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  1. Reader Question 10: Personal Productivity Analysis Paralysis
    Aug 25, 2025 · original
    Hello Anna, My wife discovered your blog and shared it with me. We both really love reading your articles and get a lot out of them. I m writing to you because I ve found myself becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the potential methods and tools, unable to really make a good decision about how to proceed. I ll give you a little background. I stumbled across the Zettelkasten method years ago before it kind of blew up on the internet. While I found it was not really working for me, I did still like the tool I was using called Zettlr. I did end up writing many notes in there. But, I also had MS Word for many documents such as resumes, assignments, etc. Then, I made a switch from Zettlr to Obsidian, but recently thought that Obsidian has too much complexity for my needs. Similarly for task management, I ran on ToDoist for a long time as well as the fun platform Habitica. I used ToDoist to m
  2. "Efficiency, as I have discovered, is the enemy of depth."
    Jul 18, 2025 · original
    Really enjoyed this article by Joan Westenberg, about how she recovered her ability to think for herself. Week three brought the first breakthrough. I was writing by hand about a conversation with my brother, and suddenly I understood something about our relationship that I d never seen before; I d sat with the complexity long enough for insight to emerge. And the insight itself wasn t necessarily profound - just a small thing about how we communicate - but it was mine. Generated by my own mind, in my own words, without external scaffolding. Which is when I realized what I d been missing: the satisfaction of original thought. Westenberg describes exactly what she did to be able to hear her own voice again, and to think for herself again. She made several changes, but part of her solution was to write some things by hand to practice thinking and reflecting. It seems her strategies were a
  3. Remember Cash Money? We Need to Use It, or We'll Lose It
    Jun 2, 2025 · original
    Here at Analog Office World Headquarters, we are spending lunch hour reading our new book, The Power of Cash by Jay L. Zagorsky 📚 Highly recommended. Zagorsky compellingly argues that: the disappearance of cash particularly makes life difficult for the poor, forcing them to pay for access to electronic funds if we don t use cash regularly (not just saving some for emergencies), fewer businesses and agencies will keep the infrastructure to process it using cash helps small businesses, because e-payment systems take a cut out of every transaction using cash for tips helps restaurant servers, because otherwise they may have to wait days or weeks for e-payments to process we spend more when we use electronic payments we hand over a lot of sensitive personal data when we use electronic payments electronic funds are vulnerable to cyberattacks and natural disasters, as well as governments shut
  4. Index card system to track daily, weekly, and monthly routines
    Aug 17, 2024 · original
    This system is a mini tickler file system. But rather than tracking things through a year, this one is based on a weekly rhythm. I use it to track my prayer schedule, and prayer requests. I m a clergywoman, I get these requests pretty often, and I am breathtakingly forgetful. If someone asks me to pray for them I want to be able to honor my promise to them to do so. I write down prayer requests in the moment into my pocket notebook and then at the end of the day I write it on an index card and file it into this system. And, you could certainly also use full-size folders and papers for this, as in an old-school office tickler file. You could use this system to remind you of anything you want to repeat on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, such as: household chore routines workout routines a rotating household menu (index cards for shopping lists, and for recipes could work nicely for thi
  5. Reader Question 9: How long do you keep your notes?
    Aug 3, 2024 · original
    Hi Anna, I recently discovered your site, via the Plain Text Project, and I am so glad I did! I feel like I have a split personality, going back and forth between digital (scan everything! Minimalism is the goal!) and analog (if the cloud disappears, I’ll still be fine; more joy in paper; let s go to the office supply store!). And I come from a family of letter writers, where choosing the right stamp is part of the fun, and where we geek out on pens, pencils, notebooks. So I lean towards the analog. My two questions are around permanence: For your handwritten plan for the week, how long will you keep that? Months, years? Other than helping you map out your two-week windows, does it also serve a long term purpose, like a place to revisit to see what you were doing in the past? If you have checklists, or take notes, that are specific to a major project, how do you approach the analog vs. d
  6. Digital is Ephemeral
    Jul 21, 2024 · original
    I grew up in a rural area with frequent power outages. Because electricity wasn t a given, especially in the winter, we always had kerosene lamps and flashlights on hand, and a woodstove with a range top and oven that we could cook with. I had to learn the hard way that digital files aren t always a given, either. Some of the things I wrote down about what my kids said and did when they were little, disappeared forever due to my using a 1990s word processing program with a now defunct file format. Thankfully at some point I switched to plain text and printouts; but those earlier files are lost for good. The recent Crowdstrike outage briefly threw people back into the analog world with mom and pop businesses accepting only cash, and healthcare organizations resorting to keeping records on paper. This is a good reminder that if you really, really want to depend on having something in the f
  7. https://analogoffice.net/2024/07/20/wondering-how-to.html
    Jul 20, 2024 · original
    Wondering how to find stuff in your paper notebooks, send reminders to Future You, and check out other solutions from the analog age? Visit the Analog Office How To Directory.
  8. Reader Question 8: How do I handle a plethora of post-it notes?
    Apr 15, 2024 · original
    Hello! I don’t remember how I found Analog Office but I love it. It’s so comforting to read about processes and techniques that speak so loudly to me. My question is this: I take a lot of notes - to dos, things I’d like to remember or reference for later, etc. Some are in a small pocket sized notebook as they come to me (easy to carry, easy to write in, hard to organize, hard to review). Sometimes I put a post it note on the outside of the notebook for daily tasks but really it’s just an even quicker place to write notes down. I have more post it notes all over my desk. So many that I’m running out of room. The post it notes contain all kinds of things like a quote I’m trying to internalize in my work (drawing and art), questions for people, process notes regarding my art that I want to be reminded of daily as I work, goals for my art, things to try in my art, even a random financial not
  9. Handwriting Equals Thinking: Or, Why I Use a Paper Planner
    Jan 10, 2024 · original
    The virtual world is a disembodied one, and promotes the lie that we do not need our bodies to think. I believe it is no coincidence that researchers keep discovering that use of the body preserves the mind; your risk of developing dementia is lowered with exercise, lowered with keeping and caring for a pet if you live alone, lowered with the richness of in-person social connection which relies on all kinds of bodily cues. The virtual world can also promote mindlessness in dealing with information. To a large degree, we can collect and move digital information without having to think. I reflexively click a button and the read-it-later app that collects digital articles for me instantly copies and saves it. (I go on to read perhaps 10% of the articles I click, generously estimating.) Moving information around digitally can even be automated, making it literally a mindless task. But analog
  10. https://analogoffice.net/2024/01/01/nice-article-for.html
    Jan 1, 2024 · original
    Nice article for all who love planners, A Short History of the Daily Planner, by Jillian Hess. Hess is an academic who researches notebooks and note-taking. If you love analog notes and notebooks, and reading notes by notable people, resolve to subscribe to her newsletter this year.
  11. Out With the Old, In With the New
    Dec 31, 2023 · original
    Ahhhhhhh…. the most wonderful time of the year at the Analog Office. Opening up the new planner! Clearing out the paid bills and statements from the temporal filing system so my folders are empty and ready for the new year! It s the office version of sweeping out the old year, welcoming in the new. May we all have an excellent 2024. Copy and share – the link is here. Never miss a post from the Analog Office! Subscribe here to get blog posts via email. Wondering how to manage your paper-based or hybrid paper-digital systems? Ask me a question. References Braithwaite, S.T. (2023) Hogmanay – A Scottish New Year Tradition, 31 December. Available at: https://susantbraithwaite.com/2023/12/31/the-magic-of-hogmanay/ (Accessed: 31 December 2023).
  12. The Simplest Paper Filing System
    Oct 4, 2023 · original
    What? You don t love filing? You want to find your household papers but you don t want to set up an elaborate system? I find that a little odd, but okay. We all have different interests and abilities, which is what makes this an interesting world. The simplest filing system would be based on the temporal filing system, and expanding it beyond paid bills. This is how Annmarie Brogan, co-author of the excellent home organizing book Beyond Tidy, sets up her filing system, since she also does not love spending her time filing. ( !! still so hard for me to imagine not loving filing!! But I digress.) To recap the temporal filing system: Take 12 folders. Label each folder with one month of the year: January, February, March, etc… Stuff any papers in there, related to that month. You can put paid bills in there, and also statements. You could even use it as a rudimentary tickler file – got a fly
  13. Bankers Boxes: Use Them, Love Them, Don't Let Them Mildew
    Sep 25, 2023 · original
    Here at Analog Office World Headquarters, we excitedly passed around CJ Chilvers essay on the all-around greatness that is the bankers box. Go read it, it is excellent. And yes: bankers box is the correct spelling, no apostrophe; they were originally manufactured by the Bankers Box Company in the early 1900s. At one time we had hundreds of bankers boxes in our house, when we had to store business records. Since they are so stackable, and in standardized sizes, this was not nearly as bad as it would have been with plastic bins. Also, I could take a marker and write DESTROY BY dates on the outside of the boxes: then we knew exactly which year we could take each box to the commercial shredder. The boxes, being cardboard, could be shredded as well, no need to unload the papers inside. (Most of those boxes were gone after seven years.) Photo below is a bankers box without a lid, fetchingly po
  14. Keep a Checklist Notebook
    Sep 22, 2023 · original
    Record your processes into lists. Do this for Future You, when Future You is tired or distracted. It makes a huge difference for your peace of mind. I used to keep checklists on apps, but realized I didn t want to turn on a Distraction Machine, I mean, an internet-connected device, every time I wanted to consult a list. Especially when the point of the list is to keep me focused. Enter the checklist paper notebook. This is a notebook I picked up because I liked the feel of the paper, and figured that I would find a use for it. Also, the cover of this one is screaming yellow. Very easy to spot. What better for a checklist notebook? I numbered the pages and set aside some pages for a table of contents and wrote down what I need to do, to keep myself on track. Remember That Checklists Are Always WIP – Works in Progress Checklists are records of your processes, and processes change. Recently
  15. Reader Question 7: Can you do bullet journal style planning without all the artwork?
    Sep 15, 2023 · original
    Hey, Anna, I’m sold on the Wonderland books. Thinking of getting the all in one so I can have a page for each day. Could you share how you use the various spreads? I’m a BUJO noob and every time I search for stuff about planners, I just get Pinterest stuff about pastel art pieces pretending to be time management. Ryder Carroll, who started the bullet journal thing, did not use artwork in his. So you can always check out bulletjournal.com for his methods. I also like his book. I agree that it is difficult to look into planners online, and get nuts and bolts information about planning. Then I remember that internet search is primarily about delivering advertising, and colorful artwork gets more clicks than unadorned checklists. Maybe this is why the Wonderland222, the most elegantly functional paper planner I know of, has such a splashy, glitzy, blinky website. It s as if you dressed Steve
  16. Johnny.Decimal and Me: Why I Use a Formal Digital Filing System Instead of Relying on Search
    Sep 8, 2023 · original
    A reader asked me why I use the Johnny.Decimal filing system for my digital folders. He said he had tried it, but it seemed like overkill for him, and he wondered why I use it. Good question, and here s the short answer: Instead of a long file path, it gives me a short number. I can go straight to any document I want with a four-digit number. But the kicker for me is that, by using a short little number to reference very specific files, I can cross-reference all over the place. How Cross-Referencing Paper and Digital Files Works in Practice I started a new job a few weeks ago. I had some materials on paper, given to me by the HR department, and some materials that were electronic. The paper materials are in my old paper reference file system. The digital materials are in my Johnny.Decimal system (JD# 91.01). On the front of the paper folder I also wrote down the Johnny.Decimal digital fo
  17. https://analogoffice.net/2023/08/31/assateague-lighthouse-keepers.html
    Aug 31, 2023 · original
    Assateague Lighthouse Keeper s Logbook, 1889. Museum of Chincoteague Island. Entries include condition of light, condition of fog signal, and remarks on the weather
  18. Serious Analog for Serious Conditions: Medical Treatment Trackers and Planners
    Aug 23, 2023 · original
    Just came back from a trip to see my parents, who live about 300 miles away from me. My father has been diagnosed with a serious illness, and my mother asked me to help her get organized to deal with her new household and caregiving responsibilities. Choosing a Medical Treatment Tracker Notebook Medical treatment trackers, sometimes also called medical binders or personal medical records books, help patients and/or their caregivers manage the firehose of information that comes with any serious medical condition. These are NOT classic task and appointment books. They often store information ABOUT appointments, but do not replace your calendar and to-do list. Think of this kind of notebook as a personal medical chart, with helpful layouts, which allow you to organize all this information without jargon or medico-legal boilerplate. Before you choose a medical tracker, a medical planner, be
  19. A Temporal Filing System for Bills, Statements, and Other Information that Expires
    Aug 12, 2023 · original
    I actually should be paying bills right now, but instead I m preferring the procrastiductivity of writing about organizing your bills. But then again, this is a post I ve been meaning to write for months; so if I m writing it now, is it still procrastination? ???? !!!! As we ponder the philosophical knots binding the temporal yet distinct ontological states of producing versus procrastinating, we might seize gratefully upon a fact: Bills and financial statements have expiration dates! And this means you don t have to keep them forever. Whew! That was my Alexander the Great moment, wielding a sharply honed fact to cut through the mental tangles of being and becoming, production and procrastination! You don t have to keep bills and financial statements forever. This means you can file them temporally. File Paid Bills Under the Month You Pay Them I have happily been using my paid bills fili
  20. Reader Question 6: Help, I'm writing in five notebooks daily, how do I pare down?
    Aug 10, 2023 · original
    Over the course of this year I have somehow accumulated five notebooks I’m writing in daily. How did this happen? And how do I pare down? The idea that we need One Notebook (or at least Fewer Notebooks) to Rule It All is a tempting one. This reader went on to elaborate that she s got notebooks for: a daily log of things she has done a work planner a pocket notebook she carries with her at all times – what I would call a capture notebook a morning pages journaling notebook a shorter format journaling notebook as a gratitude journal This reader is organizing her thoughts around many different kinds of things! There are reasons why people end up using multiple notebooks to organize themselves, and reflect on their lives. These are the same reasons people end up using multiple apps to organize themselves and reflect on their lives. Let s say you ve gone all digital, no paper. Let s use our i

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