Ben David Trigg

I ‘ve just spent maybe a month trying to tune up and craft digital systems to help me think and plan and get my work done.

If I could just get the right combination of systems – calendars, notes, to-dos etc., – all to work together seamlessly to show me what I need, when I need it, well, the universe would sing, everything would come into alignment and the stars would rejoice. Or something.

Problem is, I could never get there. Either I’d be wrangling with plug-ins for one app to see if my task deadlines could show up in my digital calendar, or else I’d be spending hours watching videos on how to build from scratch an entire ‘digital brain’ that could ‘do it all’ – with a lot of friction involved (usually including a lot of scripting and so on).

And at bottom, I still, always, felt stressed.

Until this afternoon.

And then I found the *perfect app*. I’m kidding. I did not find the perfect app. I sat down this afternoon with my trusty notebook, cracked open a fresh page, and wrote ‘November’.

After all, it is still only just the start of November.

And I wrote down all the big things that are happening this month, and all the things I need to make sure I get done this month, with a few arrows and things to denote deadlines and such like. And the universe did sing, and everything did come into alignment, and I breathed again, and felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders.

The problem is, I know what my brain does. After a while, it says, ‘yeah, but that’s a bit slow, isn’t it? I mean, are you really going to keep track of all the important things you have to do – because, you know, you are so important – in a notebook? Really? You’ll forget something. Or you’ll get frustrated that you can’t click a button to mark something done. You need to open this app and that app and put everything in there. Go on. It’s shiny. It’s on that nice screen right there. Tap it. Taaaap iiiiit . . . ‘

Etc. etc.

And the thing I need to remind myself of, when my brain says that, is that when I have to slow down to process what’s in my notebook, that’s the whole point. Slowing down. Nothing good ever arrived in a hurry. But more than that, it engages my brain with my life and commitments in a way that screens and digital interactions simply cannot.

Blog reboot: The Deep Life

I’ve not been writing too much on the blog in recent years. Ideally, it’s time for a reboot. Or this may simply be a flash in the pan. But in the age we live in I think someone has to be talking about digital distractions versus discipline, about how technology interacts with our humanity, and we with it. I’m fascinated with the concept of crafting a deeper life, through slowing down, taking time, going ‘deep’ on interests and learning, producing lasting works of value, focusing on quality rather than quantity.

This is my marker in the sand; not just for me, to remind myself whenever I’m tempted by the ‘shiny’, that there’s a deeper, older part of my humanity that wants to live with the analogue; but also for you, the reader, whoever you are, and an invitation to join me on a quest to live a deeper life in an age increasingly characterised by shallowness.

I may write about the nuts and bolts of how I use a notebook to get life done. I may write about concepts surrounding our interaction with technology, or how that affects discipleship for Christians. I may just write about books I’m reading because, if you want to live a deeper life, where better to start than to read, and digest, books?

Maybe I’ll look like I’m wandering around with my head in the clouds. But, as Tolkien wrote (and as the writers of Amazon’s The Rings of Power series adapted the phrase): not all who wonder or wander are lost.