I have always been a natural note taker. Ever since I learned to write, I have been used to carry with me some kind of capture device. Looking back at my (huge) piles of notebooks, I guess I was missing the second half of the process: reviewing what’s written, selecting, correcting, classifying. Sadly, as in many areas, my note taking makes me identify myself with Jung’s psychological type of a “seeder who doesn’t collect”. Typically, I do all the efforts, plant my seeds, prepare the soil, and once I’m done, I yearn so much to face new challenges that I simply move on, without even bothering to collect my hard-earned harvest.
Dumb, isn’t it? And living in an environment that does not encourage neither originality nor initiative did not make things any better. Fortunately, I recently discovered David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) method, and it put me in the right track to systematize my work. Suddenly, for the first time in a long time, I got steady reasons for many things that I was doing intuitively (anything that is not in a notebook either occupies space in your head or gets forgotten) , in addition to a clear insight of my main mistakes (all written material must be supported by some regular reviewing system; otherwise it becomes as useless as if nothing was written… or even worse, it becomes a “ghost task”, an additional burden).
Getting to know GTD was also getting in touch with the huge GTD “church” and its tons of literature and e-literature; good, average and poor texts, but always a place where note processing was discussed. For the first time, my note taking was encouraged, and harvest time came. Here are a few tips and comments about my personal evolution and setup, in hope that you find them inspirational.
Equipment
As for many people, notebooks, in my case, remain invincible. By the moment, the simplicity of my usual everyday notes -sentence/ paragraph / list / simple drawing- is far below what any digital device can offer in terms of usability. Capture is still perhaps the weak point of electronic devices; inspiration is whimsical, and no tiny menu that I know can equal the power of ‘1, 2, 3, pencil!’. Of course, those notes must be processed, combined, and integrated into a system later, and that’s where digital devices certainly speed up the process… but even admitting that, I am not so sure that, in the case of note processing, faster means better. I tend to see ideas as alive beings, and transcription always gives me and my ideas a wonderful chance to spend more time together and get to know each other better; not for notes of the “buy broccoli” kind, certainly, but in the case of more complex or creative projects, sometimes wonderful things happen just because of such “cohabitation”.
Regarding handwriting, in my case, besides the physical pleasure it provides (which is so important: as David Allen points out, fun=motivation), it boosts my creativity, maybe because it feels warmer and more personal: in addition to the concepts you’re dumping, the lines are useful as you go as a “barometer” of your personality and your mood of the day (I must have at least 5 different calligraphy sets, which is crazy). Besides, handwriting involves more nervous endings than typing, and in my case at least it means extra focus and a steadier capability to grab concepts.
And, besides, there is always an additional sentimental factor involved in using notebooks. I always find a delicate, peculiar feeling in taking a cheap, crappy notebook, and seeing how it changes day by day, how its value increases as you write, until it becomes a “private treasure”, only because of the valuable things you’ve put there, because of your own work. Of course this point is fully subjective, technology also has its charms, and it depends on each person’s particular relation with objects. I also admit that the storage and classification of notebooks (when you reach the amount of say 500 full of heterogeneous contents) can be a pain in the ass, but pixels are always more impersonal.
In addition to the previous reasons, I also prefer cheap notebooks because I find the expensive ones somewhat intimidating; when I use them, there is always a tiny but irritating resistance every time I’m going to writing down a new idea, an additional microsecond of doubt: “yeah, an idea… but, is it important enough to taint such a luxurious container?”. Moleskines are beautiful, of course, but their structure makes me feel somewhat “imprisoned”: you cannot take pages away, and you even feel afraid of making smudges, because it is like spoiling a “book”. I find them comfortable in the way that a Rolls Royce (surely) is; but you don’t use a Rolls Royce to travel across the jungle, do you? Besides (but this is an extremely personal factor, I know), I find something disgusting in all that commercial hype around them. It’s a bunch of paper, for god’s sake! I’m sure that Picasso or Chatwin had obtained the same achievements with different notebooks, but you wouldn’t say that after hearing the advertisements… Anyway, such weird cult has originated some good stuff, like the useful and motivating setups I found here and here (they are for Moleskines, but they can easily be transferred to any kind of notebook).
Which is your device of choice? Do you think notebooks are primitive? Have you gone fully digital? Do you enjoy transcribing your own notes, or have someone else doing it?
Related posts:
A few low level capture tips (part two)
The GTD First Aid kit (Part 3)
The GTD First Aid Kit (and 4)
GTD for writers
The magic of journaling