If you still needed convincing that I’m Grandma Tech at home, struggling to use even the most straightforward of functionalities, please be aware that I was today years old when I learned that, five years ago, TextExpander released a custom iOS keyboard that would’ve solved so many of my mundane problems, and all I was doing was asking myself “why am I even paying for that app anymore?”

Ryan Holiday describes the how and why of his ‘Commonplace Book’, a collection of quotes and other pieces of text written down on index cards. I, too, have been keeping such a system since I started college. I always carry a few cards when I’m out and about, held together by bulldog clips.

Incredibly handy and simple, it has turned out.

I remember it well, my transition from elementary to high school. Gone were the old days of person teaching every subject in a single classroom. Everything would be new again. New subjects, new people, teachers, supplies. It was the supplies that kept me up at night. Books were to be given the right cover, of course there would have to be a new pencil case. New notebooks. A diary.

Choosing was never my strong suit. I could stand there for hours, by the neatly arranged tables of school supplies. After all, they would have to last me the entire school year. The right supplies, this I figured, would lead to the right achievements. I was so young back then.