I think that digital formats carry a sort of weight as being official in our minds. We want to have the end product and something definitive to save or archive into a logical and organized system.

Paper on the other hand, does not carry that weight. It’s not going to become a part of our organized collection of work. This is why we’re creatively and imaginatively free to doodle and push out our abstract thoughts onto paper.

If we can synthesize the “formal” process of using a digital format to do our work with the “informal” use of paper, we can actually omit the little things clouding our mind or pursue alternative ideas as we work without having to assess how it fits in to our digital life.

I love the idea of having a blank notepad next to my computer as I work. I can write down to do’s, keywords etc and feel no obligation to ever read what I write on the paper. The only time I reference it is when I remember that I wrote something useful on the paper.