Rocketing rocket books, Batman

(I’ve decided it’s only good for a diary.)

Yes, another 21st century toy. Though I think iterations of the Rocket Book have been around for a while (I’m thinking Smart Moleskines).

I’m not keen to commit to an Apple Pencil as I know I will lose it once the habit is firmly established and once my son, who puts everything away neatly in this house, leaves home.

I fancied the Rocket Book was worth a shot, but maybe I should have gone for a free trial only.

This week I used it for GTDs, and felt at first that I enjoyed wiping off the page after I had recopied undone items onto a fresh list.

But I find the morning of getting these thoughts down that I am feeling a little resentful, as though something is missing somehow, and it’s true. I have forgotten what I got done. Oh the horror.

Of course one could alleviate this by sending a snap of each list to Dropbox (or any other account one has specified in the Rocketbook app). And often my To Dos are just ripped up anyway.

But the other annoying things are:

• Waiting for the ink to dry. It is supposed to only take fifteen seconds, and while writing a diarythat wouldn’t matter much. As I told myself the other day in a screed tapped out at a cafe, that could be a reflective practice (what have I written? what if I forget what I want to write on the next page…?)
• Cleaning off the book – the pages take a while to dry, which I’ve alleviated by clever placement of a microfibre cloth or two.

Yes, the management of electric scans is quite beautiful. But these two physical constraints make it a bit of a business.

And while I did manage to enjoy the sense that I was saving some paper, I think more will be achieved by using this book for diary notes. in other words, I’m looking forward to wasting electricity rereading digitised handwriting one day, instead of keeping several boxes of notebooks. (Hmmm might need two screens to do this well. Oh my goodness.)

It’s quite frightening putting a large box of diary notes into storage, just because a writing teacher friend thinks they may have something in them. Yes, they might. But so does my head, most days.

Rocket Book diary keeping has the advantage of providing a quick reread before you store – I’ve already wiped out quite a few false starts, the kind of note where you’re writing crossly “where is my FOOD/COFFEE and why are those children allowed to have large plates of food under the table. That poor waitress keeps looking at them, why doesn’t she say something to the parents…”

And as for picking up the wrong pen and beginning to make indelible marks…oh dear, oh dear. Approach Rocket books with caution, if you’re as carefree and messy as me.

Maybe you’re already a convert and have something to say here…