This article first appeared in the Weekly Bujo Newsletter.

A popular topic in the Bullet Journal community is: Can the analog journal and the digital task manager peacefully coexist? The more “intelligent” technology gets, the more it takes off our hands, the more I wonder about the where our human being fits into our doing. That’s what I explore in my  newest video series on YouTube.

In some ways, these tools do the same thing: they shape your future by organizing your behavior. However, their methods diverge in meaningful ways.

Digital task managers like Notion, Asana, or TickTick offer countless features. We can now capture whatever, whenever, from wherever seamlessly. They’ve empowered us to do more than we ever thought possible. What’s possible has become invigoratingly unclear.

Blinded by this bright promise of infinite productivity, we can easily lose sight of our very finite timeline.

Enter the analog journal in our work stack.

When using pen and paper, we do something unintuitive: we intentionally introduce friction back into our work. We do things at odds with digital productivity engines. We slow down. We go offline. We take time. We get less done. In some ways, we make our lives a bit harder. Why? To optimize for a very different metric.

Digital Task Managers optimize toward quantity of work. Bullet Journaling optimizes for quality of life.

These are not mutually exclusive. Not at all. As with all tools, it’s about the person wielding them. One tool helps us wield the hammer. One tool helps us wield the person.

Watch the full video  to explore the delicate balance between the analog and digital realms.