The Evil Eyebrow

Search results for: “notebook”

Is a Paper Notebook a Time Waster?
I was listening to the Mikes on Mics podcast a few days ago and heard of some Elite Harvard Ivory Tower Intellectual pooh-poohing my paper notebook. Alexandra Samuel actually isn’t an elite Harvard intellectual in the sense that I’m lampooning, but she is a writer for the Harvard Business Review and she put up a piece entitled Dear Colleague, Put the Notebook Down which filled me with righteous wrath.

Go read it first. I’ll wait.

A search of the Eyebrow will tell you that I like notebooks. I’m a firm believer that if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen. But “writing things down” can mean many different things nowadays. Typically, I take notes in a spiral bound, graph-ruled notebook that lets me keep everything together. This notebook goes everywhere with me and I just have to flip, flip, flip back to the appropriate page and there’s what I was doing, and who I was talking to.

Which made the blatant and horrible condescension of Alexandra Samuel’s piece so enraging! I actually read the article while at a stop light immediately after finishing up the Mikes on Mics podcast so I was driving home full of anger. How dare this woman insult my work skills?! She called me a useless hire because of the time it would take to transcribe a set of meeting minutes into an official document. Fuck her and fuck the horse she rode in on.

Then I thought about it. And I thought about it some more. And I realized that she had a point.

My veteran notebook serves me well and I have a stack of them in my drawer that I’ve filled over the years. Just this morning I went back to page 12 of the current notebook to check some notes written down during a phone call about the number of buses accessing a middle school. After that, I reviewed some meeting minutes that I’d made last week when discussing with a client their needs for materials submittals. That has been the majority of the flipping back that I’ve done in this notebook. I regularly go back and check to be sure my open tasks are complete (or irrelevant) but that is all. The notebook is a static storage system that serves in case I need to reference something. It does not interface with the internet, nor does it directly populate my Remember The Milk account with errands and tasks. It can’t download to a document so that the meeting minutes I need to type up are 70% complete. ((I don’t care what Ms. Samuel thinks, meeting minutes are never done during the meeting. Unless you’re some crazy writing savant, the first draft will never catch the intended tone of the meeting, especially if you want [ahem] the meeting minutes to reflect factual but leaning statements.)) Ms. Samuel’s points here are valid and I think that I will take her (pointed, hyberbolic) lessons to heart ((In her defense, I probably wouldn’t have thought about it so much if her points hadn’t made me so angry. Good job, Alexandra.))

So here’s what I’m going to try over the next little while:
- Use the Livescribe Pen that Jennifer bought me a while ago. I’d been trying to insert it into my workflow unsuccessfully for a while. The way to do it (I think) is to go cold turkey on the veteran notebook and start using the Livescribe exclusively. This wouldn’t work very well at all ((The basic functionality of the Livescribe is interesting, but ultimately not that useful without some add-ons such as I describe in the later text.)) without…
- Evernote. I’ve had an Evernote account for a while which has sat dormant and unused. I think the only way to use it is to use it, rather than plinking down the occasional note or web snippet. I’m going to try going paperless on my receipts by taking snapshots. I’ll also see what I can do about ditching my other paper notes (index cards, sticky notes) by immediately snapshotting or scanning them into Evernote. This is an experiment, of course, and these don’t handle one of the issues I mentioned way above, that being the transcription of meeting notes to publishable documents. For that I’ll need…
- MyScript. MyScript is a for-pay add on to the Livescribe system which does text conversion. As I learned during some web searches, while the Evernote system produces searchable notes (even from images) it doesn’t do OCR, per se. What it does is create a set of possible matches that each word could be and that becomes searchable. The example I kept seeing was “House” which might be recognized both as “House” and as “Horse” and searchable under both terms. That would make for a rather messy document if printed out. MyScript does the OCR within Livescribe and allows you to export to a small variety of document types. So far it’s been acceptable, but I haven’t really torture tested it. The one time license is $30 and I’ve got a 30 day trial to see how it works.
- Lots of phone-photos of notes and things, which will get uploaded to Evernote.
As this is a bit new, I’m sure there will be some bugs involved in the process. One thing I know will be a problem is off-line connectivity. Evernote is wonderful, so long as you’re connected to the internet. I have the PC program on my laptop, but it takes 5 minutes to boot up and that’s nearly so useful as flipping open my notebook. I have my iPhone, but again, if no internet, no Evernote ((I think. I’ll have to try using it in airplane mode and see what happens.)).

It’s all a grand experiment! The thing I will keep in mind is that this whole process should increase my efficiency and ease of use. If not, it’s back to the paper notebooks.

Update: I’ve discovered that Evernote has an offline mode with a premium subscription. I’ve paid for a month.
March 12, 2013
Test Post Mark II: Have a Notebook

I’m testing out some off line blogging tools that are new (to me). In the process, have a look at some notebook porn!

As followers of the blog will know, I use various types of notebooks. I’m not snobby about it, but I do own a couple Moleskins. They don’t see a lot of use, but when I need one, it’s there and ready.

The one shown in the picture has been in my pocket for the last few days because I’ve been taking notes in the field at Ashford Dunwoody, and I’ve been getting calls from people concerning the diverging diamond at odd times. I’m a firm believer in “if you don’t write it down, it never happened” thusly the notebook.

I like the concept of carrying this thing with me everywhere, however in practice it normally doesn’t work. I don’t wear clothing where this rides easily in a pocket, and if I’m going to have to carry something around in my hand, I might as well have my full size notebook with me. The safety vest I wear in the field has some conveniently sized pockets for this notebook and my pen, but it should because it’s designed to hold notebooks like this.

Now that I have the Moleskin out, it’s seeing some play time. I expect once the diverging diamond field work dies down, it’ll go back on the shelf.

June 7, 2012
New Notebook

I have a new notebook! Meet the Roaring Spring Laboratory Notebook 5×5 quad-ruled hardbound paper product. It is displayed to the right of my last two notebooks, the Whitelines A4 wirebound (middle) and the National Brand 5×5 Eye Ease spiral bound (left).

I evaluated the Whitelines, both at the beginning, and in the middle. At the end of it’s life, I’ll say that I like the paper, I think the wirebound is less durable than I’d like, and the A4 size was occasionally a pain. Here’s a picture of the spine after 7 months of use.

It was getting very worn and I don’t think it would have survived another month. I’d use it again, though. I was going to try one of their other products, however I looked around the office and realized I had an old quad-ruled laboratory notebook that I bought in 2002 at Texas A&M when I was at a conference and needed something to write on. It had been barely used, so I pulled it off the shelf and voila, new notebook.

So far, I like it quite a bit. It has changed some of my note taking habits, due to it’s hard cover and stiff spine; I am only taking notes on the right-hand page, rather than both right and left as has been my practice. However, this is allowing me to have annotations on the left hand page, as you can see in the picture. This is already proving useful.

This is not a notebook that can be folded back on itself like the Whitelines wirebound or the National Brand 5×5 can be. However, the footprint of this notebook is smaller (it’s 10 1/8″ x 7 7/8″) so that isn’t a big deal. You can compare the size of this notebook in the image below.

I think I’ll be happy with this one. I like the hard cover, which should also make it more durable than the previous ones. A drawback I can see is that I’m going to go through it more than twice as fast as the previous ones, but that will give me more of a chance to evaluate other notebook types!

July 23, 2011
Whitelines Notebook: My Evaluation

A while back, I decided to try a new notebook: Whitelines. My initial evaluation is in that previous blog post.

Since then, I’ve been using it in Bill-normal fashion, i.e. generally using it for notes and doodling and sketching and throwing it into my work bag and travel bag and generally abusing it. I’ve been very happy with the quality of the paper and the way it takes the ink of my favorite pens. The advertised property of Whitelines, that the lines that make up the grid don’t photocopy or distract, is borne out 100%. I like this feature and would be interested in maintaining a notebook with paper like that.

However, it’s starting to show a bit of wear.

This is at about a 65% completion of the notebook. I’ve been using it for 5 months now, which is a bit longer than normal at this completion rate. A few months ago I noticed that it was starting to be a bit worn around the edges and on the front cover. One of the reasons I liked my previous notebook (shown here) was because it didn’t cave under the abuses I heaped on it. The Whitelines wire-bound A4 is still holding up, but I’m thinking that it might retire early if the wear shown in the picture above gets much worse.

The cover wear and other age-marks are things I can deal with, but the cover coming off the wire binding is a killer. If this had been true spiral bound, it wouldn’t be showing this problem, but it’s one of those wire bindings that wrap back and forth on itself. Over time (and abuse) this allows the gaps to separate and the cover, and eventually pages, to start to separate.

My evaluation: Great paper. Great product. Not quite suitable for my use. I may try using one of their other products, without the wire binding (such as their perfect bound or the glue bind) on the next go around.

April 16, 2011
New Notebook

I use notebooks at work. I subscribe to the philosophy that if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen. Since 2000, I’ve been using National Brand 5×5 Quad Paper with Eye Ease® paper. I love these notebooks and have taken a decade to go through the box that I bought way back then.

We are now coming to the end of an era; I’m almost out of these notebooks. I still have a few at home that are dedicated to specific things, but the one at work is currently being scribed on page 145 of 160. Not too many days remain until notebook number 12 will be christened (there’s actually been more than that, but I restarted my numbering in 2004). Because I’m having to purchase a new notebook, I’m going to try something a bit different. Whitelines!

I am heartily entertained by the “Carbon Free” notation. If you don’t read the fine print, it implies that this was made with no carbon, rather than as a zero carbon footprint product, although I’m curious how they can produce something from raw materials in such a manner that they produce no carbon footprint. That’s counterintuitive to me. I’ll have to go look it up, later.

This is the Whitelines wirebound A4 notebook. The wirebound was very important to me because I use both sides of my notebook paper and need to be able to fold it back without shattering the spine of the notebook. A4, of course, is one of those crazy non-American thingies dealing with paper size but it’s generally equivalent to 8.5″ x 11″, i.e. American Letter size.

The quadrille nature of the paper is also important to me because it’s nice to have the lines keeping me in square. I’m not the worlds best free hand artist and I can use the squares to help keep me in scale.

The argument by the manufacturer is that the white lines on the paper shown above are better to use that the dark lines on more common graph paper. At first glimpse, I’m unconvinced that this will make a big difference to me when I’m working. It may make a difference when I go to photo copy the page, but that doesn’t happen very often.

Honestly, I just wanted to try something new for a change. I’ve spent a lot of time with that other notebook.

Other remarks: the Whitelines book feels a bit floppier than the quad books I’ve been using. I’m also a bit worried that it’s not going to stand up to the abuse I give these notebooks (being thrown around, crushed into bags, stacked under books, generally treated poorly).

November 19, 2010
I’m Glad They Marked This Down

Because I don’t think I could afford to buy more than one or two of these.

Seriously, what sort of crazy screw-up or bug had this posted at $263?

December 18, 2012
Making it Easier to Get Things Done

I’ve been a proponent of some of the Getting Things Done philosophy since I read the book many moons ago. The book is an excellent organizational tool or system, depending on your needs, and it has served me well. I don’t follow all of the precepts such as having a next action list and a project list, etc., but I’m willing to say that I’m a GTD person ((Others may disagree with me.)). I follow some basics that help to keep me on top of things, mostly. Here’s my system.

Write it down

If you don’t write it down, it never happened. I’m a firm believer in that. My job entails being accurate and sometimes knowing exactly what was said by whom is extremely important. I never trust my memory on things like that. I write it down in my handy dandy notebook, where it will sit until I need it again.

Good note taking also helps to improve my comprehension and recollection of what I was listening to. The act of writing it down lets me process things into their important chunks. I don’t write everything down (no shorthand skills) but I will jot down key points, and occasionally full quotes. Because of this memory process assist, my notebooks are often never consulted after I’ve taken the notes I needed ((Exceptions abound, of course, but many more pages are never looked at than are.)). There is usually no reason to go back and look at what I did that day. But sometimes there is and that can be a lifesaver. Ask Senator Bob Graham.

I use a fairly simple system in my notebook for keeping track of things. If something’s important, I star it. If it’s an action item, I box it. When I finish up the action item, I cross across the box with a pen stroke ((Sometimes, “finishing up” means moving to a later section of the notebook in a new action item list.)). From personal preference, I use a pen, rather than a pencil.

The benefit of this is that if someone asks me if something happened, or what I talked about on a phone call or at a meeting, I don’t have to rely on my imperfect memory, or be accused of not remembering correctly. There it is, written down. ((Even if I can be accused of not writing it down correctly, I can at least respond with, “This was my understanding during the meeting/phone call/site visit.”)) A secondary benefit is that it helps with keeping my projects under control and the various items I’ve been asked to do front and center. For example, I’ll often get called out of the blue and asked to do something that won’t take long, but is also not critical and I don’t judge worthy of impinging on my work load at that very moment. I note it down, box it (maybe take a couple notes about it) and then completely forget about it, confident that when I go back through the notebook, I’ll see it and remember to do the task. That is freeing, and it also helps to keep me on task with whatever it was I was working on. ((I don’t have the option of turning off my phone, or my email, or shutting my door.))

Make a list

Lists help me process what’s going on. My lists tend to be multidimensional, depending on why I’m listing things at the time. For example, I recently had a spate of not-keeping-up-with-things and had to go back through about 15 pages of my notebook to verify that things were accounted for or being done. That’s a lot of time and a lot had been going on so generally I start with a piece of paper and just stream-of-consciousness write things down as they come up. No processing and no ordering, just get them on the paper. ((Other people use index cards.)) Once I’ve got my brain dump on the paper, I’ll start ordering things by project, which lets me organize the dump a little, as things get remembered or detailed. Then I end up with something like this image. ((Sorry about the blur. Some of these items are proprietary. This is my work, you know.))

This is not GTD ((See chapter 5 of Getting Things Done.)), but its worthiness to me is that I know that every task or open action item has been moved forward to this point in my notebook. It’s all there, begging to be completed and scratched off. I’ve reassured myself that everything is back under control, or at least that I know exactly how many things are due today. ((This is a lot of stuff; it’s been a busy few weeks))

Keep your workplace neat

Clutter wastes your time and mental energy. This is the picture of a useful desk when I’m trying to draw inferences between multiple overlapping documents.

I could not have done the work I needed to do in a calm and effective manner if my desk looked like this:

Throw out, Archive, Scan, Delete

Here is a picture of the sole, lonely bookshelf in my office. I say lonely because I refuse to fill it up with friends to keep it company. Notice all that blank space up there, occupied by my leaning (out of date) Trip Generation Handbook? ((The almost-most-recent edition is on the top right.)) There’s rarely any reason to put any neighbors up there. Published documents? They’re available in PDF and storable on electronic media. Polices and Guidelines? Ditto. In fact, the only reason I have any three-ring binders, plan sets, or books on that shelf is because some of the documents I have available as PDFs get used so frequently that it’s inconvenient to not have paper copies.

In fact, the most frequently used item on that shelf isn’t on the shelf. It’s the trash can next to it. The clutter that’s on the second shelf down, on the right? That’s destined for the trash as soon as I finish writing some meeting minutes. It only got thrown there because I needed someplace to put it while I was busy divesting my hands of other items. I am proud of how spare this shelf is, because it’s a testament to knowing what needs to be in hard copy, and what does not. I know exactly what’s on this shelf and why it needs to be there. If something doesn’t, scan it and trash it. ((Or recycle it. My company doesn’t recycle.)) Then you don’t have a ton of crap weighing down your shelves, desk, floor, or whatever. If you know what you have and have judged what you need, you’ll know where to find things when they’re required. And if you have a good archive system, you’ll know that everything is in there, even if it might take a little bit of digging to find. Better to dig electronically, rather than physically.

I can’t overstate the beauty of working in a neat and tidy office. Yes, occasionally things get overwhelmed, paper is strewn everywhere, plans and notes and all sorts of crap pile up, but if you stick with the idea of keeping things as tidy and neat as possible, than getting back to that state of grace is so much easier.

As a counter example, from an office just down the hall from me, we have these two shots: ((Note that this is not a forensic examination of the office. The reality is worse.))

Work is accomplished in this office, but I don’t understand how. Whenever I work together with the person in this room, it’s not in that office because there’s nowhere to put things and the place stresses me out. Note the old phone books on the top shelf. That is just wrong.

That shelf shown in the left hand picture is exactly the same as mine (shown above), with some of the same content. I don’t know the last time some of those items were used.

Be an Email Hater

Inbox Zero goes hand in hand with the last two items: keeping your workplace neat and throwing out or archiving everything that is unnecessary. If you’ve got more than a screen full of email waiting for you, you’ve got too much and you’ll never get to those things at the back of the queue. Be ruthless with that email. Do it, file it, archive it, delete it, or put it in a different place for a later action. Don’t just stare at it.

The way my work conducts itself, I tend to transfer any task items to my notebook (if necessary), then file the email in the appropriate project folder, thusly keeping all the action items together. ((I have an @actions folder like the GTD system specifies, but honestly I forget it’s there and it ends up being another dead task archive folder. Writing them down in my notebook works better for me)) I also tend to spend the last ten minutes of my work day deleting, archiving, or filing the emails that came in so that when I get to work in the morning I’m ready to go. Sometimes I’ll do that in the morning, but it’s usually easier to do it last thing, that way any emergencies that piled up during the evening and morning hours can be dealt with immediately.

Also, if you can, turn off the automatic alerts on your email. That ping and message notification popping up is distraction stealing your focus. Kill it! Hate your email! ((I can’t turn the alert off but I do have it set for only checking every 15 minutes. I regard this as something of a failure, that I’ve trained people to know that I respond to emails immediately. I need to work on that.))

Give Yourself Permission to Organize

No one can be 100% effective all the time, accomplishing task after task until the heavens open and angels sing and the Nobel Committee calls you at 4:00 AM EST. Sometimes, you have to organize, throw out, scan, list, clean, dust, etc. I tend to do this at odd times, like just before lunch, or before leaving work, or when the post-lunch-sleepies demand I do something active before zonking out. Whatever work you have, it will wait for a time while you organize yourself. The time invested on the front end will pay off on the back end. The ability to know you’re on top of things, or to know which things you are not on top of, is priceless. Speaking personally, I can respect someone whom I’m calling who can honestly say that while they haven’t been doing that one thing I need them to do, they haven’t forgotten about me and it’s number X on their task list. That is way better than “Ummm… what was that thing I was supposed to do again?”

The End (for now)

This short essay is my take on some ways of keeping organized and productive. While I have made many allusions to my workplace and work related activities, I try to apply this philosophy at home, too. It keeps things on track and my home space tidy. I’m not perfect at it, for example this post has been sitting on the electronic editing shelf for several weeks, but I knew it was there and that I would get back to it eventually.

Stay strong, write it down, keep organized, delete that email, and please throw out stuff you don’t need anymore.

July 22, 2012
I’ve Been Blogging Too Much about Ashford Dunwoody

So, to alleviate that fact, I’m going to give you a grab bag!

I read John Scalzi’s Red Shirts. I was anticipating this with the high expectations you might expect from a crazy-stalker-fan, mostly due to the five chapters that had been pre-released. Unfortunately, I have to rate this one as “less awesome than expected.” While it’s still a very good book, it did not shoot unicorns from its rainbows, and that’s where my expectations were. However, it’s the most meta science fiction book I’ve ever read and it makes such glorious fun of Star Trek that I’d call it a must read if you ever liked Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

I have a super double top secret surprise for my lovely wife, Dr. Jennifer Bowie on next Tuesday, which I will not tell you about because she occasionally reads my blog. Suffice to say that it’ll be a blast. I’m sure there will be pictures.

Jenn and I are attending the Euphoria burn this weekend. I will not be connected to any sort of internet, so you won’t have to listen to me tweet about it. We’ve never attended a burn before, so it’ll be a new experience for us.

I was highly entertained when I went looking around for an offline blogging tool, only to discover that I already had one on my computer. Windows Live Writer is doing a good job for what I need right now. My only complaint is that it’s clunky for attaching HTML tags like <cite> and <blockquote>, etc. I think there are ways around that, but I’ve only been using it for two days now.

I’m growing back the beard. Or at least the goatee. It’s been a year and a half and I’m interested to see how much grayer it will be.

The cats are still kittens, although they’re kittens who weight 13 pounds and thunder around like rabid elephants. This image is while they’re resting for their next thundering session.

The yard (and all of north Georgia for all I can tell) is growing a bumper crop of poison ivy this year. This is a picture of the third(!) set of ivy to crop up in the middle of our oregano patch. I’ve already RoundUp’d the back yard in glorious defiance of sound ecological practice and have been having fun pulling by hand all the poison ivy in the garden, the front (good) ivy, the juniper, the grass, they flowering shrubs, etc. It’s been a ton of barrels of monkeys. I’ve got a nice outbreak on my arms right now. I’ve talked about this before.

I’ve been yoga-izing myself consistently for the past three weeks. I’ve been not-running for the same amount of time. This is not a bad thing. I need to work on the whole core muscle thing.

I’ve been neglecting my Appalachian Trail section for the past few months. I need to get up there and do the water bar cleanout and whack some weeds. Maybe next weekend.

And that’s all that’s coming to mind right now in this brain dump. Keep it real, folks.

June 8, 2012
The Ecology of the Peep

Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted from diaries that I found while cleaning out the basement. The author is unknown but the notebooks are not old. I hazard that this person, whomever it is, has been pursuing this creature he describes for years

Little is popularly known about how the “Peep”¹ lives its life. Like most Americans, I assume that the Peep, like steak, is born fully wrapped at the local grocery store and ready for consumption. It wasn’t until my brother was killed by a psychotic wild Peep that I decided I must know how this creature lives its life. The better for me to eradicate them.

My journey took me to the natural range of the Peep. It was made known to me by a Mr. C that the only way to understand the Peep was to be adopted by one. I naturally scoffed at the notion of my dire hatred giving way, allowing myself to spend time with my sworn enemy. Nevertheless, I followed Mr. C’s map to the deep forest where he said I could find a nesting habitat.

After weeks of searching I finally found a nest where a wild Peep mother was watching over her youngling. The mother Peep was distraught by my appearance, emitting tiny “peep! peep!” noises whilst I was there. I found better ways to camouflage myself so that she could not see me. Eventually I was to observe the birth of the infant Peep.

Immediately after its emergence from the shell, I presented myself in the manner that Mr. C had recommended. The baby Peep imprinted on me, causing concern that I had altered its habitat too much for me to learn what I needed to destroy them. I was to discover that I had little to worry about. Peeps are naturally self reliant and do not depend on their adoptees for support.

After the infant Peep emerged and imprinted, the mother Peep vanished, never to be seen again.

The Peep is a canny and careful creature. For the first few weeks I observed the Peep only when it thought that the situation was safe. Here is the Peep just emerging from the long grass where it was hiding from its natural predator, the Rabbit Chocolatus. Once, while happening across another brood-pack of Peeps, I was to observe the Rabbit Chocolatus descend on them and devour every one. Gruesome. Strangely satisfying to my deep hatred. Perhaps I could breed and re-introduce the Rabbit Chocolatus to the Peep’s habitat?

One thing most people don’t know is how inquisitive the wild Peep is. Here is my Peep examining a Weber grill that was found in its range for some reason. Whenever my Peep felt safe enough, it was everywhere and into everything.

Another strange fact about the Peep is that except for the brood period and immediately after birth, the Peep is an arboreal creature, spending most of its time in trees. This, I hypothesize, keeps it safe from the Rabbit Chocolatus and its bright coloring probably protects it from larger predators such as hawks, who might think the Peep was poisonous.

My most shocking realization while following my Peep around was how intelligent it was! Here is the Peep cultivating a crop of oregano! Who knew that the Peep was capable of using tools and planning agriculture. And all from inborn instinct! No other Peep was around to teach my Peep its knowledge. They must have amazing DNA.

At last I discovered the Peep’s true ability to survive in the wild. They seek out and adopt creatures who can protect them. I can only guess that I was not supplying my Peep with the necessary feedback or encouragement; it went seeking another creature.

As of today, I am still following my Peep. It continues to surprise me and educate me. It’s quiet arboreal lifestyle (with the exception of its garden) confuses me because I know how savagely my brother was mauled by the Peep that killed him. Another year of study and I should be able to determine a course of attack to enact my revenge.

Editor’s Note: This was the last entry in the notebook. The fate of the author is unknown.

The author also never hypothesizes on the method by which certain companies have managed to raise and harvest the peep for the traditional Easter snack. It must be a terrible life for the captive peep, living in feedlots or similar before being boxed and distributed.

¹: Editor’s Note – Scientific name is Peepus Sucris

April 11, 2009
Keeping Track of Things

One of the things that High School tried to teach me was note taking skills. It didn’t really take until I got to college and even then I didn’t have a good system until around late sophomore year. I ended up only carrying a notepad of quadrille paper (three hole punched) to classes, taking all my notes and doing up my work and then filing it in 3 ring binders for later referral. That way I didn’t have to haul around a bunch of different binders or notebooks for my various classes.

I’ve gotten away from that system now. I only have two notebooks, one for personal stuff and one for work. My work notebook contains a lot of phone logs and records of conversation, plus lists of things to do. Very occasionally will it have sketches or numbers that document engineering work. That mostly is handled through the various software that I work with, however there is nothing quite like a hand sketched map with notes and annotations.

My personal notebook contains a lot of more notish stuff; much more like a journal than a logbook. In this notebook I currently have the layouts of two different gaming campaigns (one D&D from a while ago and one GURPS), the beginnings of my recording of my toothpick bridge building and some construction sketches for stuff around the house (it’s very early into the notebook’s life).

My current two-notebook system dovetails nicely with the modified GTD setup that I use. I go back through the notebooks at the end of the week and see if there are any outstanding “to do” items that need to be encapsulated in my system. It also lets me see what it was I did that week; I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s arrive at Friday afternoon and wondered what the heck it was that occupied all my time.

February 23, 2009

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