Last month I bagged a MacBook Air. I expected it to be a slick piece of tech, and it didn’t disappoint. Having always taken a frugal approach to technology, I began to wonder whether I’d actually been short-changing myself all these years.

The thing is my cheap Windows laptop works absolutely fine. Sure it’s slow and the keyboard is very clicky. But so what? It never hindered my ability to write a book… right?

Well, maybe it has. The Windows laptop takes several seconds to boot up. Even longer to load the office app. It’s heavy and cumbersome. There’s friction there, however small it might be. By contrast, the MacBook is almost instant. It’s incredibly light and portable. There’s also the unquantifiable feeling that it’s just nicer to use.

It’s got me thinking about other writing tools in a way I’ve never done before. In fact I’ve pretty much never thought about them. But of course writers have tools, just like any other profession - pens, notepads, proofreading tools, word processors, even the desk and chair are part of it.

For the longest time, I was more than content with a basic notepad and a cheap biro. And so long as my laptop loaded up LibreOffice in reasonable time and the keyboard worked, I was happy. But what if that notepad had been a Moleskine? Or instead of some generic office app I used a dedicated writing tool with draft versioning and outlining? And rather than sitting in some back-achingly uncomfortable chair I had a fancy ergonomic one?

Now if only I can convince my wife to turn the spare room into my personal office…