Guest post series - 'Filohax' No.3 - Paul

Thanks again to Paul for this third instalment of his guest post series. 

You can find all the 'Filohax' posts here.

 

Why modern technology doesn't satisfy

Julie Ann raised an interesting point recently about how electronic devices and systems don't 'satisfy' some of us in the way that physical planners do. This got me thinking about why this might be. Drawing only from my own experiences of using Filofaxes in my early career, then becoming an early adopter of PDAs, then Apple Mac based organisational systems - and now relatively recently returning to Filofax - I feel like I have a good perspective on the subject. 

We are all both psychological AND physical beings, and however much we might think that we are more 'advanced' now, we have the same biology now as our hunter gatherer forbears did. To survive they also had to 'conceptualise' throughout the day, but turned that into hand to eye coordination moving through physical territories.

What I have realised is that my Filofax is 'my territory', and just like back then, I have such a thorough knowledge of the 'territory' that I can go into it (navigate to a section) manage a crop with tools (write up an idea or notes with a tool - a pen!), or harvest out of the territory what I need (retrieve information). For me the Filofax represents a massively scaled down territory and the physical act of opening and turning pages / dividers / writing feels natural, as interacting with the real territory did all those hundreds of generations ago. 

That's not to say that newer technologies can't play a part, of course a physical planner can't send or receive emails, take calls or post to social media - but together they are an improvement over either one used on its own. I suppose REAL progress lies in staying grounded in an increasingly virtual world…

 

My Cavendish and my newly rediscovered Slimline Finsbury collating my Moleskine sketchbook collection