Always distracted by the “toys”
I am an app addict.
Just when I get cozy with one app; I need a theme or extension or just a new experience.
I have gone from real index cards, bullet journals, tiddlywiki, feather wiki, trillium, zettlr, and now on Logseq. Then back and forth between analog and digital.
This movement gets in the way of the actual work; and unfortunately it’s worse for straight fiction- writing.
Anyone else have this problem? Suggestions?
PS: I tried hypernomicon too; and the only great thing it has is the name- so cool!
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
I greatly sympathize with what you are saying, although I'm not afflicted to the same extent as you describe. This may sound odd, but I think you need to decide what you really are trying to accomplish.
Is your genuine desire to hop about from one app to another and have fun learning the different ways one can capture and store information? If so (and nothing is wrong with that), I say "have at it" and enjoy the process. Many people do. Don't feel guilty about not accomplishing what others call the "real work" of zettelkasting, because that is not your objective.
If, on the other hand, you really want to build and manage a knowledge database, and if all these side trips are indeed distractions, then you need to find a way to be less distracted and more disciplined. That's easy to say but could be very difficult to do. I don't think there is any simple recipe for that. Perhaps start by figuring out why you want to create a Zettelkasten (i.e., its purpose or purposes?) and then write some long-term and shorter-term goals, regularly track your progress and hold yourself accountable to accomplish them. But if you've practised bullet journalling, then you should know how to do that.
Like many of us, I suspect you are somewhere between these two extremes. You'd like to do some of both. The goal-setting and accountability exercise should help you determine when you are excessively distracted and need to buckle down to the more serious work. Who doesn't enjoy an occasional side trip to discover new software? That is how I started using Logseq. But you might limit yourself as to the frequency and length of these side-trips and otherwise find ways of measuring your progress towards meeting realistic goals in your knowledge management work.
Funny I use logseq as well. It looks like I am settling down with it. If it had a long form way of writing (like zettlr but without the annoying giggling words), I would never look anywhere else.
You have an excellent point on the focus, and it is changing the way I think about the process. When I want to play with an app, Ill play with an app. When I build the Archive, I build the Archive.
This morning I just gave the graph a new theme (nord) and kept going. It enough. But dangit logseq get us some sort of manuscript writing eh?
paper
.
I hear a lot of people who share your opinion, that block-based apps aren't suitable for longform writing.
I don't have issues doing so in my current app (Remnote), which is also block-based. Which makes me wonder if I'm missing something...
Could you elaborate on why logseq isn't good for long form?
There are several ways around the blocks in logseq. Focus mode and some other tweaks do turn it into "writing software". But in normal mode every return get you into another bullet.
I have no doubt that someone can write a thesis within a bullet (and it has word count within that block too) but I'm not sure I can. Maybe I will try?
I looked at RemNote, alas not opensource, and a (ugh) payment plan. With some digging I did find out that logseq is one of it's best alternatives. I think the whiteboard could do it. Logseq only does flashcards, that are (annoyingly) literal student chemistry test flashcards.
It's a matter of developing an habit and a discipline, and focus on reading and writing, I don't see other ways.
I've often read that physical systems, like an analog zettelkasten, are distraction free, but if you put your smartphone near your slip box here we go again...
I can suggest the first videos in this channel: they are focused on how to limit distractions. They refer to Obsidian but can be easily translated to another tool.
https://www.youtube.com/@ChelleMeadowsConsulting/videos
Stay on an app for several weeks, start with basic default features, search a new feature when you need, rather than as the main purpose of your work.
Remnote is great (even the free version) but yeah I much prefer open source. I'm planning on moving over to logseq eventually.
For long form, I just tag the parent block as #long , and I have a simple custom css that hides the bullets for all children.
So each paragraph is a block
How to write in Logseq? It's simple - ignore the bullet points. I do it all the time.
Blocks/bullets are useful in many ways but don't have to get in the way. Just think of each block as a new paragraph.
Actually since this discussion is a Zettel-app fusion.
The bullets on logseq is what killed my using Zettlr, they don't translate well on the second app. The words jiggle and dance while I type, which is very very annoying.
I went through this, too. I deal with it by focusing on the result, not the app. Some principles:
I completely sympathize as I've been having an ongoing love triangle between Bear (UX), Obsidian (confidentiality) and Evernote (features) for years. I echo @georgeraraujo 's suggestion: inventory the features that really matter to you, realize that no app will do everything perfectly, and settle for the lesser of evils.
You have the permission to play with and explore new toys, on this mandatory, steadfast rule: you do not change tools until the current project is over.
"A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it." - Ernest Hemingway
PKM: Bear + DEVONthink, tasks: OmniFocus, production: Scrivener / Ableton Live.