayer schedule, and prayer requests. I’m a clergywoman, I get these requests pretty often, and I am breathtakingly forgetful. If someone asks me to pray for them I want to be able to honor my promise to them to do so. I write down prayer…
Hi Anna, I recently discovered your site, via the Plain Text Project, and I am so glad I did! I feel like I have a split personality, going back and forth between digital (scan everything! Minimalism is the goal!) and analog (if the cloud disappears, I’ll still be fine; more joy in paper; let’s go to the office supply store!). And I come from a family of letter writers, where choosing the…
I grew up in a rural area with frequent power outages. Because electricity wasn’t a given, especially in the winter, we always had kerosene lamps and flashlights on hand, and a woodstove with a range top and oven that we could cook with. I had to learn the hard way that digital files aren’t always a given, either. Some of the things I wrote down about what my kids said and did when…
Wondering how to find stuff in your paper notebooks, send reminders to Future You, and check out other solutions from the analog age? Visit the Analog Office “How To” Directory.
“Hello! I don’t remember how I found Analog Office but I love it. It’s so comforting to read about processes and techniques that speak so loudly to me. My question is this: “I take a lot of notes - to dos, things I’d like to remember or reference for later, etc. Some are in a small pocket sized notebook as they come to me (easy to carry, easy to write in, hard to organize, hard to…
The virtual world is a disembodied one, and promotes the lie that we do not need our bodies to think. I believe it is no coincidence that researchers keep discovering that use of the body preserves the mind; your risk of developing dementia is lowered with exercise, lowered with keeping and caring for a pet if you live alone, lowered with the richness of in-person social connection which relies on…
Nice article for all who love planners, A Short History of the Daily Planner, by Jillian Hess. Hess is an academic who researches notebooks and note-taking. If you love analog notes and notebooks, and reading notes by notable people, resolve to subscribe to her newsletter this year.
Ahhhhhhh…. the most wonderful time of the year at the Analog Office. Opening up the new planner! Clearing out the paid bills and statements from the temporal filing system so my folders are empty and ready for the new year! It’s the office version of sweeping out the old year, welcoming in the new. May we all have an excellent 2024. Copy and share – the link is here. Never miss…
What? You don’t love filing? You want to find your household papers but you don’t want to set up an elaborate system? I find that a little odd, but okay. We all have different interests and abilities, which is what makes this an interesting world. The simplest filing system would be based on the temporal filing system, and expanding it beyond paid bills. This is how Annmarie Brogan,…
Here at Analog Office World Headquarters, we excitedly passed around CJ Chilvers’ essay on the all-around greatness that is the bankers box. Go read it, it is excellent. And yes: “bankers box” is the correct spelling, no apostrophe; they were originally manufactured by the Bankers Box Company in the early 1900s. At one time we had hundreds of bankers boxes in our house, when we…
Record your processes into lists. Do this for Future You, when Future You is tired or distracted. It makes a huge difference for your peace of mind. I used to keep checklists on apps, but realized I didn’t want to turn on a Distraction Machine, I mean, an internet-connected device, every time I wanted to consult a list. Especially when the point of the list is to keep me focused. Enter the…
“Hey, Anna, I’m sold on the Wonderland books. Thinking of getting the all in one so I can have a page for each day. Could you share how you use the various spreads? I’m a BUJO noob and every time I search for stuff about planners, I just get Pinterest stuff about pastel art pieces pretending to be time management.” Ryder Carroll, who started the bullet journal thing, did not use…
A reader asked me why I use the Johnny.Decimal filing system for my digital folders. He said he had tried it, but it seemed like “overkill” for him, and he wondered why I use it. Good question, and here’s the short answer: Instead of a long file path, it gives me a short number. I can go straight to any document I want with a four-digit number. But the kicker for me is that, by…
Assateague Lighthouse Keeper’s Logbook, 1889. Museum of Chincoteague Island. Entries include condition of light, condition of fog signal, and “remarks on the weather”
Just came back from a trip to see my parents, who live about 300 miles away from me. My father has been diagnosed with a serious illness, and my mother asked me to help her get organized to deal with her new household and caregiving responsibilities. Choosing a Medical Treatment Tracker Notebook Medical treatment trackers, sometimes also called medical binders or personal medical records books,…
I actually should be paying bills right now, but instead I’m preferring the procrastiductivity of writing about organizing your bills. But then again, this is a post I’ve been meaning to write for months; so if I’m writing it now, is it still procrastination? ???? !!!! As we ponder the philosophical knots binding the temporal yet distinct ontological states of producing versus…
“Over the course of this year I have somehow accumulated five notebooks I’m writing in daily. How did this happen? And how do I pare down?” The idea that we need One Notebook (or at least Fewer Notebooks) to Rule It All is a tempting one. This reader went on to elaborate that she’s got notebooks for: a daily log of things she has done a work planner a pocket notebook she carries…
“How about a post on functioning when (stuff) hits the fan, an unexpected crisis that fills your mind and makes it hard to shift gears? Do you drop balls and give yourself grace, or delegate, or still try to function or something else??” Oh, you give yourself grace. Always. You are allowed to be human, you are allowed to have crises, and you are allowed to drop balls and function poorly, or not at…
Excellent post on bullet journals from @nofars at which is part of a series on planners. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. Writing at Large is a cool site to peruse, analog friends! Includes some great sketches as well. Some random thoughts in response: like @nofars , I prefer bullet journaling in its earlier, simpler, non-artistic mode, and still use some of that today. That’s what…
Hey Anna, In the post about weekly planning, you showed your weekly task list, but not a daily list. Do you typically work from the weekly list? Is this akin to Oliver Burkeman’s Open List, or is there a larger Open List somewhere else and this weekly task list is like his Closed List? What a great question! Think of an open list as your brainstorming session: What might you do? Think of a closed…
I hesitate to even post this. Feelings are strong. Emotions run high. I’m a peaceable woman. I hate courting controversy. But we must address this. Okay, Anna: Deeeeeeeeeeep breath. Do you go with One Notebook to Rule Them All? Everything goes in there? Or do you have lots of different notebooks, each dedicated to very specific purposes? When it comes to paper notebooks, are you a Lumper, or…
Most excellent: a reader question today! “Hello Anna. I love your blog. I am a computer engineer all into minimalist plain-text productivity methods and applications and I found your tips and tricks fascinating; the perfect couple for my digital organization. The question: Do you have a method or any kind of resource ready-to-print in order to plan one or two weeks in advance? Me and my wife…