ChatFilter: How do I notebook? How do you notebook?
September 13, 2023 4:30 PM
I want to be a person who writes things down in their notebook, but I have never developed good habits and practices for being the type of person who writes things down in a notebook.
Please share your wisdom with me, dear notebook people!
How do you do it? like how and when do you make the time?
do you draw little quadrants for every meeting?
Start each day with some set of journaling intentions in your mind?
Some deeply learned wisdom about how and why writing stuff down helps you?
My to do lists overwhelm me to the point even writing them down is hard.
Please feel free to explain to me like you would a 5 year old.
I am aware of bullet journal instagram, and I am not really aspiring to that level of craftiness. What often happens with a new years note booking habit is my ADHD gets me overwhelmed and I forget one day and then I throw the whole baby out with the bathwater.
Maybe you have some simple approach or some profound reasoning or way of thinking about it that will turn everything around for me and everyone else with a cart full of Hobonichi planners (and a graveyard of half-used notebooks/planners/etc)
I thank you humbly.
Please feel free to explain to me like you would a 5 year old.
I am aware of bullet journal instagram, and I am not really aspiring to that level of craftiness. What often happens with a new years note booking habit is my ADHD gets me overwhelmed and I forget one day and then I throw the whole baby out with the bathwater.
Maybe you have some simple approach or some profound reasoning or way of thinking about it that will turn everything around for me and everyone else with a cart full of Hobonichi planners (and a graveyard of half-used notebooks/planners/etc)
I thank you humbly.
I have separate notebooks for work and my diary.
The diary one is a big yearly planner with a week per two-page spread and I just write anything I want about my day in there—it lives on a desk in my office, open all the time. Sometimes it just has notes like “worked late, very tired” and other times I have fun stuff to write about. I don’t use it for planning, just recording details about how I spend my days, plus feelings etc if I feel like it; but usually it’s just facts, basically. I have a bad memory and regret not keeping a diary for all the years that are now lost in a vague fog.
For work, I have a dot grid A5 notebook that again just lives open on my desk. I’ve found what works for me is having NO structure—just writing down things I need to do or follow up on, with a box next to them, as soon as I can after thinking of them. I check off the box and cross out the line once I’ve done it. A few times a day I look at the list to see what’s pending. If I need to take notes from a meeting, I might start a new page and label it at the top.
If I have a lingering to-do that’s being buried under pages of finished items, I mark a big arrow through that and then copy it down on the latest page.
I also have a bunch of fun pens on my desk so I can change colors as desired—it brings me joy to use nice stationery, but I have no particular system of color-coding.
That’s it. I find it incredibly freeing having a paper list and one less open tab on my screen to look at. I also find the sprawling, open, free-form nature of it is functional for me and allows me to let go of any stress or feelings of being overwhelmed by a whole “system” (I’ve failed at all previous productivity systems.) It’s sort of a bujo system I guess, but very messy, ugly, and chaotic.
posted by music for skeletons at 4:55 PM on September 13, 2023
The diary one is a big yearly planner with a week per two-page spread and I just write anything I want about my day in there—it lives on a desk in my office, open all the time. Sometimes it just has notes like “worked late, very tired” and other times I have fun stuff to write about. I don’t use it for planning, just recording details about how I spend my days, plus feelings etc if I feel like it; but usually it’s just facts, basically. I have a bad memory and regret not keeping a diary for all the years that are now lost in a vague fog.
For work, I have a dot grid A5 notebook that again just lives open on my desk. I’ve found what works for me is having NO structure—just writing down things I need to do or follow up on, with a box next to them, as soon as I can after thinking of them. I check off the box and cross out the line once I’ve done it. A few times a day I look at the list to see what’s pending. If I need to take notes from a meeting, I might start a new page and label it at the top.
If I have a lingering to-do that’s being buried under pages of finished items, I mark a big arrow through that and then copy it down on the latest page.
I also have a bunch of fun pens on my desk so I can change colors as desired—it brings me joy to use nice stationery, but I have no particular system of color-coding.
That’s it. I find it incredibly freeing having a paper list and one less open tab on my screen to look at. I also find the sprawling, open, free-form nature of it is functional for me and allows me to let go of any stress or feelings of being overwhelmed by a whole “system” (I’ve failed at all previous productivity systems.) It’s sort of a bujo system I guess, but very messy, ugly, and chaotic.
posted by music for skeletons at 4:55 PM on September 13, 2023
For me, the secret to regularly using a notebook was getting one that fit in my back pocket. After years of starting and abandoning those nice fat moleskines a 1/4 of the way through, I found that those thin little field notes type paper-bound notebooks were the key to regularly using a notebook. I just slip it in my pocket with my phone and a pen. It's always there. I write down everything and anything in it, no organization except for a date each morning.
posted by niicholas at 5:04 PM on September 13, 2023
posted by niicholas at 5:04 PM on September 13, 2023
Good pens are essential. The first time you need to write something down and none of your pens work you will want to yeet the whole kit and kaboodle into the Sun.
It helps me to treat the notebook as a general-purpose notes / drafts-of-emails / calendar / scrapbook / sketchbook / to-do-listing-place instead of a Productivity System.
For one thing, it fills the notebook up quickly, so you get the satisfaction of having Used A Notebook Up and the EXTRA satisfaction of getting to pick out a new notebook. For another, it makes the idea of interacting with your notebook more "whee!" and less "groan."
Stickers and washi tape are fun! I also like taping in ticket stubs (on the occasions when, like, those are still provided in paper form), fortune cookie fortunes, matchbook covers, funny bits cut out of potato chip wrappers, used postal stamps, and other little things. Snag vinyl stickers whenever your coffee shop or whatever has them out as freebies and slap them on the outside. Especially fun when you travel to new places! (This sticker is from a pizza place in EXOTIC MILWAUKEE WISCONSIN! Oooooo!) Your notebook becomes a little multifaceted archive of the tiny, inconsequential details of everyday life.
I also like fancy rulers and stencils to doodle silly things. (Quotations! Illustrations! Decorative borders! Illuminated capitals!)
If you use it consistently and have friends worth a darn, they will start bringing you stuff for your notebook: stickers, stencils, fancy pens, etc.
posted by BrashTech at 5:20 PM on September 13, 2023
It helps me to treat the notebook as a general-purpose notes / drafts-of-emails / calendar / scrapbook / sketchbook / to-do-listing-place instead of a Productivity System.
For one thing, it fills the notebook up quickly, so you get the satisfaction of having Used A Notebook Up and the EXTRA satisfaction of getting to pick out a new notebook. For another, it makes the idea of interacting with your notebook more "whee!" and less "groan."
Stickers and washi tape are fun! I also like taping in ticket stubs (on the occasions when, like, those are still provided in paper form), fortune cookie fortunes, matchbook covers, funny bits cut out of potato chip wrappers, used postal stamps, and other little things. Snag vinyl stickers whenever your coffee shop or whatever has them out as freebies and slap them on the outside. Especially fun when you travel to new places! (This sticker is from a pizza place in EXOTIC MILWAUKEE WISCONSIN! Oooooo!) Your notebook becomes a little multifaceted archive of the tiny, inconsequential details of everyday life.
I also like fancy rulers and stencils to doodle silly things. (Quotations! Illustrations! Decorative borders! Illuminated capitals!)
If you use it consistently and have friends worth a darn, they will start bringing you stuff for your notebook: stickers, stencils, fancy pens, etc.
posted by BrashTech at 5:20 PM on September 13, 2023
This is the one notebook to rule them all. It is big enough to be functional, small enough to be neat, with stiff board covers that open flat to keep things from being floppy and no distracting anything. The wires are stiff, they don't move around like cheap ones, and the papers do not come out unless I really want them to.
it lives on my desk at home, it is where household to-do lists and their followup go. It is also where I jot down the "stuff I need to do tomorrow" before bed so I can park my thoughts.
It's not a substitute for a work calendaring system obviously, but for the limited (and yet somehow extremely voluminous) categories of household tasks, it works.
You also need good pens handy. Just good, not distracting.
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:30 PM on September 13, 2023
it lives on my desk at home, it is where household to-do lists and their followup go. It is also where I jot down the "stuff I need to do tomorrow" before bed so I can park my thoughts.
It's not a substitute for a work calendaring system obviously, but for the limited (and yet somehow extremely voluminous) categories of household tasks, it works.
You also need good pens handy. Just good, not distracting.
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:30 PM on September 13, 2023
Bullet journaling needn't be as fancy as what you see on Instagram. Ryder Carroll's book on it outlines a much more basic approach that doesn't require washi tape or highlighters or illustrations.
That said, I don't really overthink it. I just write the date for the day, make a bullet, and write down a thought. A lot of what I write in my notebook is more like journaling. I enjoy it though, and I like looking at and collecting different notebooks and pens. That helps make it fun, too.
So, I guess if I had any wisdom it'd be don't think too much and enjoy the stationery.
posted by synecdoche at 5:37 PM on September 13, 2023
That said, I don't really overthink it. I just write the date for the day, make a bullet, and write down a thought. A lot of what I write in my notebook is more like journaling. I enjoy it though, and I like looking at and collecting different notebooks and pens. That helps make it fun, too.
So, I guess if I had any wisdom it'd be don't think too much and enjoy the stationery.
posted by synecdoche at 5:37 PM on September 13, 2023
I started hand writing meeting notes when I started interviewing customers on video call. Visually, it looks like I am deeply listening when I am writing things down in a notebook. It’s now an established habit to use these books for calls.
I buy the small but nice Moleskine books with colourful covers. It is satisfying to see full notebooks on the shelf. My active notebook lives on my desk. Getting a monitor stand with shelves really helped my notebook game. I can toss my wireless keyboard under the monitor stand when it’s note taking time, and return the notebook to the stand when it’s typing time.
I go back and forth on todo lists in a notebook. You’ll never finish everything on a todo list, and looking at orphan tasks is very unsatisfying. On the other hand, physically striking out completed work items with a pen is very satisfying. My compromise position is todo lists on a sticky note. To declare task bankruptcy, discard the sticky note.
posted by shock muppet at 5:38 PM on September 13, 2023
I buy the small but nice Moleskine books with colourful covers. It is satisfying to see full notebooks on the shelf. My active notebook lives on my desk. Getting a monitor stand with shelves really helped my notebook game. I can toss my wireless keyboard under the monitor stand when it’s note taking time, and return the notebook to the stand when it’s typing time.
I go back and forth on todo lists in a notebook. You’ll never finish everything on a todo list, and looking at orphan tasks is very unsatisfying. On the other hand, physically striking out completed work items with a pen is very satisfying. My compromise position is todo lists on a sticky note. To declare task bankruptcy, discard the sticky note.
posted by shock muppet at 5:38 PM on September 13, 2023
A nice notebook will always kill me. I am also super ADHD and as soon as I aim for a system, it's doomed. I have two things that work.
One is just a notebook in my purse, which is more for when I need a piece of paper. It has no organizational system--one page is groceries, the next is a phone number, then a funny story I want to tell someone, then a doodle because I'm bored. The lifespan of anything in that book is less than a week, and a lot of it falls by the wayside, but at any given point there are a few grocery items within two or three pages of my current location. It's much more about encoding info by writing it down than it is about going back to it.
For to do lists, what works for me is a clipboard. What I like about it is when it gets to be two or three pages long and unmanageable, I can pull it all out, note the important stuff on a clean page, and throw the rest away. I usually have a to-do going on the top page or two, but I keep 10 or 20 sheets in it at a time, so I can pull one to the top to take notes in a meeting, or put something toward the back if I'm not ready to throw it away.
The thing that makes these things workable is that they are not meant to be long term solutions. Each page is meant to last just a little while--if I write down a phone number or email address, or the name of a product or movie I want to look up, I act on it just a little while later. Or I look at it and realize it wasn't that important and I can let it go, which is a much better feeling than forgetting things.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:51 PM on September 13, 2023
One is just a notebook in my purse, which is more for when I need a piece of paper. It has no organizational system--one page is groceries, the next is a phone number, then a funny story I want to tell someone, then a doodle because I'm bored. The lifespan of anything in that book is less than a week, and a lot of it falls by the wayside, but at any given point there are a few grocery items within two or three pages of my current location. It's much more about encoding info by writing it down than it is about going back to it.
For to do lists, what works for me is a clipboard. What I like about it is when it gets to be two or three pages long and unmanageable, I can pull it all out, note the important stuff on a clean page, and throw the rest away. I usually have a to-do going on the top page or two, but I keep 10 or 20 sheets in it at a time, so I can pull one to the top to take notes in a meeting, or put something toward the back if I'm not ready to throw it away.
The thing that makes these things workable is that they are not meant to be long term solutions. Each page is meant to last just a little while--if I write down a phone number or email address, or the name of a product or movie I want to look up, I act on it just a little while later. Or I look at it and realize it wasn't that important and I can let it go, which is a much better feeling than forgetting things.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:51 PM on September 13, 2023
I have a Remarkable (I'm sorry, they're stupidly expensive and the new subscription model is extortionate - I got mine before it went into effect) and it revolutionized my note taking. I was always good at writing stuff down because I have the memory of a goldfish, but (because of said bad memory) wasn't good at finding my notes again or doing anything with them. I just had a stack of 6-10 filled notebooks on my desk at all times, plus a flurry of post-its.
Now, every meeting gets its own "notebook" (which is a file) that's named with the date and the name of the person (for internal work meetings or volunteer work notes) or organization (for external work meetings). Notes go in - mostly random bullet points but I try to always write down anything I might need later. Anything I have to do gets a big circle next to it. Right after the meeting, all the circles either get done immediately or transferred onto my to-do list with either a due date or a random date I assign so I get reminded of it at some appropriate point in the future (I keep my to-do list electronically so I can set automatic reminders - just microsoft to-do, it's pretty basic). Each notebook is filed in a category folder so I can usually find them again by browsing, but my naming convention means I can also find them by searching for the meeting date or person/org.
I do not keep any notes for my personal life, so can't speak to carrying around a notebook to jot down ideas or journal. But for work/volunteer meetings, a remarkable is pretty great if you're a person who likes to write by hand and/or draw as you take notes.
posted by snaw at 5:59 PM on September 13, 2023
Now, every meeting gets its own "notebook" (which is a file) that's named with the date and the name of the person (for internal work meetings or volunteer work notes) or organization (for external work meetings). Notes go in - mostly random bullet points but I try to always write down anything I might need later. Anything I have to do gets a big circle next to it. Right after the meeting, all the circles either get done immediately or transferred onto my to-do list with either a due date or a random date I assign so I get reminded of it at some appropriate point in the future (I keep my to-do list electronically so I can set automatic reminders - just microsoft to-do, it's pretty basic). Each notebook is filed in a category folder so I can usually find them again by browsing, but my naming convention means I can also find them by searching for the meeting date or person/org.
I do not keep any notes for my personal life, so can't speak to carrying around a notebook to jot down ideas or journal. But for work/volunteer meetings, a remarkable is pretty great if you're a person who likes to write by hand and/or draw as you take notes.
posted by snaw at 5:59 PM on September 13, 2023
I could never fully embrace the complete bullet journal, so I have a greatly simplified system that I’ve been using for years now. I have 2 notebooks; one for work, one for everything else. The key for me is to leave the first few pages blank for a table of contents. Then, every time I have something to write down - a to do list, meeting notes, etc. - I write a title and date at the top of the page, then enter that into the table of contents with the page number. If I start to have a lot of entries in the ToC that are all related to the same thing, I’ll color code them by writing over the page number with a highlighter so they’re easier to find; so, my to-do lists are green, my volunteer work notes are blue, my travel planning notes are orange, etc. I might put a post-it flag or a bit of washi tape on a page that I keep going back to a lot, but that’s as fancy as I get.
posted by Empidonax at 6:11 PM on September 13, 2023
posted by Empidonax at 6:11 PM on September 13, 2023
I have a "commonplace" book where I write down things in various categories that are work related or personal in nature. I use a system developed by Megan Rhiannon that I really vibe with--it involves defining 5-7 very broad topic categories and color coding them with dot stickers, then drawing a slightly wide margin on each page. In the margin I write callouts and keywords and in the main portion I write my lists, notes, thoughts, or pieces of text I'm copying. I separate each note with a simple line.
Prior to using Meghan's system, I was using something *very similar* to her system that I had developed on my own, but I was keeping an index rather than color coding. I find the color coding to be much friendlier for referencing old notes than reading through hand-generated indexes.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 7:51 PM on September 13, 2023
Prior to using Meghan's system, I was using something *very similar* to her system that I had developed on my own, but I was keeping an index rather than color coding. I find the color coding to be much friendlier for referencing old notes than reading through hand-generated indexes.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 7:51 PM on September 13, 2023
Back when I had a desk job, I realized that I would never write properly in a nice notebook. So, I turned to yellow legal pads (fortified by a binder clip at the top). I just wrote things down chronologically as needed, meetings, to-do lists, whatever, always adding the date as a holdover from class note-taking. I might put a post-it to mark a page if needed, but the chronology generally worked for me. Like gideonfrog, I did not intend these things to be permanent records, but I did preserve them just in case.
I really found the to-do lists helpful - being able to tick things off was great, especially for triage around deadlines. Meeting notes and such let me remember things by the action of writing them down more than the idea that I'd look back on the notes, but they were there if needed.
I've tried to carry little notebooks in my current life, but...no. I will never get around to writing in them.
posted by LadyOscar at 9:56 PM on September 13, 2023
I really found the to-do lists helpful - being able to tick things off was great, especially for triage around deadlines. Meeting notes and such let me remember things by the action of writing them down more than the idea that I'd look back on the notes, but they were there if needed.
I've tried to carry little notebooks in my current life, but...no. I will never get around to writing in them.
posted by LadyOscar at 9:56 PM on September 13, 2023
I just write freeform in a Moleskine notebook. I have a specific indicator I use for actions, "NA" in a circle. I then tick them when they're done. Mostly the notebook functions as a place to write in because the act of handwriting cements it better in my memory. Occasionally I use it as an actual reference. After I've filled up a notebook I have about a week where I keep it with me in case I need something in it, but after that I've moved on and could throw it away.
I make no claims that this approach is optimal.
posted by plonkee at 1:20 AM on September 14, 2023
I make no claims that this approach is optimal.
posted by plonkee at 1:20 AM on September 14, 2023
I do an adapted version of a bullet journal.
posted by sailoreagle at 5:30 AM on September 14, 2023
- Index (the notebook brand I use, Leuchtturm, comes with numbered pages and a premade index, so that's easy)
- Small calendar page at the start of each month (because it's the best way for me to track when some things that reoccur semi-regularly actually happens, so I can count forward and plan ahead for the next occurrence)
- I don't make weekly spreads, or mood trackers, or anything like that. They're not useful for me - they take too long to set up even if I just do basic gridlines, and then they end up irritating me if I have a mostly-empty week because of all the wasted space. (If I had the sort of incredibly busy life that would benefit from the weekly spreads to plan my days by the hour... I'd probably get a diary, either a page-per-day one or a week-to-view one depending on how much space I needed, and use that. And then still probably run my bastardized bullet journal alongside it.)
- If I have a task I want to add to my to-do list, I make a header for today's date, and add the task under it using an empty square as a bullet. Most of these are non-urgent tasks.
- If I have an urgent task, appointment, or periodic thing-to-do (like putting the bin out every Thursday, or weighing my cat every week), it goes in my phone as a reminder (with a date and time attached), because my phone will remind me to do the thing whether or not I've looked at it yet that day.
- I do what I'm pretty sure the method calls "collection pages" - a header, a list of information or to-dos or both concerning a single subject, so I can refer to it when I need to. Some examples:
- An upcoming trip abroad: dates, flight information, packing list, bus and train times to get to the airport, rough itinerary and anything I've pre-booked if it's that sort of trip, budget...
- A trip to London to see a museum exhibition or a concert or such: bus and train times to get there, time of the specific event, rough planning for what else I'm going to be doing with my time if I decide to do a whole day out instead of just the event...
- Things I need to fix in the house (that need to be fixed eventually, but aren't the fix-immediately sort of urgent)
- Things I still need to do to complete a videogame (or an event in a videogame, or whatever)
- A running list of books I've read (title, author, date started, date finished, rating out of 10)
- Summing up my a-thing-every-month subscriptions, listing what I got each month and whether I was happy with it or not, so I can decide whether I want to keep the subscription or not
- "How the heck do I [reset the heating controls, disable the FN key on my keyboard, set the time on the oven after a powercut, adjust the colour calibration on my printer, etc] again, aaaaaaaargh" - anything I might find myself needing to do at any time, that I always forget how to do, but would otherwise require digging through one of a dozen manuals, all in one convenient place
- I also scrapbook in it - if I go somewhere and I have a physical ticket then I stick that into the notebook afterwards, also photos I've taken, if I find a poem I like I transcribe it, etc, etc.
- A collected list of tasks still outstanding. Every 6 months or so, I go back through all the pages for however long it's been since I last did a collected list of tasks, and for every task still outstanding, if it's still relevant, I copy it over to one long list, and then do the same with any relevant tasks still outstanding from the prior list. No self-shaming, just "oh hey I forgot I meant to do that".
- I'm sort of a stickler for things being Not Messy in this notebook, so if I'm taking notes from a meeting or a lecture or something like that, I use a separate notepad for scribbling down the notes in the moment, and then copy over the relevant, useful bits in a tidy way later. (This also helps get them into my memory.)
posted by sailoreagle at 5:30 AM on September 14, 2023
The thing that finally made me stick to notebooks was switching to ones that I get through as fast as possible - I use these dot grid, A5 sized, 30 sheets/60 pages. I write the starting and ending date on the cover, stick various stickers on them, and by the time I start to feel disorganized and annoyed with myself for not having a pretty journal, it's time for a new one. You can get covers/protectors for these if you like, but I stopped bothering and just throw them in my bag.
Inside is a mix of unstructured notes, lists, occasionally a calendar that's mostly to help me plot out a confusing/busy stretch of work, rather than daily reference (I rely on Google calendar for that), and a super simple bullet journal style page with one column for work and one for everything else. The fact that bullet journalling is undated and designed for picking up after a period of disuse is key for me!
posted by heyforfour at 5:41 AM on September 14, 2023
Inside is a mix of unstructured notes, lists, occasionally a calendar that's mostly to help me plot out a confusing/busy stretch of work, rather than daily reference (I rely on Google calendar for that), and a super simple bullet journal style page with one column for work and one for everything else. The fact that bullet journalling is undated and designed for picking up after a period of disuse is key for me!
posted by heyforfour at 5:41 AM on September 14, 2023
It's maybe not the MOST organized approach, but it works for me. I have a bunch of copy paper (printed on one side and saved from the recycling) on which I make notes, diagrams, etc. Some of it is for my research projects and some of it is for admin duties. I am left-handed and could never make a notebook stick for me. Important papers I store in one of those flat "inboxes" (for research) and in a pile on the shelf (for admin). Sometimes I shred the unimportant ones (with one addition problem on them or something like that). I guess I could use a legal pad or something like that, but I've been in many offices that don't buy them, so I never got used to them.
posted by 8603 at 6:30 AM on September 14, 2023
posted by 8603 at 6:30 AM on September 14, 2023
I haphazardly use a nice, hardcover planner that has the 7 days of the week on one page with a gridded page on the facing page and an elastic bookmark for the current week. When I am on top of things, I make notes on the calendar page each Monday about all the out of the ordinary events happening during the week--the process of copying that over from my Outlook calendar helps get those into my working memory better. Then during the week, the gridded page fills up with notes from meetings and to do lists and organizational lists with little boxes around them.
As noted, I also use the Outlook calendar and Microsoft Todo, mostly to organize routine tasks that have to be done each week with a pop up reminder. And between all of these, I still manage to screw things up regularly. But the gridded pages full of notes have ended up being really helpful several times, and having them bound together and organized chronologically is a better system than my former stack of scratch paper on my desk.
posted by hydropsyche at 7:21 AM on September 14, 2023
As noted, I also use the Outlook calendar and Microsoft Todo, mostly to organize routine tasks that have to be done each week with a pop up reminder. And between all of these, I still manage to screw things up regularly. But the gridded pages full of notes have ended up being really helpful several times, and having them bound together and organized chronologically is a better system than my former stack of scratch paper on my desk.
posted by hydropsyche at 7:21 AM on September 14, 2023
I am a notebook aficionado, in that I love beautiful notebooks and am always on the lookout for new ones, especially outstanding Japanese brands with smooooooooth paper, but for a long time I struggled to write in them. Some psychological blocks that I have wrestled with include: feeling like I have to have something important to say, feeling like it needs to look nice, feeling like it will be coherent or okay if someone else ever looks at it, feeling afraid to put down whatever thoughts I am thinking because that makes them REAL, feeling like it needs to be organized and make sense. I haven't conquered all of these, but identifying them as blockers has helped a lot in releasing me to actually use my notebooks! You might try thinking about what is really holding you back from your notebook using dreams -- is it something functional (paper, pen, size, style, time, etc.) or something emotional?
That said, some things have helped get over my hurdles include:
+ Launching a "morning pages" practice as referenced in The Artist's Way -- you basically just get up every day and before doing anything sit down and write 3 pages about anything that comes to mind. It's not intended to be read ever again, but just to get into the habit of using writing to release thoughts. Doing this helped a lot to unlock my relationship with getting okay with writing anything instead of having to be organized, coherent, etc. (The Artist's Way has some stuff that did not resonate with me, but a lot that did, and was a good guide to getting more comfortable being creative/releasing thoughts if you think that could be helpful.)
+ Structuring my notebooks so that different ones have different purposes and there's less anxiety about how to use them. In general I have three notebooks at any given time: 1) Work notebook: I've always done well with a "work" notebook that is just literally every work thought I have, notes from meetings, to do lists, scribbles, etc. in chronological order. A legal pad, reporter's notebook, or anything that I feel comfortable "wasting paper" on by turning the page as often as needed was good. In this notebook, I like to make big weekly to do lists as well as little short ones, just to organize my thoughts when feeling overwhelmed, not necessarily to check things off of. I also like to just circle or star important points after a meeting so that I can see them easily by flipping through and pull the big stuff out but still see the rest of the context if needed. 2) Life notebook -- this is just where I keep notes about my stuff that isn't deeply personal, but needs to be written down. It's chaotic and serves as a record of my life without being a journal with some specific format I follow. Freeing myself to have one page be a grocery list, the next page be a song lyric I can't shake, the next page be scribbles from a phone call, the next page be a loose diagram of upcoming events and clothes I hope to wear or whatever, etc. was great. It doesn't have to make sense or look good -- just literally writing stuff down I am trying to remember. 3) Journal -- This is where I do morning pages or write personal reflections, and it's more private and generally lives in a spot in my house. I don't carry it with me out and about, and I don't leave it out for possible consumption by others. It's usually the fanciest/prettiest/smallest of the notebooks, and it's typically just words, words, words from myself to myself or not ever to be read again. I don't pressure myself to write in it every day, only when the spirit moves me, and it's not an accounting of what's happened, but more what I have been feeling or thinking about.
I carry the work and life notebooks around with me most of the time; though depending on your job, it is also nice to just leave the work one at the office/on your desk if you don't ever need to reference it from home. What a relief to close it at the end of "work" and not look at it again until the next day.
One other note -- it was a game changer when I switched to BIG notebooks. I like the feel of tiny notebooks, but for work and for life, having a standard size or even legal size big notebook with lots of space (I prefer simple grids or dots or blank to lines/structured guides) helped me just feel like there was a ton of space to see everything I was thinking and sort stuff into categories on one page. It was freeing to me to have the visual real estate to fit everything onto one page instead of constantly flipping between.
posted by luzdeluna at 7:34 AM on September 14, 2023
That said, some things have helped get over my hurdles include:
+ Launching a "morning pages" practice as referenced in The Artist's Way -- you basically just get up every day and before doing anything sit down and write 3 pages about anything that comes to mind. It's not intended to be read ever again, but just to get into the habit of using writing to release thoughts. Doing this helped a lot to unlock my relationship with getting okay with writing anything instead of having to be organized, coherent, etc. (The Artist's Way has some stuff that did not resonate with me, but a lot that did, and was a good guide to getting more comfortable being creative/releasing thoughts if you think that could be helpful.)
+ Structuring my notebooks so that different ones have different purposes and there's less anxiety about how to use them. In general I have three notebooks at any given time: 1) Work notebook: I've always done well with a "work" notebook that is just literally every work thought I have, notes from meetings, to do lists, scribbles, etc. in chronological order. A legal pad, reporter's notebook, or anything that I feel comfortable "wasting paper" on by turning the page as often as needed was good. In this notebook, I like to make big weekly to do lists as well as little short ones, just to organize my thoughts when feeling overwhelmed, not necessarily to check things off of. I also like to just circle or star important points after a meeting so that I can see them easily by flipping through and pull the big stuff out but still see the rest of the context if needed. 2) Life notebook -- this is just where I keep notes about my stuff that isn't deeply personal, but needs to be written down. It's chaotic and serves as a record of my life without being a journal with some specific format I follow. Freeing myself to have one page be a grocery list, the next page be a song lyric I can't shake, the next page be scribbles from a phone call, the next page be a loose diagram of upcoming events and clothes I hope to wear or whatever, etc. was great. It doesn't have to make sense or look good -- just literally writing stuff down I am trying to remember. 3) Journal -- This is where I do morning pages or write personal reflections, and it's more private and generally lives in a spot in my house. I don't carry it with me out and about, and I don't leave it out for possible consumption by others. It's usually the fanciest/prettiest/smallest of the notebooks, and it's typically just words, words, words from myself to myself or not ever to be read again. I don't pressure myself to write in it every day, only when the spirit moves me, and it's not an accounting of what's happened, but more what I have been feeling or thinking about.
I carry the work and life notebooks around with me most of the time; though depending on your job, it is also nice to just leave the work one at the office/on your desk if you don't ever need to reference it from home. What a relief to close it at the end of "work" and not look at it again until the next day.
One other note -- it was a game changer when I switched to BIG notebooks. I like the feel of tiny notebooks, but for work and for life, having a standard size or even legal size big notebook with lots of space (I prefer simple grids or dots or blank to lines/structured guides) helped me just feel like there was a ton of space to see everything I was thinking and sort stuff into categories on one page. It was freeing to me to have the visual real estate to fit everything onto one page instead of constantly flipping between.
posted by luzdeluna at 7:34 AM on September 14, 2023
I have two main notebooks:
1) I use a passport size Traveler's Notebook as my wallet - it has a notebook and a calendar and a little canvas pouch that holds various cards and a tiny pen. It goes everywhere with me (because it's my wallet) and acts as my external brain, remembering things so that I don't have to.
I write shopping lists or to-do lists in it, as well as anything I encounter throughout the day that I want to make sure I remember, like new appointments or interesting restaurants I want to check out or my new seat assignment in our choir seating chart. I also write out any kind of logistical info I need for the day - eg, if I have to go somewhere I don't regularly go, I'll write out what buses I'm catching at what time, or any directions I might need, so I don't have to keep looking it up on my phone (or get anxious about it).
It's got a bullet journal style index in the front, so I can keep track of repeating topics (books I want to put on hold at the library, tracking my knitting projects, etc) or find logistical stuff quickly, but that's the only bullet journal structure I use.
2) I have a larger notebook (right now it's an A5 Leuchtturm) that I use as a journal. That's mostly just daily journal entries - I try to write in it every evening after dinner - but I also use it to keep track of larger projects. So I write long-term specific to-do lists there (like all the stuff I need to do to prep for vacation, or all the knitting I want to do in a year and when I want to be finished with certain projects), and I keep track of various other long term things (like the list of all the movies I've watched in 2023). I also occasionally paste things into this one - little ephemera souvenirs or photos. This also has a bullet journal style index.
I don't decorate my notebooks because a) I'm not good at it and b) trying to do so is, for me, a barrier to use. I have bad handwriting and I cross things out all the time and my notebooks are messy but useful.
posted by darchildre at 10:08 AM on September 14, 2023
1) I use a passport size Traveler's Notebook as my wallet - it has a notebook and a calendar and a little canvas pouch that holds various cards and a tiny pen. It goes everywhere with me (because it's my wallet) and acts as my external brain, remembering things so that I don't have to.
I write shopping lists or to-do lists in it, as well as anything I encounter throughout the day that I want to make sure I remember, like new appointments or interesting restaurants I want to check out or my new seat assignment in our choir seating chart. I also write out any kind of logistical info I need for the day - eg, if I have to go somewhere I don't regularly go, I'll write out what buses I'm catching at what time, or any directions I might need, so I don't have to keep looking it up on my phone (or get anxious about it).
It's got a bullet journal style index in the front, so I can keep track of repeating topics (books I want to put on hold at the library, tracking my knitting projects, etc) or find logistical stuff quickly, but that's the only bullet journal structure I use.
2) I have a larger notebook (right now it's an A5 Leuchtturm) that I use as a journal. That's mostly just daily journal entries - I try to write in it every evening after dinner - but I also use it to keep track of larger projects. So I write long-term specific to-do lists there (like all the stuff I need to do to prep for vacation, or all the knitting I want to do in a year and when I want to be finished with certain projects), and I keep track of various other long term things (like the list of all the movies I've watched in 2023). I also occasionally paste things into this one - little ephemera souvenirs or photos. This also has a bullet journal style index.
I don't decorate my notebooks because a) I'm not good at it and b) trying to do so is, for me, a barrier to use. I have bad handwriting and I cross things out all the time and my notebooks are messy but useful.
posted by darchildre at 10:08 AM on September 14, 2023
I have a lot of projects going at work and often have maps and other printouts to include, so I use a binder with dividers and often take notes on filler paper. It’s useful to be able to move things around, take them out to scan and archive, and be able to add stuff if I didn’t happen to have my notebook with me (I’m often not near a desk). Filler paper also makes it easy to share paper and I don’t worry about wasting it. Vinyl binders do tend to wear out kind of fast - mine is held together with packing tape because I like the stickers on it, but I come across free ones pretty often, too.
posted by momus_window at 10:29 AM on September 14, 2023
posted by momus_window at 10:29 AM on September 14, 2023
Bullet Journal is not what you see on instagram, at least not in it's truest form. It's actually a very simple system. I regularly rewatch the original video to refresh myself which is part of what keeps me engaged in it. I think it does a good job of explaining the "how" of it, even better than the book.
My best advice is - get a notebook and pen you like, and carry it with you everywhere.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 10:27 AM on September 15, 2023
My best advice is - get a notebook and pen you like, and carry it with you everywhere.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 10:27 AM on September 15, 2023
Any time I'm going to write a note or work something out on paper, it goes in my notebook. (This does not include work stuff, or things like shopping lists that I share with my household.) That way I don't have to keep track of scraps of paper -- it's all in there.
In the morning I write the date on the top of a page, then list the times I have to be places, leaving enough space that I can write errands between them. To Do items that can happen any time or place go under that, offset so it's clear at a glance. E.g:
work 7:00
drop off library books
dentist 2:00
Costco
- call Fred
- balance checkbook
- dinner: tacos?
This helps me figure out my day, what I need to bring with me when I head out the door, etc. I have ADHD, so I need to be able to write stuff down and stop pondering logistics.
I do the standard To Do stuff of copying things over from day to day, or sending them back to a longer, unassigned list if I can't do them that particular day.
If I'm taking notes -- say, on a phone call or in a doctor's office or in a workshop -- I write the name of the thing at the top of the page, then all the notes from that go in it.
When I'm done with everything that's on a page, I draw a slash through the whole page.
When I fill a notebook or just want a new one for whatever reason, I go through and copy over anything that needs to be copied over; honestly, most times it's nothing.
This is my tool for organizing tasks and notes. I have a separate diary.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:35 PM on September 15, 2023
In the morning I write the date on the top of a page, then list the times I have to be places, leaving enough space that I can write errands between them. To Do items that can happen any time or place go under that, offset so it's clear at a glance. E.g:
work 7:00
drop off library books
dentist 2:00
Costco
- call Fred
- balance checkbook
- dinner: tacos?
This helps me figure out my day, what I need to bring with me when I head out the door, etc. I have ADHD, so I need to be able to write stuff down and stop pondering logistics.
I do the standard To Do stuff of copying things over from day to day, or sending them back to a longer, unassigned list if I can't do them that particular day.
If I'm taking notes -- say, on a phone call or in a doctor's office or in a workshop -- I write the name of the thing at the top of the page, then all the notes from that go in it.
When I'm done with everything that's on a page, I draw a slash through the whole page.
When I fill a notebook or just want a new one for whatever reason, I go through and copy over anything that needs to be copied over; honestly, most times it's nothing.
This is my tool for organizing tasks and notes. I have a separate diary.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:35 PM on September 15, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
I use reporter notebooks because I used to be a newspaper reporter.
I don’t do a journal or diary.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:42 PM on September 13, 2023