The point of tools is to do a job. The right tools do the job well, the wrong ones don’t. What constitutes right and wrong depends on several factors, including how you and the tool interact. The right tool for one person may be wrong for someone else. For me the tools I use for writing and recording are important. I want them to be ones I can use without thinking. If the process interferes with my thoughts then I want a different tool.
I was thinking about this after reading a comment on Threads by Alex Roddie (he’s alex_roddie on that site, I’m christownsendoutdoors) about note-taking and journaling tools in which he agreed with another poster that the best app for journaling was a notebook. I agree, to some extent. When camping I use a notebook. I’ve tried making notes on various digital devices (smartphone, tablet, and before them a Psion handheld computer – still in a drawer somewhere I think) and it’s just too difficult by headlamp in a tent or even just sitting outside on a log or rock. Pen and paper is far easier, even if I sometimes have difficulty reading my scrawl months or years later. Currently I used the excellent Thrunotes notebooks. (If you want one you’ll have to wait until next spring or summer though as they’re not available again until then).
At home I do all my writing on a PC. I like the full-size keyboard and the large screen. However brief notes and lists go on paper. I use the back of sheets that have arrived with magazines or products for this and have a pile of them on my desk right next to the keyboard. I have a notebook too but only write stuff I want to keep and can’t be bothered typing out in this. Ephemeral stuff on bits of paper gets chucked away eventually.
Dates I need to remember or be reminded about go in a desk diary and an online calendar. I look at the former more often but the advantage of the latter is that I can enter a reminder for a day or two before that pops up on my PC or phone. The desk diary can’t do that! I have a wall planner too. It used to be on the wall behind my PC so I could look up from the screen and see it. This year I moved it to a different wall where it’s more accessible and so easier to write on. I’ve hardly used it though as I can’t see it without turning round. I need to move it back! Office organisation matters.
This system, if it can be glorified with that term, works for me. Others may do everything using digital tech or by traditional means. Outdoor writer Hamish Brown writes his books and articles longhand, Paddy Dillon writes his guidebooks on a handheld computer during his long walks. Neither method would work for me. We’re all difficult. The key is finding what works for you not for anybody else.
In finding the right tools I’ve never bothered whether something is old tech or new tech, low tech or high tech. I use a mixture, as with the pen and paper and PC on my desk. In the hills I have a smartphone and an e-reader along with my notebook and pen. They’re all tools.
The e-reader is one of my favourite digital products as it saves me lots of weight and vastly increases my choice of reading. I used to carry a paperback on overnight trips and several on multi-day trips, including nature and route guides. I now have a library on a device that’s smaller and lighter than a paperback. I love it!
The smartphone is mostly for navigation in the hills. I carry a printed map as well though. Not just as a backup but because I can spread it out in the tent and get an overview of the area and maybe consider options for the next day. If it’s not too windy I can open it on a high point and identify distant features and get a general view of the landscape around me too.
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| My 2010 smartphone on the Pacific Northwest Trail |
If I do any typing on the smartphone it’s usually just short texts. My fingers just aren’t made for tiny virtual keyboards. I don’t like writing anything much longer than a few sentences on a phone. The exception is on multi-day walks when I want to write blog posts or send updates to The Great Outdoors. Then I have no choice but to use my smartphone. It’s hard work! I’ve been doing this since my Pacific Northwest Trail thru-hike in 2010, the first walk on which I took a smartphone (here’s an example) and it hasn’t become any easier even though smartphones are quite a bit bigger now.
My main photography is done with a mirrorless camera with the smartphone as a backup. This is another area where I love digital. Having discovered a few unused rolls of film last year and still having some film cameras I tried film photography again for a while and was reminded why I really like digital and was very happy to stop using film. (See this post). Alex Roddie however has fallen in love with film and old film cameras and is producing some lovely photos.
Since 2010 I’ve used Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras. The basic design hasn’t changed much, which is good as it means that when I get a new one, as I did earlier this year (see this post), it’s familiar and I can quickly learn how to use it. There may be better cameras. I don’t know. And really I don’t care. My cameras do the job I require and that’s what’s important. They’re a means to an end and as long as the results are fine and I can achieve them easily then they’re doing their job, just like the notebook and pen, and the PC, and the sheets of paper. Just tools.
Was quite interested to read this and in general to find out how people work. As you say, there is no correct answer and what works for some will not for others. I use a rather chaotic combination of tools for recording notes depending on what I'm doing, but I do find it easiest to think with a pen and paper somehow. Recently though, when I was just updating a few routes from a previous edition of a walking guidebook, I found it very easy to copy and paste the basic text into my phone notes and edit changes as I went along - it obviously needed a lot of tidying up, but it was quite convenient. I don't really like to rely on my phone for many things other than emergency calls (it's not waterproof/the battery life isn't great etcetc), but I'll do this again if the weather allows. I also doubt I'll ever change camera too dramatically - I taught myself how to use it and it's now in my muscle memory even though the buttons have worn away - it's been through so much with me now I feel quite lost without it, even though (as a DSLR) it is not very compact or light.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I haven't ever updated a guidebook. Copy and pasting the text and then editing it on the phone sounds great - I'll do that if I ever do revise one. With cameras I changed to mirrorless when my DSLR broke so I had to get a new camera (that model was long gone) and decided to go for something smaller and lighter.
DeleteVery interesting as always. Those Sony cameras are good and you have had a lot of work published with them! Do you shoot raw and do you edit much in Lightroom? Plus any issues with dust on sensor? I remember long ago you mentioned a notebook for writing notes can't remember what called. I took once or twice but then never used so saved the weight. A night in camp ttpe video might be something we coils look at what you do from settling in to falling asleep.
ReplyDeleteI shoot raw Tony. And edit them in DXO Photolab 6 and/or Lightroom. Photolab 6 is better for processing noisy or high contrast images. That video idea sounds good.
DeleteOn dust, yes it is an issue and has been with every NEX/a6000+ camera I've had - five models. If I change lenses often I have to clean the sensor often. On long walks I usually take two camera bodies with a lens on each and no spare lenses so I don't need to change lenses.
DeleteFascinating Chris and as usual so wise. I entirely agree that approaches depend on what works for you. I try many bits of technology and used to explain to baffled, incredulous students how, in the 1970s, I wrote my PhD and first book without a computer, using a complex card indexing system and a typewriter. I would not want to still be using that system now . Like you Chris, I use a combination of approaches and tools, though my computer filing is firmly based on early lessons. I shifted to a Kindle in 2010 after a stay in an Austrian hospital without enough books to read. So I juggle with what works and enjoy trying.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, thanks. I wrote my first book on an Amstrad computer then printed it out to send to the publisher.
DeleteI loved reading this. One method missing is voice notes - I like to make recordings as I walk or sometimes at night in the tent - just on my phone - for later writing or typing up. I can speak much more quickly than I can write or type.
ReplyDeleteI tried that when researching a guidebook. Yes, I could speak much more quickly than write or type but it took far too long to write or type what I said so I gave up doing it.
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Deletere: typing on a small on screen keyboard, have you tried something like Google's GBoard with glide typing enabled whereby you don't have to remove your finger from the screen? It's clever enough to figure out what you mean despite your finger sliding across the keyboard.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I have tried GBoard - it came with my phone. I prefer Swiftkey. I think the size of the keyboard is the problem though.
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