Walnut Analog card stand with matching pen tray and clear hourglasses with black sand on walnut desk.

Analog productivity

Lately I've been shifting my day-to-day productivity process to more physical and analog tools.

I still love a digital second brain for personal knowledge management, and it's still the best digital workplace I've experienced.

But, GitJournal, the app I used to sync and edit my second brain on my phone, has had some Git diffing issues for a while now. As a result, I haven't been able to access my second brain on my phone. This has really tanked my use of it, especially for task management.

Open to switching things up, I got a pack of Analog cards by Ugmonk in a recent order and was excited to try a different task management approach.

Physical task management

I've been a fan of Ugmonk for years now. In 2021, we partnered with them to provide the beautiful example product imagery for the Tailwind UI Ecommerce components I built.

After trying my first pack of Analog cards for a week, I really liked the thoughtful design, simplicity, and always-present nature of having my task list visible on my desk instead of tucked behind another window on my screen.

I felt very focused and productive, motivated by checking off each item in front of me. It's ridiculous how filling in an empty circle can be motivating, but I'll take it.

After this trial period, I decided to order the actual Analog starter pack, which comes with 3 refill packs and a walnut card stand. I also went for the matching walnut pen tray for the best pen ever, the uniball Roller 0.5mm. Fight me.

Walnut Analog card stand and matching pen tray.

True, I can make a task list on an index card and skip the walnut accessories. But there's value in having nice objects to look at throughout the work day, and to appreciate good design while crafting things in my own work. I spend at least half of my waking life in my home office, so it's important to me to enjoy my space and only have objects that bring me joy.

Hourglass pomodoro

As part of leaning in to physical productivity tools, I also purchased some hourglasses to do the Pomodoro Technique.

Since a Pomodoro interval is 25 minutes, I ordered 2 hourglasses by Hightide: a 30 minute hourglass and a 5 minute hourglass.

30 and 5 minute clear hourglasses with black sand.

At the start of each interval, I flip both hourglasses over.

The 5 minute hourglass is for my break, which I use to get water, walk around, do some stretches, or do some workout sets with the kettlebell, maces, and olympic rings I have in my office.

When the 5 minute hourglass is done, the remaining 25 minutes of the 30 minute hourglass is for work. When that hourglass is done, I repeat the interval.

I verified these hourglasses are accurate to within a few seconds, which is pretty impressive.

Erasable paper

My design process typically involves physical UI sketches and then immediately jumping into code to design the browser. I like to annotate these UI sketches with notes, questions, and other ideas to get most of my ideas and explorations out before switching to digital tools.

I've used these erasable sheets by Swipies for about 7 years now and they've helped up perfectly. The Staedtler fine point pens allow me to be detailed in my sketches. I'll then take a photo of the sheet to reference later, and erase it using some water.

Erasable paper sheets with dot grid and a fine point felt pen.

I also use these sheets around the house for taking measurements, sketching interior design ideas, and woodworking, so I keep them on a clipboard.

My analog productivity takeaways

This shift has created some nice benefits to my work. I used to do a lot of drawing and oil painting, so returning to more physical thinking engages more of my creative brain. It also adds some nice variety to my fully digital career.

It's worth it to invest in well-designed objects. They make my workspace look nicer, offer mini breaks from screen time, add a more tactile experience to my day, and give my eyes something more interesting to gaze at while thinking. I'm a minimalist, so whatever items I do own should add value to my life and be well made. And, as someone who does woodworking and used to do packaging design, it's nice to have thoughtfully made objects around as inspiration.

After using this setup for the past couple weeks, I'm excited to keep going along this path, and I'll provide updates with any iterations.