A few months ago I bought myself a typewriter. Friends were somewhat baffled, given that I work in tech, but I've found that I actually really enjoy using it.

Between my job and hobbies, I spend a lot of time in front of a screen. Computers are attention-grabbing and pull me away from my physical environment; I can spend hours working on a personal project and fully disconnect from the world around me, distorting the passage of time.

I don't like this sensation of realizing I've been absorbed for hours, and typewriters solve that for me. Using a typewriter is a very manual and intentional process that I find grounding and meditative. I'm sitting down to use it for a specific purpose, without any distractions to divert my attention. The process of it--lifting the bail, inserting the paper, turning the platen, setting margins--is a ritual I really enjoy.

I mostly use it to write letters; I enjoy exchanging letters with my friends. I find them to be a more personal and thoughtful way to express my appreciation for someone--it's easier to be vulnerable the more asynchronous the communication method is.

I also use it for taking notes occasionally. This one is situational, because I need most of my notes in my notes app so I always have them available and can search them, but some things I actually prefer to have on paper, like if I want to pin them to the fridge to reference at home.

Often when writing notes or letters or stories, I get caught up fussing with wording and structure, and that gets in the way of me actually getting my thoughts out of my head. Because my typewriter makes editing more difficult, I'm forced to just write, without being perfectly happy with what I've written. I may go through multiple drafts, but there's a practical limit to how much I can revise.

For me, one of the major hurdles to doing creative work is accepting that "good enough" is good enough. To that end, my typewriter has been quite helpful.