I am a college graduate student pursuing my doctorate degree. I grew up always using pencil and paper/notebook as a way to jot down important note as i am sure many have also done. However, every time a new school year starts, there is always a mad rush to the store to purchase a new supply of loose paper and a stack of new notebooks. What happens to the old notebooks? They get stacked onto a bookshelf and eventually finds its way to the trash. Never to be used or looked at again.
When laptops started to become the norm and massively available, I figured i won't be buying paper/notebooks, much less pencils or pens. Pens i lose as quickly as i get my hands on. With the emergence of the laptop, i thought note taking should be a breeze. It meant one less paper notebook i would have to purchase and carry around. It also meant i wouldn't have to remember to make sure that i put it in my bag before i left home.
Taking notes wasn't too hard as i can type pretty fast. No more stacks of paper notebooks collecting dust. One less tree will be cut down. Technology is such a wonderful thing. Then my laptop crashed. At that time, flash drives were pretty costly and the cloud was not even in existence yet. What am I going to do? Maybe i should have stuck with the traditional and conventional methods. Paper and pen seemed to be a much better option.
Much to my horror, I couldn't find the bag of pens i just recently bought. What paper/notebook i bought on sale at Walmart, i donated to one of my nephews since he uses it more than i did. Desperate times call for drastic measures. This was one of many to come. I tried to make a deal with my nephew to return the supply i gave him. He already used it.
Lucky for me all was not lost. Black Friday was but a mere weeks away. I would be able to buy a replacement laptop without breaking the bank. I was fortunate to be able to invest in a flash drive. Not bad considering if my new laptop had an accident, i still have access and backup of my files. Unfortunately I became a little too dependent on that stick. I saved more than just my class notes and papers. My collection of hard to find music and irreplaceable pictures also found its way into my flashdrive. Then i lost my flash drive.
Will this bad luck never end? Then the announcement of the cloud happened.i did not have to rely on a flash drive anymore. No matter what computer/laptop i used, i could simply save it to the cloud. I could also pull up past papers I have written and definitely not have anything to worry about. The only challenge I face though is remembering the password i use to log on with.
Currently, i do not have a laptop, school is shut down because of s major holiday, and i still have a paper to write. Black Friday is two weeks away and I still have to somehow complete a major research paper due in 1.5 weeks. WHAT am i to do?
Thank goodness for the invention of smartphones, tablets, and the cloud. I can pull up the articles i need to use from my cloud, then copy, paste or write notes onto an app which i can then save onto the cloud. When i am able to get to a computer, I can simply pull it up and construct my paper. There are tons of apps in the App store that have been created to mimic the feel of having a pen and paper in front of you. Especially with the invention of the stylus. Samsung really did a great job incorporating the stylus with their Note phones and tablets so the stylus doesn't get lost. Yes it makes things convenient somewhat.
I use apps such as Evernote and Google Keep and i love both of these apps. These apps don't quite fit the purpose i of what i am looking to accomplish in the long run. However, my quest for the one paper/pen app that i can use effectively still continues on.
