RPS #51 — Paper vs. Digital: The Great Productivity Tool Debate

These days there are thousands of options when it comes to productivity tools. But one great debate still persists: Which is better, paper or digital productivity tools? I think there’s a place for both. In this episode, I demonstrate that it’s not a question of either/or, but rather of which/when. And I give some principles for choosing which productivity tasks are better done on paper and which are better done using apps. Links This episode is based in part on the blog post, Paper vs. Digital Productivity Tools.Checkout the LifeJournal that I mentioned in today’s episode. Sign-up for the Redeeming Productivity Newsletter. If you enjoy Redeeming Productivity, consider supporting my work on Patreon, where you’ll get exclusive updates and early releases of new content. Transcript 00:00:08 – Welcome to the Redeeming Productivity Show. This is the podcast that helps Christians get more done and get it done like Christians. And I’m your host Reagan Rose.00:00:22 – Well, thanks for listening in. We’ve got an interesting episode for you today. When we talking about paper versus digital productivity tools and kind of the pros and cons of each and how you can sort of mix and match, uh, some paper planning tools with digital tools and even just kind of some high-level principles to think through what would be best for what types of activities, uh, productivity-wise. Um, but before I jump into that, just want to do the little preamble I always do, which is to say, if you’re listening and you like this, please do subscribe to your favorite podcast thing. So you get notified if the next one, for example, if one doesn’t come out on Monday, like normal and instead comes out way later in the week, like right now, uh, you will just get it in your podcast player. Well, I don’t need to explain podcasts to you.00:01:16 – You’re listening to one and also a special thank you to the Patreon supporters, guys. Thank you so much for supporting the podcast. Um, it is encouraging to me and helps me pay the bills to keep this going. And if any of you who are listening would like to become a patron supporter, throw a couple of bucks in the hat. Uh, it is patrion.com/redeeming prod. Okay, let’s get into the meat of the episode. Um, so paper versus digital tools. So with productivity, there are, um, many, many tools available to us. Uh, the, you can go as simple as just a hit a, a to-do list or setting goals on a piece of paper, but, uh, so much of productivity is about what tools you use. And especially now in the digital era, there are countless types of tools you can use in the computer, countless apps, countless services, countless automation that you can use to increase your productivity.00:02:24 – And it can get a little bit overwhelming, to be honest. I’ve mentioned before that when I do as doing college ministry, I think even when I was a college student, I did, this is, I just had a little tiny notebook with a little tiny pen, and I would just write in there some boxes and some little tasks for the day. And I tick off the boxes, uh, to make sure I got everything done. I needed to do that day. And that was a productivity tool. It was small, it was rudimentary, but that was, that was all I did with it. Uh, and then after I read, um, David, Allen’s getting things done, I realized, Oh, I’m basically using his sort of getting things done system, but not as smartly. And so then I was using the paper to record those tasks and, and migrate them to the next day, make sure that, that I had a place to capture everything and process it and, and put it into the right category.00:03:17 – And I was doing that all paper-wise. Now, though, fast forward to today, I suffer from a condition that doctors call shiny new tools syndrome. And that is, uh, my excuse for that is that I write and do a podcast on productivity. And so I can ex