I think it was Valerie Jardin who twisted the classic saying to

the best camera is the one you take more pictures with.

While this can certainly be “the one you have with you” (including a smart phone) it may also be a big bulky, dedicated camera if it encourages you to take more photos than your phone.

I believe this is a good rule of thumb for most tools. We want tools that make us use them more. With apps for sketchnoting, some people find the powerful procreate encourages them to sketch more. Other people find the most limited paper by wetransfer gives them the creative constraints they need to draw without thinking too much. (And some people use pen and paper).

The exceptions

There are, however, exceptions to this rule. Occasions when I want to do something less often or spend less time on an activity. I like this idea, but don’t often stick to it. Take email for example. I want to spend less time in my app and check it less often. I usually remove it from my phone to help deal with that (and then reinstall when I need to access some emails, and typically forget to uninstall for a month or two). In this situation, I want to use “the best” tool as it’s such a horrible experience. But perhaps that just encourages me to use it more. Maybe if I used an application I liked less, I’d develop better habits.

Curating friction

Basically, this is another attempt to curate friction, but in a different form. I’m still experimenting and attempting to use some worse/default apps/tools for tasks which I want to avoid doing. I’ll report back.

Do you do anything similar?