Apps

I am addicted to my electronic devices.  There I said it.  I've been honest with you.  That's not the point of this post.  The point of this post is how apps work.

On my iPad, I have four or five note taking apps.  I have the ever awesome Evernote.  It is the primary place where I put things.  I'm working to move all of my paper files into Evernote.  It is really the place where everything can be.  I like the interface, its easy to use, what more could I want?

Today I downloaded the Moleskine notebook app.  If you are into cool things, you certainly know about Moleskin journals.  They are overpriced, leather bound, quality paper journals that come in many fashionable colors, sizes and paper styles.  It is the journal that I have been using for my hand written journal now for probably 5 or 10 years.  I do my best to find them on clearance at the bargain books store because I can't stomach the $15 pricetag other places.

Because I use one in real life, I figured I would give the digital version a whirl and see what it could do.  In the few minutes I messed with it this afternoon, I was rather impressed.  It has the ability to do many, many notebooks, all cool looking on a shelf with color coding and your choice of digital paper--lines, no lines, storyboard boxes, graph paper, and weekly agenda.  What more could one want?  Even more, you can type through a keyboard, like I am doing now, or there is a handwriting function that will allow you to draw, paint, write, puke, and what not on the page.  Then, if you get all the settings right, you can sync it to Dropbox or Evernote.  I haven't tried it yet.  I didn't want to lose too much time in messing with it.

As I was screwing around with the app, I came to this realization.  I've had three or four of these apps on my iPad at any given time.  Each time I installed one, I thought, "This will give me a place to write and so on when I have down time or I need to write without distraction, like that is even possible.  The problem is, I never use them.  I have good intentions to use them, but I never do.

I think that is the hangup I have with my electronic devices.  Everything is always new and shiny.  Developers are always updating things and making new apps that make me believe I'm going to be more productive.  I think I am going to get more done and be more efficient, when in reality, all I do is waste more time being wowed by the shiny appeal rather than being undistracted.

So, thank you Moleskine app.  I don't know how helpful you are going to be in my life, since I already have the ever powerful Evernote.  But, you did engage me enough to spend some time to blog, which I needed to do.

What else should I do....where's my iPhone?