I was about to write a thought out, but then I was stuck on which notebook I should write on. I’ve got at least 5 journals, and then another few pocket notebooks lying around. I’ve tried the whole commonplace book, but then I don’t export from there often enough so everything’s always in a mess. Other times, I feel like I’m too lazy to refill a fountain pen, and other times I’m not in the mood to write with a ballpoint. And yes, I’m only just talking about physical notebooks.
On digital, I used to be a real Notion user. I had templates and databases all linked up. I organized and planned, adding team members where I needed to and kicking others out when my free plan quota ran out. I jumped ship into Obsidian, where I saw something similar with the backlinks and the connections. But it requires similar things to the commonplace book— where I need to export and to organize as I write or after I write. I’m not very comfortable with either.
But the bigger question is: is it a use case? Meaning, do I have so many notebooks because I have a lot of categories to say? If it’s because of variety, then maybe I can stick specific types of thoughts into the different notebooks.
But on reflection, it feels like I’m more spread over my writing in how I want to write. The process matters to me, because I personally think it affects how I write.
For example, I am writing this on my standing table in my bedroom, on my iPad with my HHKB keyboard. It would have been written different if I wrote this on my desktop computer with another mechanical keyboard attached. It would be even more different if I wrote on my physical notebooks, and the pen type would definitely affect how long my words or sentences would be.
I know what I really need to do is to just write. And as I write this, I am decidedly making effort to make and create in this immediate space. Not to overthink my preferences and experience, locking myself out creatively for the sake of creativity. That’s not productive and I want to produce more in my life.
So I write.