This is my notepad it’s been you know sat on 
a few thousand times used as a wedge so my   chair wouldn’t Teeter and hopelessly 
abused in many other ways [Music]   I do I carry this thing everywhere with me in 
short it provides me with something incredibly   valuable that at least to my knowledge I haven’t 
been able to find anywhere else this all started   from a very well-meaning Nathaniel Drew 
who is kind of a notebook expert if those   even exist it is amazing to me how few people 
actually do this I was intrigued but like very   skeptical you know as as one should be because 
not everything you see on the internet is true   and I kept bumping into this with other YouTubers 
where they would experiment with taking notes   um you know with a pen and paper or writing video 
scripts with a pen and paper or scheduling or   journaling and things like that so I played around 
with it a little bit I even bought some like super   bad to the bone tactical notepads that are like 
waterproof and practically indestructible but   for some reason I just I just couldn’t quite get 
into it like I kept like starting and stopping   like start stop start stop back and forth until 
eventually I got tired of it and just quit so   I decided that it must be for a very select few 
grouped people and I was not in that select few   but then I started hearing things that I just I 
just couldn’t quite ignore for example I found a   best-selling author who wrote like every single 
memory he had as a child in a notebook as as an   adult he would go back and remember and write them 
and he literally has like shelves of notebooks   it’s like whoa or an incredibly prolific author 
now who writes his books with a pen and paper   and then has some one like convert them even 
back in history I found people like C.S Lewis   who would intentionally use ink that took longer 
to dry because it forced him to stop after every   phrase and wait and think before he wrote the 
next thing like what is going on here and now   in our fast-paced media consuming era there are a 
select few that seem to be moving back to that or   at least trying it out and despite all the fancy 
new apps and softwares coming out there’s just   this nagging thought that perhaps we are leaving 
something behind that we shouldn’t and I really   really wanted this to be me like I just loved the 
idea of the the tactile experience and expressing   my thoughts on paper and like the permanence of 
it and the feel and the sound it just oh I know   I’m such a weirdo about this but it’s the sounds 
it’s the feeling it just sounded so like cool   but I just couldn’t and that’s when 
life circumstances AKA mechanical   problems led me here to this moment to wear 
a completely absurd idea was born [Music] what if I bought a little notepad and a pen and   treated it like a phone taking 
it literally everywhere with me the rational part of my brand was 
like dude it’s the 21st century   like come on but the emotional part 
of my brain was like oh you know who   knows I mean what if something 
amazing were to happen [Music] you can guess what I decided [Music] I instantly 
fell in love with it we went everywhere together   and I never left the house without it I even 
took it a few places that I didn’t take my phone   my phone was very offended unlike my phone 
my notepad never goes dead never distracts   me and above all it has absolutely no agenda if I 
ignore it it doesn’t even try to get my attention okay this all sounds a little facetious right 
but I’m actually like dead serious and here’s why   attention attention is one of the rarest and most 
valued Commodities in our world today if you can   learn how to capture someone’s attention and hold 
it you instantly have opportunity that no one else   has and from all around us there are hundreds of 
intruders that are constantly competing for just   a tiny little slice of our attention so that they 
could fill it with their message or their product   or their ideas and what’s interesting is often the 
best and most useful technological tools that we   have are oftentimes the best at capturing our 
attention so you’re probably wondering like um   are you like anti-media or something here Austin 
uh no I mean I’m I’m kind of a YouTuber so would   kind of defeat the purpose but I do trust and 
acknowledge that businesses that spend you know   millions of dollars learning how to best capture 
my attention are probably really really good at   it like that is their business I’ll give you an 
example and tell me if you can relate to this or   not but uh have you ever have you ever picked up 
your phone to do something specific like you know   send a message or or make a note or look something 
up and within like three seconds you had no idea   like you had completely forgotten why you picked 
up your phone in the first place and if that’s   ever happened to you then that’s a prime example 
of you you stepping in to use a a tool to further   your own agenda but instead you gotta hijacked by 
something that looked a little bit more enticing   in the moment in a completely derailed what you 
were originally trying to do at least for the   moment but if you’re you know trying to avoid a 
problem or not face something that you should be   facing and you just wanted a quick distraction 
it’s great for that but what it’s not great for   is organic thinking and here we come to the most 
important thing that this little notepad offers   me that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else 
one of the first things I noticed when I started   carrying this thing around with me is it provided 
me with a place to just spill organic Thoughts   with zero like get that zero potential to ever 
be distracted or for outside ideas to mingle with   my own and by organic thinking I’m specifically 
defining that as like something that only pertains   to you that you don’t want any other ideas to be 
mixed with and speaking from past experiences this   could be anything from you know making a grocery 
list that I’m sure my friend Zach remembers   um to you know trying to process emotions and 
figure out why I’m angry at a friend or another   aspect of this is putting down creative ideas 
because a creative idea can come very quick   and it can just pop into your head and if there’s 
any kind of distraction you can lose that at least   I can and I just I can’t count how many times 
I’ve picked up my phone to write down a creative   idea that I’ve had and just completely lost it 
because something caught my attention or something   distracted me before I could get it all and that 
is really really frustrating honestly and there’s   one more aspect of this that I think is really 
really important and it’s worth mentioning it’s   like have you ever have you ever forgot to take 
your phone somewhere with you like for a couple   of hours not that you had it with you but on 
silent but you you literally didn’t even have it   with you if you’re anything like me there there’s 
something different about physically being removed   from something that can distract you like your 
phone versus just having it like with you but on   silent it’s like suddenly your brain like realizes 
oh there’s like literally no possible way for me   to be distracted or pulled in that direction 
and it seems like it redirects your focus onto   other things like your surroundings another way of 
thinking about it is it at least for me it keeps   me from sleeping with one eye open as it were 
you know like where you’re that analogy of like   sleeping and you’re always just like you’re always 
aware like just in case something pops up that you   you need to be alert for that’s kind of what it 
feels like sometimes and so when you remove that   completely it’s it’s literally gone then suddenly 
energy refocuses and that’s something that again   using this really does very well is it it removes 
any of those distractions and it actually allows   your brain to refocus that energy and this is huge 
because this can literally make the difference   of solving or jeopardizing a solution or creative 
idea okay so I’ve been wandering around with this   notepad and pen in my pocket for several months 
now sometimes I go a week without even using it   it doesn’t care sometimes the table is out 
of balance at a restaurant so I stick it   underneath the leg to keep it from wobbling 
seriously it couldn’t care less now I don’t   use this for everything obviously there are some 
stuff that is wildly impractical for me to use   a notepad for and now my phone or my laptop 
just does way better at and so it’s not even   a question in that regard but when something pops 
up that makes me stop and go oh that’s important   nine times out of ten I will at least during the 
discovery phase of an idea I will often choose   a medium where it is literally impossible for any 
other agenda other than my own to be present where   nothing will mix with my idea this will cost you 
one dollar so feel free to try it out for a few   weeks and just see if it works for you what I 
love to do is whenever I’m in a group and then   like everybody’s on their phones and it’s all 
bored and stuff instead of pulling out my phone   I’ll pull out my notepad and just start writing 
it’s amazing like literally no one sees it coming