…to enhance lists
“Man gave name to all the animals”, sang Bob Dylan, and he knew what he was doing. From tribal cultures who honor the magic power of language (with their taboo words that cannot or can only be spoken under certain conditions) to high culture products like Borges’ short stories (at least two of them are about the magical properties of naming), from the “catchy” name that makes a stick deodorant look like the event of the millennium, to official jargons that turn corpses into “collateral damages”, people fired into “adjustments”, or genocide into “cleansing”, everybody knows that, in a way, giving a name to something means possessing it. It is that simple, that cheap. Less dramatically, we can also use those “magical” properties of language for our own benefit. There are few activities with a better effort/returns ratio. And besides, it is fun.
Everything that is given a name becomes an independent entity. When writing a to-do list, for instance, or a list of any kind, it is setting the title what makes all the difference between a bunch of loose data and an articulated system. It also helps us define our working area. Titles kind of “box” all your elements, provide them with a common orientation. A very interesting using of titles comes when you have been writing thoughts and ideas and you discover the heading, the common factor, a posteriori. It can also be modified along the way, according to the changes in contents, or just because we find a name that fits our “container” better. In any case, it is always a good habit to entitle every piece of writing that you do; even if the title is something as dull as “list” or “ideas”, it will surely help you to organize better your thoughts and define the task at hand better.
…as a reading strategy
There is another field where compulsive entitling can be really gratifying: as a reading strategy. Here the joy of “naming is possessing” can reach a degree of euphoria.
It is a sad fact that a lot people is not into books for considering them “too passive” an activity.But, in fact, a good reader is usually very active. Many people sees reading as a toiling activity because words don’t flow out of the page by themselves in the same way as images do from the TV or computer screen: one must make a conscious effort to “extract” them, at the beginning at least, with apparently no more reward than listening to an unknown guy who will “pour” his theories or histories into you, passive-receptive agent.
I find more constructive and amusing to consider reading as a permanent dialog with the author. Although some people act as if books fell out of trees, the truth is that there is a human being behind each one of them. And they are usually very amicable, so, the same as in “real” life, we can have a conversation. Let’s enjoy. But let’s disagree when it’s time, too: there’s nothing sacred in ink, a person can be wrong by written the same as “live”. Underlining, our main mean of “conversation”, is a very vast discipline and I won’t discuss it here -besides, each book, and what we intend to obtain from it, will determine different strategies-, but, from the point of view of entitling sections, we only have two options:
- Titles taken from the book: you like this particular area so you demarcate it and “promote” one sentence to the heading “range” by using a special underlining or a different color.
- Made-up titles: I love this one. Strategies here vary a lot; what I usually do is, whenever a passage or chapter impresses me, I copy at the end of the book the page number together with my own title (generally, the spontaneous sentence that came out together with my “wow”: just as it happens in conversation).
This last kind of titles, besides,
- Makes easier for you to locate and remember the quotation later (you named it, so you own it).
- Turns you into a sort of “co-writer” of the book.
- If you are into writing, it is also an investment in your future work. You are seeding your library with “aspirins” against writer’s block, usable terms and sentences that will wake up your verbal areas when you need to write for future articles/books/posts.
So challenge your initial laziness and adopt the habit of naming everything. You don’t have to be brilliant, it is better to be abundant. And don’t be afraid to make “vulgar” connections: the faster and more spontaneous your titles are, the more relevant they will seem to you later. Name it and you will own it.
Do you think traditional books are a dying breed? Do you start your lists by the title or you just wait for it to “happen”? Do you always read with a pencil at hand? Which are your strategies to keep track of the excerpts you like?
Related posts:
GTD for writers
How to become optimistic with very little effort
Prevent your books from becoming stuck
Use verbal icons for your projects
The GTD First Aid Kit (and 4)