Blackberry. Bane of Productivity.

Hello, my name is Diana and I’m a crackberry addict. I go nowhere without my blackberry. My blackberry goes nowhere without me. Every date, every note, every thing I must accomplish is stored in that one, small, shiny, scratched and incredibly fickle electronic device.

In many ways the blackberry I so love has made my life much more simple than it ever had been before. There is just one calendar to consult; everything is stored there. I can add items to my grocery list in traffic, in the school parking lot, in the bathroom; anywhere my blackberry is, so are my notes. At a glance I can commit or refuse an engagement. I know when I am busy, when I am not.

But in one way — one big, important way — it has also reduced my productivity. There is something to be said for handwritten notes. Scribbled reminders, jotted lists; they fill a void and inspire a piece of me that no digital device can.

The crisp feel of paper against my skin, the way the pen glides around the curves of the fat letters my hands form, the scratch as it crosses through something completed; all simple acts, tiny gestures that resonate deeply — that calm and feed the soul.

I want to physically cross items off my list, not just select “completed” from a menu on a screen. I want to stare my goals in the face every day after I make them, not lock them away in an e-cellar to be forgotten. I want to clarify and classify and color-code. I want to restock my multi-colored sharpies, invest in a giant piece of poster board and a few journals. I want to get back to basics. I want to scrawl my dreams in technicolor and hang it on my wall.

I’m not sure how I want to do that. Whether in the form of a list of loves or visually via a life map or perhaps through the words of a life list. Maybe mine will include a little bit of all of the above, after all, a personal manifesto does sound very good to me right about now.

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I also want to cook. And I’m looking for your recommendations at Try Handmade in order to do so. Stop by, leave me a comment there. Not only will I feature your recommendations in a future column, I’ll visit your site.

Tagged as: Aspirations, Back-to-School, Chookooloonks, Dreams, Fall, Goals, Gwen Bell, life, Life Map, Love, Mind Map, Planning, Resolutions