Writing Digitally

Shared Devices vs Personal Devices

When the internet started back in the late 80's, i was in grade school. My sister was keen on getting into computer science and so my grandmother bought our first PC. We mostly used it for word processing. We used Wordstar mostly for typing in our school work. But it wasn't a personal device at home yet. Like most computers now. We shared it as a family. And mostly it was my sister who used it for running her COBOL programs. But she did teach me how to use Lotus 123 as well as Quattro.

Now, nobody says PC anymore. You mostly say the device and it's truly yours. Not shared. Could you just imagine if we're still sharing laptops. (Although i still think that budget conscious families still do. But phones are now so personalized even kids as young as 10 have them.)

Portable is sometimes forgettable

I look back now and tell myself that perhaps i should have saved all those notes that i had growing up. But my Mom sold our ancestral house and the bakery. When my dad died, we moved out of the country house where he worked all his life. But primarily, it's because I sought a job in the city and after a few years started living where it's near work. The house my parents bought and was rented to others through the years. It now belongs to my younger brother who is maintaining its upkeep. So the ability to keep saving notes on floppy disks, if not other disks, just became untenable because i don't know where to keep them. And only in the 2000's did we start storing things either via external disks but i never really got around to gather all my notes together in one place. Plus it was just taking up space - notebooks, boxes of notes, etc. One thing is because i've kept moving around. The other thing is that it was just collecting dust and we need to optimize space. Except Obsidian.

Digital Writing Habit

I envy people who have maintained there notes through the years and even their digital journals. While i still keep a paper-based journal (and i've been keeping them in the last 2 years more diligently than the other years), only now have i truly enjoyed writing digitally.

A lot of things have really been fragmented for me. Maybe it's procrastination. Maybe it's ADHD. Or maybe it's just me not being able to stick to one writing program all these years. Maybe that's it. Or maybe i just need to forget about all the shoulda, woulda, coulda and just starting writing. Even if my thoughts aren't fully formed yet.

How Do I Maintain A Digital Writing and Note taking Habit

Writing Schedule Blocks per Day

  • [<] Write 3x a day (morning, noon at night. Or before shift, middle of the shift and after shift)
  • [<] Write what i liked, how i felt, what i've learned or how i can use something i've watched or read
  • [<] Event happenings of stories shared to me, world issues and trends

Do I Still Maintain My Analog Notebooks

Yes. This is still a yes. Because i love my old journals and even all the paper-based notebooks we have bought and still need filling up all through the years. So, i will still keep writing there if i need a sense of calm and am not pressed for time with my current workload.

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