Paper can be better than apps

In all the years that I’ve owned a smartphone, I never found an app that fully replaces a notebook and pen. By that I mean a single app that is good for making notes, writing a to-do list, turning emails into reminders and managing upcoming events.

There’s plenty that do one of these things well on one device but nothing that works on my phone and personal and work computers.

My wife’s solution is a notebook and pen, helped by a calendar app on her phone. She carries it everywhere and she finds it more polite to use in meetings than picking up a phone.

Other people prefer the oldschool approach too.

Bill Belichick, a coach in the NFL in the United States, was recently filmed slamming his Microsoft Surface tablet during a game.

He said he tried to adapt to new technology but now planned to use paper to draw pictures of gameplays for his players.

I’m not ready to smash my smartphone yet but I am considering a return to pen and paper.

My first frustration is that I need the app to work on different types of devices as well as link to my email and calendar for work and at home.

I found several great apps for my phone but they don’t have a web-based version so I can’t use it on my work computer.

The second reason for my ongoing search is that using a device to write a short reminder often takes longer than writing it in a notebook.

I’ve tried using a digital assistant to make it faster but talking in public and a lack of accuracy means it’s a bit awkward.

I’m not the only one tempted by paper rather than apps.

Most people still seem to use traditional boarding passes rather than an app when getting on a plane.

So even though smartphones offer an app to replace nearly every paper-related task they still have quite a few limitations.

I think smartphones will triumph in the end, it’ll just take a bit longer for the technology to improve and for people to forgo old their habits.

Using a device to write a short reminder often takes longer than writing it in a notebook.