This week, we sat down with inventor and entrepreneur Patrick Brown, to talk about how he uses paper in his everyday workflows. Like many inventors, Patrick is a born problem solver, and his mind is always actively noticing, thinking, turning things over, and looking for better ways to do things.

When a thought bubbles up, he turns towards the nearest piece of paper. Many of his ideas are physical, and a drawing, sketching, and making notes helps him to think.

Patrick's daughter has a rare disease and requires an enteral feeding tube. Like any inventor faced with a challenge, he founded strongertrees.com and designed the Flying Squirrel pump hanger to eliminate carrying an IV pole. Now he sells them to others. He's constantly thinking up new ideas and things to try, and when inspiration strikes, paper is what he turns to.

Patrick sat down to interview with us and was kind enough to share some of his work style.

Some common themes:

• A pocket size notebook is too small for him and a full size note book is too big to carry. (Similarly, an e-ink paper tablet like the Remarkable is too big to carry)

• The nearest piece of paper is the "Golidlox" zone.The ideas come when they come. That's why the nearest piece of paper is so important.

• He's often on the go, and not at his desk

A few more thoughts: My grandfather always used to say an "empty desk is a sign of an empty mind" and Patrick has a ton going on, rocking double laptops and a stack of ideas on his desk, waiting to be processed. Despite the dual monitors and dual laptops, paper is still king!