Why I still carry a paper notebook
People are sometimes surprised that I write these notes by hand first. My phone is right there, after all, and it has a perfectly good notes app.
But a notebook works in the rain, never needs charging, and doesn't tempt me to check anything else while I'm writing. A pencil works upside down, in the cold, and on damp paper. Those are all conditions I find myself in fairly often.
There's also something about the slowness of handwriting. I can't write as fast as I think, so I end up choosing what matters. The notes are shorter and, I think, better for it.
Most entries are only a line or two: the temperature, the wind, a bird, a plant in flower. Every so often one of them grows into a post here.