I’m typing this on a device called an AlphaSmart. It’s a very basic word processor – five lines of text, 47 letters wide. That’s all this thing does, process words. I carry the newest phone, have a smart watch, my house is smarter than me, and I upgrade my computers way too often. I must have the latest HD shininess. This thing, in contrast, looks just as low tech as it is: a keyboard and an LCD screen. Why would a technophile such as myself use an antiquated single purpose device you ask? Simple, it keeps me focussed.
Here’s the thing. If I’m on my computer I tend to have 5-7 browser tabs open, my Outlook is open usually, MightyText, Twitter, and at least 4 terminal windows. I want to be a monotasker but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. I’m easily distracted, so I try to focus on the thing I’m mainly doing. My line of work isn’t conducive to this work style, but I try. I don’t text when I’m talking to people, I don’t email during customer meetings, and I will politely ask to find a stopping point in whatever I’m working on if you walk up and need my attention. Facilitating connectedness my entire career has caused some pretty bad habits though, and this thing is a nice break. I can get the words out of my head, while my head is quiet, and edit it later.
When I’m just getting thoughts on paper, having a device that can only get thoughts on paper (or rather a calculator looking screen) is perfect. It lasts a year on 3 AA batteries and it stores a few hundred pages of text that I can then transfer to my computer by connecting a USB cable- it emulates a keyboard, then it “types” everything into Word. Quaint, right? It doesn’t chime when I get an email, I can’t decide to check Twitter, play Trivia Crack, or Google whether Tecumseh fought on the American or British side of the War of 1812. I can only write.
I’ve said before that I want everything in my bag to do two things. Is the fact that it keeps me focussed and allows me to process words two things, or is that cheating? Probably the latter, but I’ll take the trade-off. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve to got to see what emails, texts, IMs, and Tweets I have been ruthlessly ignoring for this 15 whole minutes of monotasking goodness.
