Notes

Something Better than a Paper Notebook

  1. Written January 3, 2024

With all the tools we have to create high-context workspaces in canvases like Figjam or Obsidian, and even in our regular window environments, it’s frustrating that we’ve made it so hard to eject from all that context and have a fresh thought.

Using a paper notebook is the standard solution for this problem, but I think that’s a cop-out. It’s a failure of imagination on the part of OS creators that we’ve left this problem to a tool so separated from the getting-things-done environment.

What I want is an ephemeral content entry space, invoked with a shortcut or gesture, which assumes total focus, and is strictly for writing-to-think, with no distractions.

Close-but-not-quite solutions

Apple’s Quick Note on iPad is the closest analog in some ways. It can be invoked without unlocking the device, so it doesn’t allow any meaningful content management, but you can write or draw or start fresh with a single tap.

Launchpad (the grid of app icons that appear when you “pinch with thumb and three fingers” on macOS) is the closest analog in appearance. It fully hides the desktop and menu bar. Importantly, content isn’t dimmed or blurred, it’s fully invisible so it can’t create a distraction.

This isn’t solved by just setting iA Writer to full-screen and activating its Focus Mode. Even in full screen, the window is subject to the same constraints of every other app: it lives above the dock and below the menu bar. It has a title bar and sidebar, even if you’ve hidden them. The fact of their existence is enough to preclude its use in this way. Notifications can appear over it. It lives in among the other windows, or among the other desktops in Mission Control.

What I’m using now

I’ve tried creating an iTerm2 profile using micro, with the profile set to appear fullscreen, and a global shortcut to open the profile. I was surprised at how long it would take to open, and the text editing experience in micro added too much friction.

For now, I’m using Sindre Sorhus's Plain Text Editor, set to be "Always on top", and manually maximized to cover the desktop. The open document is untitled and not meant to be saved. I've set added a global shortcut to open it via Raycast, and I use cmd-M to hide it again.

It’s useful, but it doesn’t cover the menu bar, and I’m not sure there’s any elegant way to activate “do not disturb” when it opens, and restore to the previous Focus mode when it closes, and I’m not even sure that’s the right behavior. I think what I’m looking for may be a step beyond do not disturb. Some kind of deeper system state.

Things this definitely doesn’t address

  • Writing by hand is slower, leaving your brain more time to keep up with what you’re writing
  • Writing in a notebook creates a fixed canvas, creating a more rigid and predictable spacial environment for your notes or doodles
  • You can tear off a piece of paper and throw it away, or make a paper airplane, or make confetti, or make spitballs...

Follow-up

There are unexplored points on the spectrum between activating “Do not disturb” and picking up a pen. I remember the big push around “focus modes”, “reading mode” and “do not disturb” around 2010, and that’s a step forward, but the concept has only expanded in implementation, and not intensity.

Consider your relationship to the computer when you’re logged out: You see one or two input fields and a clear call to action. No dock, menubar, or notifications. No desktop, window management, apps, or documents. Everything else is locked away. That’s the level of focus that I’m looking for.

Flowstate is an app that deletes your content if you stop writing. The threat of your text disappearing creates an urgency and focus, if you’re willing to play along. I don’t think Flowstate addresses the same problem, but I respect the intensity of focus it creates, and I want that intensity to be more accessible to anyone.