One thing I love about Paris, where I’m living for a few months, is my ability to get lost just about anywhere even though I know the city well. I lose my sense of direction, do not recognize street names, and walk in all sorts of round-about paths (apart from some places in Central Park and the West Village, that is very difficult to do in NYC!)… On the first day I arrived, I couldn’t find my apartment after an afternoon stroll and had no idea what the address was or how to contact my landlady since I’d suspended my phone/data plan service. I eventually found it through clues like the location of the Monoprix on the corner and the distinct “Gardien” sign that my landlady had pointed out to me on our way in from the airport, as well as my floor number and where my door was in relation to the elevator. This experience made me oddly pleased, because I felt like I had successfully solved my scatter-brained problem in an old-fashioned way. I will happily pick up my Blackberry upon returning to New York in February, but the knowledge that the world doesn’t end if I can’t quickly look up a map or contact someone for help is comforting.

The traffic volume on our available communication tools is overwhelming for me. Many are terrific, and I love them, including Twitter, but regardless of their benefits I find that my attention span suffers tremendously when I’m using them. By last year, I could only process many thoughts/tasks/activities at once but not one at a time, and I had stopped reading books and articles since the highlights were all I had time for. Even worse, my own output was also fragmented. I have found that taking a pause and evaluating tools more objectively has been a rewarding and fun exercise so far.

Current top tools in my evil plan:

1. Kindle. I was able to fit 50 books in my luggage this way! Although I buy a book here and from the store, I have also loaded it up with free, public-domain classics made available through Project Gutenburg.
2. JDarkRoom, hallelujah. Vim. I have re-discovered vim as a nice text editor for prose. I love not using a mouse! For blogging, there is even a nice WordPress plugin for vim which allows you to stay away from the WordPress admin in many cases.
3. Chrononotebook. 100% best favorite wonderful lovely tool in my toolkit these days; I happened upon this notebook in the Muji store in New York a couple of weeks ago. I have never been able to use a planner, but this one is amazing. I find that I can easily track upcoming appointments or reminders as well as track progress on ongoing tasks, and the key for me is that I’m actually using it (I often get excited about organization tools but don’t follow through) :/