Paper vs digital spreads - what side are you on after trying both?

So I was at a coffee shop last week and overheard this girl say her bullet journal was 'too precious' to actually use, so she switched to a cheap spiral notebook. That got me thinking because I've been going back and forth between my Leuchtturm and a GoodNotes setup on my iPad for about 3 months now. On one hand, paper feels more creative and helps me remember stuff better, but on the other hand, digital lets me move collections around and search for things in seconds. I'm curious, for those of you who have tried both ways, which one actually stuck for your daily tracking and why?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray_burns10d ago

Used to think the whole "too precious" thing was just a mindset problem, like just get over it and write in the nice notebook. Then I bought a fancy hardcover that cost me like 40 bucks and literally couldn't bring myself to make a single mistake in it for a month. Ended up grabbing a 3 dollar composition book from the drugstore and suddenly I was filling pages like crazy because ripping out a bad spread didn't feel like throwing money away. The freedom of not caring about perfection actually made my layouts way better in the end.

milesbarnes10d ago

$40? Man, I'd be scared to even open the cover. I think about it like a guitar. You're not gonna play your best on a $3000 Martin if you're terrified of scratching it. My best riffs came from a beat-up Squier I found in a pawn shop. That cheap notebook approach makes total sense. It's like giving yourself permission to be bad on purpose.

wadejenkins10d ago

That's an interesting point about the notebook being "too precious" to use. I have a hard time with that too, some of my nicer notebooks sit empty for months. Did the switch to a cheap spiral actually help her use it more freely, or did she end up missing the structure of a nicer book? I've found that whatever I grab has to be easy to replace, otherwise I overthink every single page.