Going mobile

micahredding

Two years into having a kid, and one week into losing my laptop to a water spill, I decided that the future was mobile.

For the past several years, I’ve been primarily using and writing notes on my laptop. When I needed to access these notes on the go, I used 1Writer. I treated this as a read-only exercise. I didn’t really trust the syncing, and so I would use Drafts to jot down something that I wanted to add to my notes later. 1Writer was initially terrible for searching 10,000 files, and so made even read-only access somewhat pointless. However, a note to the developer improved things significantly, and then learning to sort by title rather than by other attributes, made 10,000 notes workable. Still, this was always going to be my last resort platform.

I’ve loved timestamp prefixes, and have used some version of them on my files for probably at least 15 years. Zettelkasten folks were instrumental in getting me to drop seconds, and use a minute-based timestamp as a kind of universal ID. However, working with these prefixes was always somewhat difficult even on an 11- or 13-inch screen. And it was nearly impossible on mobile. So again, mobile was my platform of last resort.

Having a kid made all of this untenable. Holding a sleeping baby is not a good time to be using a laptop, but it is a fine time to be using a phone. A child playing quietly in the corner is inevitably distracted if a laptop is pulled out. The units of concentration available with a kid around are largely mobile- and social-media shaped. I suspect this is part of the reason for the popularity of social media. And yet, I would prefer to be using such interstitial moments for deep reading and long-form writing.

It took me two years to accept that this can only be done by giving up the priority of computers over phones. I kept holding out for my old patterns of attention to reemerge. I’m no longer sure they ever will. The majority of my time available to spend on reading and writing may very well come in the form of small screens and in-between moments. How I use that time is going to be significant.

Ironically, this suggests a liaison between paper and phone. Paper books and paper notebooks are often already in a mobile-friendly format. They lend themselves to being dropped and resumed quickly. And while paper books are faster to read, paper notebooks are slower to write. In this way, they are like phones, enforcing a discipline of slowed-down, ruminative writing.

The key is to have the infrastructure available to lean into this. Paper books require bookmarks. Paper notebooks require pens. And working to analyze and synthesize concepts across a large number of notes, requires affordances for the platform you will actually be using.

I don’t know my or anyone else’s future. But the evidence I’ve seen points in the direction of increasingly interstitial and mobile technology. And if that can be used, not for mindless entertainment, but to support rich and meaningful thought, then I think this may actually reawaken and reinvigorate older styles of cognitive work.

For me, that means starting my note system from scratch.

I’m currently using Obsidian mobile. I’m writing more slowly, composing long-form text using only my thumbs. I’m exploring ways to read dense PDFs on my phone.

And mainly, I’m confronting the assumptions I had when I thought a laptop was going to be the main place “real work” would occur. I no longer think this is a safe or reasonable assumption. Instead, I’m working on discovering what’s next.

mlbrandt

I have developed a system using Google drive for my ZK. It lets me be mobile, on my computer, or on any computer I can log in to. This might be the incentive for me to describe it in a post in more detail!

GeoEng51

@micahredding
A couple of ideas that might prove helpful to you:

1. I use a device called "Supernote", which is excellent for paper-like writing on an electronic device. One of the models comes in 5.5" by 7.5" size which I find perfect for carrying around and taking notes at random times. I like handwriting and it certainly slows down the process in a good way. What might be of interest to you is that one type of file that exists in Supernote can be automatically converted to text (selected text, whole pages or the entire file) and this works superbly. So if you want to take notes on the go and then port them to The Archive or some other electronic Zettelkasten software, you are all set up and ready to go.
2. I too have used 1Writer and quite like it. I create my zettels in The Archive and store the resulting text files on Dropbox. When I'm on the road, I access and edit those files on my iPhone or iPad using 1Writer. It works well. However, I prefer to create zettels in The Archive using one of @Will 's Keyboard Maestro macros, which provides a standard zettel template and saves time.
3. I use PDF Expert for reading PDF files on computer or mobile device. I found I could highlight text and then export just the highlighted text and import into a zettel (as a quote; another idea from @Will ). Recently I see that PDF Expert has added an AI component that will summarize text or highlight based on keywords, etc. I haven't really checked that out yet and I don't intent to start taking AI generated text and pasting it into my zettels, but I thought the tool might somehow prove to be useful and may be an improvement over simply exporting highlighted text.

ctietze

@micahredding That's interesting! I'd love to hear more about your kid- and parenting-friendly setup as you develop it

Eink tablets

The Supernote company @GeoEng51 mentioned just released a smaller model Supernote A6 X2, see first impressions by an eink reviewer.

Eink pen tablets have also been discussed here: https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/2483/tablet-for-zettelkasten -- and as a tinkerer I'm still in the Onyx Boox camp because you can install Android apps for any sync service and don't need first party (manufacturer) support for Nextcloud, for example.

Sascha

Did you try standing for work? I did a lot of writing while my daughter was in a front carrier. I used a box on my desk to elevate it. Right now, I can do whatever as long as my computer is not on the same level. When she wants to look, I take her for a couple of moments on my lap or on my arm. Slowly, she is desensitizing. Coupled with not letting her smashing her hands on my keyboard, it works pretty well.

micahredding

Did you try standing for work? I did a lot of writing while my daughter was in a front carrier. I used a box on my desk to elevate it. Right now, I can do whatever as long as my computer is not on the same level.

Elevation did help. Keeping a laptop on a high table made it a lot less distracting to him than when I had it on my lap. Eventually he learned to climb up, and wanted to see what I was doing, though. I haven’t tried fully standing up.

zk_1000

Is working one handed a priority or do you use both hands for writing?

Out of curiosity, do you intend to replace stationary workplaces entirely? Do you have a need for offline work? I'm still reluctant to go mobile.
I've lost a note while being on my phone, due to context switching. I still don't know what happened, but the note is gone 😐
It seems like phones are still better for playing games than doing work.

micahredding

@zk_1000 said:
Is working one handed a priority or do you use both hands for writing?

I write with both thumbs on my phone. I’d love to figure out how to write one-handed. I sometimes fantasize about learning to use chorded keyboards.

Out of curiosity, do you intend to replace stationary workplaces entirely?

Regretfully, yes. Over the long term. It seems to me like an increasingly limited modality to be wedded to. I don’t yet know how I will fully get there, however.

It seems like phones are still better for playing games than doing work.

There are big limitations right now. Mostly keyboard and screen size. But also some things around “hackability” that are really hard to adjust to.

I’m sure there are some other (lacking) affordances that I’m not quite able to put my finger on.

On the other hand, there are some obvious advantages of mobile. And I’m exploring ways to push the mobile platform beyond current defaults. Using multiple phones simultaneously, combining phone and other mobile devices, etc.

I don’t know where this leads, but for now, it seems like the frontier I have to learn how to survive in. That takes a bit of burning the boats.

zk_1000

You should try swipe, it's easy to learn and works one handed. Swipe is an input method on the default keyboard shipped with android .

GeoEng51

@zk_1000 said:
You should try swipe, it's easy to learn and works one handed. Swipe is an input method on the default keyboard shipped with android .

I'll second this suggestion. My son showed me this feature. It is a default keyboard on both Android and iOS. I use it all the time now. The only thing you have to watch out for is the spell-checker, which is true no matter what your method of input.

zk_1000

I think it's funny seeing a laptop as stationary. On one hand it's hard to believe a laptop can't satisfy our demand for mobility, on the other, it's not.

When we talk about mobile work we picture a person with a cup of coffee, tablet and headset, sitting on a bench in a park with beautiful scenery.

Nobody really talks about what it feels like working there at night at -10 °C, pouring rain and strong winds.

Do we romanticise mobile work? What does the future look like?

Nori

As someone with a six-year-old and a two-year-old, I can totally feel you. I have spent a lot of time in the last years reading and writing on my phone. I definitely second the swiping, it’s the fastest one-handed way of writing on a small touch keyboard.

But on the other hand, I would say hang in there and don’t burn any bridges. Kids change constantly, and sooner than you know things will be different. The comfort and possibilities of a proper computer are difficult to replicate on a smartphone without adding so much hardware that it’s hardly mobile anymore. I still read a lot on the phone, but, thank gods, my kids now give me enough space and time that I don’t feel the need to do much writing on it anymore and use a laptop or desktop for that.