How to Become Productive the Old-Fashioned Way.

Simple Techniques That Actually Work

In our hyperconnected world filled with productivity apps, AI assistants, and endless digital tools, we’ve forgotten something crucial: the most powerful productivity tool has always been between our ears. While technology promises to make us more efficient, it often creates more noise than clarity. The old-fashioned techniques our grandparents used weren’t just quaint habits they were cognitive powerhouses that modern neuroscience is only now beginning to validate.

Let’s explore how returning to analog methods can paradoxically make you more productive in our digital age.

The Power of Notebook Taking: Your External Brain

Putting pen to paper isn’t nostalgic it’s neuroscience in action. When you write by hand, you engage multiple areas of your brain simultaneously, creating stronger neural pathways and deeper memory encoding than typing ever could.

Here’s why notebook taking transforms your productivity:

It improves cognitive thinking. The physical act of writing forces you to process information more deliberately. You can’t transcribe everything word-for-word like you might when typing, so your brain automatically summarizes, connects ideas, and creates meaning. This active processing strengthens understanding and retention.

It saves time during execution. This is the hidden superpower of notebooks. When you’re brainstorming a digital product sketching out how it would look, mapping user flows, identifying problems it solves you’re doing the hard cognitive work upfront. Your notebook becomes a blueprint of your thinking process. Later, when you sit down with your digital tools to execute, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re implementing a vision you’ve already refined.

The execution process becomes dramatically easier and faster because you’ve separated thinking from doing. Despite all their capabilities, digital tools can do work but cannot think for you or think like you. They’re execution engines, not ideation partners. By doing your thinking in a notebook first, you arrive at your computer with clarity and direction, not confusion and false starts.

The Minimalist Approach to Digital Use

Productivity isn’t about using every tool available it’s about using the right tool at the right time. A minimalist approach to digital use means recognizing that screens are better for execution than exploration, better for production than contemplation.

Consider adopting these boundaries:

• Use digital tools only after you’ve clarified your thinking on paper
• Batch your digital work into focused sessions rather than constant switching
• Treat your devices as tools you pick up and put down, not environments you live in
• Ask yourself: “Does this need to be digital right now, or am I reaching for my phone out of habit?”

The goal isn’t to reject technology it’s to use it intentionally, after you’ve done the thinking work that only your brain can do.

Sketching and Brainstorming on Paper: Where Ideas Come Alive

They say sketching is free because all you need is paper and a pen. Simple, right? The hard part is thinking of cool, creative ideas. But here’s the secret: when you embrace the hard part, your brain adapts, and it becomes simpler over time.

Whatever you scribble or sketch becomes an extension of your thought process. There’s something almost magical about the direct connection between hand and brain—no interface, no loading time, no tools to master. You can draw arrows connecting ideas, scratch out what doesn’t work, doodle in the margins while thinking, create visual hierarchies that make sense only to you.

Using digital tools during this exploratory phase can interrupt this flow. Design software requires you to think about layers, tools, alignment, and technical execution when you should be thinking freely about concepts and possibilities. The friction of the tool itself becomes a barrier to ideation.

The goal is to use digital tools after after you’ve explored, after you’ve failed fast on paper, after you’ve found the direction worth pursuing. Then, when you move to Figma, Photoshop, or whatever your tool of choice is, you’re refining a vision, not searching for one.

Paper is where ideas are born. Digital is where they’re brought to life.

Read Hardcopy Books: Deep Focus in a Distracted World

Consuming information on devices is undeniably convenient. It’s also riddled with distractions. That notification banner, the temptation to check your email “real quick,” the infinite scroll waiting one tab away these aren’t minor interruptions. They fundamentally disrupt the process of deep reading and information absorption.

Physical books offer something increasingly rare: a distraction-free environment where your only job is to read and think. The tactile experience of turning pages creates natural breaks for reflection. There’s no hyperlink to click, no sidebar to glance at, no battery percentage to worry about.

Research shows that people who read physical books demonstrate better comprehension and retention compared to screen reading. Part of this is spatial memory you remember where on the page or in the book you encountered an idea. Part of it is simply the absence of interruption.

If you want to truly learn something, pick up the physical book. Your brain will thank you.

Embracing Boredom: The Lost Art of Letting Your Mind Wander

Perhaps the most counterintuitive productivity technique is the simplest: do nothing. Embrace boredom.

We’ve trained ourselves to fear empty moments. Waiting in line? Check your phone. Commuting? Podcast or music. Lying in bed? Scroll social media. We’ve optimized every second, filling every gap with content consumption.

But boredom isn’t the enemy of productivity it’s the birthplace of creativity and problem-solving. When your mind wanders without external stimulation, it enters what neuroscientists call the “default mode network” a state where your brain makes unexpected connections, processes experiences, and generates insights.

How many of your best ideas have come while showering, walking, or staring out a window? These aren’t random moments they’re when your brain finally has space to think without interruption.

Try this: Take a daily walk without your phone or earbuds. Sit with your morning coffee without immediately checking email. Let yourself be bored in the checkout line. These aren’t wasted moments they’re investments in the kind of diffuse thinking that leads to breakthroughs.

The Old-Fashioned Productivity Stack

Here’s what the old-fashioned approach looks like in practice:

1. Start with a notebook. Brainstorm, sketch, outline, and plan everything on paper first.
2. Read physical books for deep learning and genuine focus.
3. Use boredom as a tool. Give your brain regular breaks from stimulation.
4. Execute digitally only after you’ve clarified your thinking offline.
5. Minimize digital distractions by treating devices as tools, not companions.

The irony is that in our quest for cutting-edge productivity, we’ve overlooked the techniques that have always worked. These aren’t primitive methods waiting to be upgraded they’re optimized for how your brain actually functions.

Your notebook won’t crash. Your pen won’t need updates. Your book won’t send notifications. And your boredom might just generate your next big idea.

The old-fashioned way isn’t a step backward it’s a shortcut to the deep, focused, creative work that actually moves the needle. In a world obsessed with the new, sometimes the most productive thing you can do is reach for something old.

FAQs

References

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Mangen, A., Walgermo, B.R. and Brønnick, K. (2013) ‘Reading linear texts on paper versus computer screen: Effects on reading comprehension’, International Journal of Educational Research, 58, pp. 61-68. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883035512001127 (Accessed: 6 November 2025).

Raichle, M.E. et al. (2001) ‘A default mode of brain function’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(2), pp. 676-682. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.98.2.676 (Accessed: 6 November 2025).

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Schooler, J.W. et al. (2014) ‘Meta-awareness, perceptual decoupling and the wandering mind’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(7), pp. 319-326. Available at: https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(11)00098-1 (Accessed: 6 November 2025).

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