Use More Paper - the global analog revival

Jose Briones spent 10+ hours a day on his phone. Then he changed everything. Here is how he did it and what he learned along the way.

Stop switching apps. The best productivity tool is a notebook, a pen, and the willingness to slow down and think.

After 4 months of use

Hello there, wonderful people. Happy 2026!Now, if you want to change something in your life, don’t wait for January 1st. Just change it right away. You can do it today. Start running every day, for example. It will make your life better. I’m actually running right now as I’m telling you this.A quick public service announcement: some of you were subscribed to my Digital Pragmatism Substack. I have sent one email to all of you with some secret info about a new project that I will not announce here. It’s a secret project. If you were subscribed, you will know which project it is. Please check your spam folders, because today most email goes to spam. Reply to my email or act accordingly - there is a button you have to click.Use More Paper is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Forget Goals, Set a Direction InsteadSince it’s the beginning of the year and people love to make plans and set goals, I wanted to ask you to not make plans. Don’t set goals. Actually, if you want to really set some goals, there’s a better thing to do: you can set a direction for your life.Direction is enough. If you are fairly motivated and you know you have a connection with yourself - so you pretty much know what you hate and what you like - then direction is sufficient. You will make extreme progress. Whereas if you set goals, you can be disappointed in not reaching those goals, even if the direction would be right.So I wanted to ask you not to make plans, but rather to choose one thing you will change. One thing you will do differently in 2026. This way you will have far more chances to actually reach this one thing you want to change. You are minimizing the chances of being disappointed.Welcome to the Year of Analog Productivity2026 will be the year of analog productivity, and this is what you will find here. I will tell you how I ditched my electronic devices and replaced them with paper notebooks and notepads. I will show you some of my favorite pens.This will be the leitmotif for this channel throughout the year. I will also post more interviews with people. I’ve got two of them which are being produced already. But I will also make more interviews and talk “analog” with interesting people.So, welcome. Happy 2026. Why “Use More Paper” Is the New NameNew year, new brand. But don’t worry, I will explain everything.Two months ago I was explaining to you why Amenotes is the better brand. And then, closer to one week ago, I started examining all the domains I have purchased over time. And I saw that I have an excellent domain that I completely forgot about. This domain is usemorepaper.com.Just how cool would it be to have a t-shirt with that! And then I started analyzing whether Amenotes is not a better, more fancy word. And actually came to the conclusion that no - everything I’ve been doing on this channel was leading me to saying, “Hey, use less your phone, use more paper.”I get it, of course, that there are a lot of stationery content out there. And this one will not be a stationery website (or newsletter). You can treat it as a philosophy website, maybe a lifestyle blog? I will not post reviews of notebooks. Well, I will post some of them, of course - those that I judge are excellent. But most of the time I will just share my ideas like I did until now.Use More Paper is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.What’s Coming NextWhat is also very important is that with my wife we will actually in the future want to open a physical store that will sell notebooks - excellent quality Japanese notebooks and pens. And so it makes sense to rebrand as Use More Paper.New year, new brand. Welcome. And remember: pick one thing to change this year. Just one. Set a direction, not a goal. And maybe, just maybe, consider putting down your phone and picking up a pen instead. Get full access to Use More Paper at www.usemorepaper.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

<p>You know what? Today I will share with you what are my regrets as a 10 year <a target="_blank" href="https://youtube.com/@digitalpragmatism">youtuber</a>. I'm doing YouTube for 10 years. Wow! When I look back at this journey, I realize I've made some mistakes that significantly slowed down my progress.</p><p>1 - Haters</p><p>You know what is my number one regret? My number one regret is that I thought that I should deal somehow with the haters. And actually it slowed me down in my progress for at least several years. Because I thought that I cannot just block and delete haters. I have to respond to them, address their issues somehow.</p><p>And the reality is of course no. The best way to deal with haters is to delete their comments and to block them from your channel. And on YouTube there is an excellent option that is "hide user from this channel". And so basically you are hiding the comments from everybody else. But the hater can write those comments indefinitely. And so the hater thinks that everybody else is seeing his or her comments. But actually nobody else is seeing it.</p><p></p><p>2 - Perfectionism</p><p>Another regret is that I thought that my videos have to be perfect from a technical standpoint. And this is a 50/50 regret because it allowed me to learn how to make excellent videos, very well produced. But it actually also slowed me at least several years.</p><p>And YouTube doesn't care about your quality or the quality of your video. You don't make a filmmaker channel. You don't have to have an excellent technical quality of your videos. What matters is the message that you are transmitting and the story you are telling.</p><p>If you want to invest in something at the beginning, it's far better to invest in your storytelling skills and to prepare a recording of your videos and to know what you want to tell to people than to actually work on getting a better camera, better lens and learn how to use them. Because of course it will make a difference. If your stories are not interesting or are bad, the quality of your videos will not improve that and people will not watch your channel.</p><p></p><p>3 - Branding</p><p>And the last regret of mine is that I attached too much of importance to branding. This is because I love branding. I just did what I liked to do, you know. But actually branding on YouTube is completely unimportant.</p><p>What is important is that you know whom you are talking to. And so I am talking to people who want to become digital minimalists, who want to live a fulfilling day-to-day life and not wait for 30 years being addicted to technology and to wage slavery before retiring and maybe it will happen or maybe you will die before that. So I know who I am talking to.</p><p>Whereas the branding is secondary and I have changed too many times channels, channel names, domain names, platforms where I was hosting my website. And it's completely unimportant actually. You should just choose who are you talking to and then do it and the name of the channel is secondary.</p><p>You can do it under your name. I didn't want to because I have a very difficult name. So my story is similar to the story of Gary Vaynerchuk who is known as Gary V. But the point remains - focus on your audience, not your name or logo.</p><p></p><p>Conclusions?</p><p>Looking back, I wish someone had told me to ignore the haters completely from day one. They're not your audience, and engaging with them only drains your energy and creativity. Use that block button liberally and focus on the people who actually want to hear what you have to say.</p><p>The technical quality will improve naturally over time. Start with what you have, focus on delivering value, and upgrade your equipment gradually as you grow. The most successful YouTubers didn't wait for perfect conditions - they started creating and improved along the way.</p><p>Consistency beats perfection every time. I've seen channels with basic equipment outperform technically perfect videos simply because they showed up regularly with valuable content. Your audience cares more about what you say than how polished it looks.</p><p>Remember that YouTube is about connection, not perfection. People subscribe to channels because they connect with the creator and the message, not because the lighting is perfect or the intro is professionally animated.</p><p></p><p>So if you're just starting out, or even if you've been at it for a while, learn from my mistakes. Don't waste years like I did worrying about haters, obsessing over technical perfection, or constantly rebranding. Know your audience, deliver value consistently, and everything else will fall into place.</p><p>The truth is, most of us overthink everything when we start on YouTube. We worry about what others will think, if our videos are good enough, or if our branding makes sense. But none of that matters as much as simply starting and staying consistent.</p><p>If I could go back and do it all again, I would focus exclusively on creating content for my target audience from day one. I would ignore the haters completely, use whatever equipment I had available, and stick with a simple, consistent brand identity.</p><p>So that's my advice to you after 10 years on this platform. Don't make the same mistakes I did.</p> <br/><br/>Get full access to Use More Paper at <a href="https://www.usemorepaper.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_4">www.usemorepaper.com/subscribe</a>