I'm a technology geek in a lot of ways. I love gadgets that are 'smart' and claim to make my life more streamlined and efficient. I love movies that feature crazy technology like in Minority Report or Avatar.
But when it comes to brainstorming, whether alone or with people, I am married to the yellow legal pad.
Sure, a smartphone is great for jotting down notes mid-conversation, getting that email address when standing in line at the supermarket, or snapping a picture of a humorous situation when walking through the mall.
But lost in thought for 6 hours on a trans-continental flight? Give me pen and paper, please.
I still use pen and paper to
brainstorm – I really prefer to do the initial creative thought this way, then flesh out the details on my laptop.
People in airports or on planes or in public in general
look at me like I'm some kind of relic though, which can be amusing.
But I find putting pen to paper
is more inspirational when jotting ideas down than is typing on a
mini-keyboard on a smartphone, and it's not always practical to pull
out my laptop.
Plus, technology tends to distract me. I don't believe in ADD – I think it's mainly a product of brain types – but I could be accused of displaying tendencies, haha.
And it's tough to go down the rabbit hole with a blank piece of paper…much easier when the world wide web is a flick of the finger away.
So I use paper for my most creative of ideas, to record my inspirations, to build a plan for a future entity.
Truth be told, I'm kind of concerned that yellow notepads will become obsolete…so I'm tempted to stock up! If 2012 sends me underground for a long time, sure, I'll have my organic MRE's but I'll have a fat stack of striped yellow paper too. :)