Digital vs. paper

[Michael Grant]

I know, not exactly a fresh topic, but....

I've been wavering between doing all my GTD processing and review in
kGTD and sticking to paper. At this point I'm not even considering any
other software package for the core of my system, though I've looked
at various others and also use MailTags and a number of text files. I
won't be going 100% digital or analog in any case, but I want to be
able to stick to one or the other at the core.

Advantages of kGTD: general elegance of both OmniOutliner and kGTD
itself, pleasure of playing with new toys whenever updates are
released, iCal sync ability, potential to link into all the other
capabilities of the computer, laptop is more convenient to carry if I
want to work at a coffeeshop than a bunch of loose papers and files.

On the paper side, I've created color-coded paper Project forms that
I've gradually been refining. The color-coding is according to
"domains" (business, family/household, community/political, tech,
etc.) and gives me another dimension along which to organize and make
in-the-moment decisions on where to place my attention. I haven't
found a convenient way to replicate this in kGTD, especially once
actions are synced to iCal (other than to use "domains" in place of
"contexts", which I don't want to do).

Advantages of paper: color-coded domains, infinite flexibility,
arbitrary tactile sorting and stacking of NAs, gives me some relief
from being in front of the computer screen all the time.

Since I keep going back and forth, I've ended up copying paper project
records into kGTD and vice versa more than once, which is obviously
less than ideal.

Right now I've been using kGTD for the past few weeks but am leaning
toward putting everything back into paper.

I'm not really even sure what I'm asking, but I'm hoping if anyone is
still interested in discussing it that I might run across some new
insights.

Michael

--
I never metadata I didn't like.

[Bryan Ewbank]

I think it's really about you and your needs.  I've been using Palms for years, but am gradually moving to paper this year.  The Palm worked in some of my previous environments, but the current environment just doesn't - for some reason that is not altogether clear to me.

That's okay.  Flow is where and how you find it.

[reasonableone]

I agree. I fluctuate between digital and paper and sometimes both. With
technology always improving, there are new tools coming along that help
the process. The key is to not be tied down with a certain way of
doing things if it becomes too cumbersome. Use the method that works
best, and review it occassionally.