The Hybrid Productivity Method.

[@hobbyjohnny]

Thank you! The Franklin Planner videos got me to resurrect the paper systems that worked best for me years ago - The Planner Pad. I have gotten more done in the past 10 weeks than I have in a long time. Daily and weekly planning are a snap. It is faster and I am more confident that things are put in the proper time and place (no auto correct). I have followed you since the beginning. Keep up the great content. It is much appreciated!

[@Carl_Pullein]

Hi Johnny, That's what I odund when I started on this pen and paper journey. I got a lot more of the important things done and I have felt a lot more focsed all year.

[@KonstantinComentorship]

Great insights and inspiration, thank you very much!

[@meeluanistyn1644]

I’ve learned such a lot from you about combing digital and analogue systems and, like you, combine the two. Planning on paper suits me so well and, as you rightly say, enables me to shut out the digital chatter and concentrate better on the task in hand. I’ve written analogue journals in the past and found they unleashed a creative, artistic side of me that led to me adding drawings, cartoons, magazine cuttings and even a snakes and ladders game I created that reflected the ups and downs of my life at the time. Nowadays, my journal is 100% digital as I want to password protect it and, if necessary, delete sections that, on reflection, I decide I don’t want anyone else to see. Also, the digital journal can show me what I wrote this time last year or the year before and I use that function every day.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Ah, my hope is one day (perhaps in 500 years) my journals will help someone else get the most our of theor lives and not make the mistakes I made.

[@roslynnpieters4969]

Thank you for an amazing video. I always feel so guilty walking around with my A5 or Personal paper planner as people don't understand how I can be so "old school"....why I don't use my phone notes or calendar.... When in fact I do (but rarely) ....they really don't see the benefits of slowing my brain down to focus on what needs to be done when before the hustle and bustle of all the screens and notifications. Nothing beats finding notes in an old notebook and remembering the thoughts, emotions, memories that went with it.... Where I barely remember meeting notes typed out last week. 😅

[@Carl_Pullein]

Ooh, don't feel guilty, Roslynn. Even Sam Altman (Chat GTP) carries a paper notebook. It's a sign of intelligence and creativity. 🙂

[@claudiavolkman1281]

This might be my favorite video from you (although I think I've said that before!). So many good nuggets here!

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thank you, Claudia. Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@BlackPearlMinistries]

I stumbled upon the Rollbahn notebooks at Barnes and Noble and now they are my favorite. I like the pocket size ones. I take analog notes in meetings. I can remember things so much better. I picked up some Blackwing pencils and now haven’t written in pen for days. The last time I wrote in pencil before this week was late 90s. I am loving it. ❤

[@Carl_Pullein]

I recently discovered Tennessee Red pencils. The smell of those in their box is wonderful. I think you are on to something there. Finding your favourite kind of notebooks and pens/pencil. That's the joy of analogue tools.

[@neitaoutdoors4278]

Thank you! This was very helpful, as well as enjoyable. (The Steve Jobs story was quite eye-opening!) One area I have not been successful in converting to digital is all my medical appointments. At most appointments, I have to review past treatment "threads" and often can't get reliable wifi in a hospital setting. It's much simpler and faster to identify the dates of previous "X" treatments, or the past "Y" therapy by flipping through a physical calendar. (I color-code the various "threads" of treatments.)

[@dbrakowski]

Thanks for all you do---if you're looking for a GREAT book about notebooks, I'd highly recommend: The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thank you. I've ordered the book 🙂

[@cydoodlez]

Hi Carl! Do you use two separate books for journaling and planning? Also, what are your views on a commonplace book?

[@toranshaw4029]

5:53 yeah, apart from when you're in a building, or remote area, and cannot get any mobile signal (or wifi) to access your digital calendar... which is why I'm looking for a paper based one I can carry around with me, for such eventualities. 9:50 why I like writing in Markdown, as you transfer files between apps and machines much easier.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Don't digital calendars work on a push/pull system? When your in a signal/WIFI area they push and pull data, when not you can still access your calendar and add events and as soon as you get a signal it pushes the data up to the cloud.

[@toranshaw4029]

@@Carl_Pullein not in my experience though, as the app struggles to load when I'm in a no-signal area... so I can't even access it off-line.

[@TheRealJohnnyCash]

Carl, are you tracking your annual goals similar to projects inside your notes app? Do you brainstorm everything on paper first?

[@Carl_Pullein]

I track these in my digital notes app. Although the planning is always done using a pen and my planning book. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGi4aGauj6aprrcsi=pkhp1OHY2XsHVBbT

[@davidwalls2304]

Thank you for this latest video. I've been envisioning a hybrid system of my own. I'm looking into creating something similar to Ugmonk cards on blank index cards which would be similar to your A7 spiral notebook. Perhaps the spiral A7 notebooks would be easier to work with and provide a historical record instead of having a stack of cards. I'm looking forward to your next video.

[@Carl_Pullein]

It's funny, I thought I would throw away the A7 notebooks after I fill them. Instead I have a small basket in my stationary drawer and I put them in there as a record of what I've done.

[@johngough4626]

I confess I am faster using the analog system when brainstorming (plans, lists, etc). I started using the notebook for the weekly planning, personal and professional, two different days! Still looking for the best balance.

[@nplusg]

Great video! Really useful ideas that I’ll start trying from tomorrow. What fountain pen do you use?

[@Carl_Pullein]

My wife bought me a Montblanc 149 - it's gorgeous. I also have a Lamy 2000 that I use with a different colour.

[@hilalrefaiehhilal.designs3795]

I love this

[@armorless6294]

Thanks!

[@deanbaker3112]

I noticed your journal notebook and cover has changed from a few videos ago. What are you using now?

[@andrefernandozen]

Another great video, Carl, congratulations! I wanted to share an idea that could complement what you mentioned about keeping a hybrid diary system between digital and physical formats. I use the On This Day feature in the Day One app, and it’s been amazing! While I love having my physical journals on the shelf and feel reassured knowing they’re safely stored, I don’t always take the time to flip through them. So, I usually take a photo of what I’ve written that day and upload it to Day One. This way, I can use the On This Day feature to revisit what I wrote on the same day in previous years. It’s been really practical for me! Also, I’ve been meaning to ask: how do you manage to write with a fountain pen as a left-hander? You’re left-handed, right? I am too, and I often struggle. Most likely, my hand position isn’t ideal, but I’m not sure what I should adjust. Your handwriting in your videos is so neat and beautifully spaced! Perhaps a video about this would be a great idea for the future-I’m sure it would help many of us! Once again, congratulations on your always excellent content!

[@earlofmar11]

As a left-handed lover of fountain pens myself, I'd sure also be interested in such a video, even if it's somewhat off topic in Carl's channel...

[@Carl_Pullein]

I did try that earlier this year, but found the additonal work of scanning in the journal entries cumbersome. I also found that my journal itself lost some of that specialness. (That feeling's really hard to describe). In a way the value of the journal diminished.

[@Carl_Pullein]

@@earlofmar11 I'm planning on doing a Short on this next week.

[@andrefernandozen]

@@Carl_Pullein I completely understand what you mean. There’s something truly special about rediscovering a memory by seeing it on paper-it’s a feeling that an app just can’t replicate. Inspired by your videos, I’ve also been using much more paper in my daily life, and it’s been fantastic. Thank you for the encouragement!

[@DigitalMoonlight]

The only enduring digital format for notes is plain ASCII text and the markup languages that sit on top of it such as org-mode and Markdown. Org-mode in particular is likely to be around as long as computers exist as the text editor that it is an extension of (gnu emacs) is 40 years old and still actively developed. Emacs as a whole is almost 50 years old with GNU emacs being the most well supported derivative. For reference org-mode itself is over 20 years old now and documents made 20 years ago display as they should in modern org-mode.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thank you for sharing that. What about peripherals and cables? I have a twenty-year-old iMac in my storeroom, and the only ports are USB 1/2 and Ethernet inputs/outputs. It also has a CD-ROM drive. Will those cables and peripherals be available in twenty years? I'm not sure it's just about the software.

[@DigitalMoonlight]

@ I’m less worried about the peripherals since you can always move digital files to intermediaries and new media, so long as the files aren’t in a dead format that requires an old machine like a lot of the long dead word processors that are lost to the sands of time. That being you can often get adaptors starting with equipment from around 1984 when things ended up converging on IBM PC AT common ports. On the Apple side of things this would be ADB which released with the IIGS. You can use an IBM PC AT keyboard on a modern PC with one or two adaptors depending on if your computer has PS/2 keyboard support or if it’s all USB (yes several computers still ship with PS/2 ports). Apple ADB can be adapted to USB directly so you can still use your old Apple keyboards if you prefer them, and a lot of people do. As an aside I can read CDs from the 1980s on a modern Bluray drive, drives are still being manufactured albeit not at the staggering pace they once were. I think it’s pretty safe to say that DVD drives will eventually become niche in the way compact cassette players are now, and support ending will be a known event. Plenty of opportunities to transfer off CD onto other media to preserve it.

[@corgikun2579]

what's the percentage of users that know whatvorg is and how many are willing to spend their time learning about it?

[@andyosb]

....and that gobbledegook is why - in a nutshell - paper or plain & simple computer software formats are best 😉

[@DigitalMoonlight]

@ 0.0001%, markdown is plenty common though as it is the backbone of most popular note taking apps and ASCII text has been around for 57 years. You can rest assured that you can import plain text from over 50 years ago into Obsidian and when Obsidian is long obsolete you’ll be able to read all of your notes in a plain text editor

[@cesarchavarria6644]

Great Fan!!!

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thank you 🙂

[@GrottescoTeatro]

What was the 📓 you mentioned? Always on the search for 🖋️ friendly 📓. One thing I always run into is personal and productivity being different systems.

[@Carl_Pullein]

It's the Maruman Mnemosyne notebooks

[@tanyacabala3055]

Every now and then I reboot my system but a consistent item is a large ring binder with notepaper. I have one page for each day, and also a page for each work day. So on the left side, I get out of my brain my to dos for the day or week from my task list and calendar, and then the right side I write what I do. I date each. Then I use to doist, reminders, and the Fantastical calendar. I also have a very nice large journal for just writing, like a commonplace book. My struggle always is that I have about a thousand to do's. I have not found a way to rein them in as I would like.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Hi Tanya, One tip that changed everything for me was to stop looking how much I have to do and instead look at how much time I have to work on those tasks. It imporved my focus and helped me to become much more realistic about what I can do.

[@tanyacabala3055]

@@Carl_Pullein Thank you, good advice. I think using a timer might help also!

[@username00009]

@@tanyacabala3055have you watched Carl’s videos on how he organizes projects? That helps to shorten the task list when combined with his suggestion to schedule based on available time.

[@Uncle_SAM96]

Why not just buy a ipad and put paperlike protector on it for natural feel and use apple pencil for handwriting notes on pre build digital journal formats instead of going through all that !

[@Carl_Pullein]

Paperlike on an iPad and an Apple Pencil, doesn't come close to the feel of a fountain pen on paper. And you can pick up a fountain pen for less than $20.00, a notebook for less than $5.00 and never have to worry about batteries, notifications or software updates

[@Uncle_SAM96]

@Carl_Pullein That's is also fine.