Writing Less Often And In One Notebook

[Pussinboots]

I'm beginning to realise that my visual diary is now becoming a blow by blow account of my daily activities, ie work was busy today, met so and so for lunch, weather rainy. I paste in photos etc when I feel the need and note special occasions but inbetween these events it is becoming mundane. As you know from my previous posts I keep a notebook as a journal just for writing.

 

I am now thinking of just using the one notebook and putting everything in there, getting things off my chest when needed and also writing about the good things and memorable occasions and pasting in memorabilia when its warranted and not just posting a photo of the snow on my street as I sometimes do.

 

Any views on this?

[ac12]

That is my journal.

It can be from 1 page to about 6+ pages in one day. It just depens on how wordy I feel like.

Some days I just unload and write, other days nothing much.

 

Although I am planning to pull out and separate my health/medical stuff into a separate journal, which will be easier to take and discuss things with the doc.

[jmccarty3]

Your heirs will find the routine of your life less mundane than you think. In the meantime, don't write anything in your journal that you wouldn't want published on the front page of your daily newspaper.

[SockAddict]

I have read old journals and wished there were more detail about exactly how they did such-and-such, because it's not how we do that now, or maybe we don't do it at all. So, if you're writing for who reads it in the future, don't worry about that. But if you're writing for your enjoyment now, go with what makes you happy!

[Pussinboots]

Thanks for your replies. Would you keep it all in the cheap exercise book or the nice bound book? I must admit that before I started with the visual daily journal I have always written as and when I've felt the need to but it is good to get all the details down of daily life.

[Pussinboots]

Your heirs will find the routine of your life less mundane than you think. In the meantime, don't write anything in your journal that you wouldn't want published on the front page of your daily newspaper.

 

Yes I do worry about this (as per my previous post) but there are mixed feelings here about this, some people say you shouldn't worry about what you write and a few people would be more wary. I am still on the fence over this. I may just write anything too near the bone on separate paper.

[ac12]

 

Thanks for your replies. Would you keep it all in the cheap exercise book or the nice bound book? I must admit that before I started with the visual daily journal I have always written as and when I've felt the need to but it is good to get all the details down of daily life.

 

I write a LOT, so I use CHEAP stuff.

Staples, single subject, wire bound, made in BRAZIL. On sale last July/Aug 'Back to School Sale," for 17 cents each. I bought 30 notebooks. Which will last about 3 years, based on my past usage rate.

[Pussinboots]

 

 

I write a LOT, so I use CHEAP stuff.

Staples, single subject, wire bound, made in BRAZIL. On sale last July/Aug 'Back to School Sale," for 17 cents each. I bought 30 notebooks. Which will last about 3 years, based on my past usage rate.

 

Wow you do write a lot, is it all journal writing if you don't mind me asking, do you vent in your books too? Just wondering also where do you keep them all

[Studio97]

Years ago I wrote on some really cheap notebook paper with disposable rollerballs and BP. I have seen paper discolor and written words begin to fade. I think if we take time to write we should put it down on something that will last. I truly believe that someday our (my) journals will be valuable to family members or to someone just as my collection of my grandfathers postcards are to me from the early 1900s. These were postcards he wrote on and mailed out and somewhere along the way many of them were assembled and back in his possession....all are like individual writings just as we journal today. Some of my postings on FPN are in my journals too.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Studio97

[DonLeone]

Used to have multiple books using a disk bound system. Now all is consolidated in one main book and multiple "scatter books".

 

Scatter books are books I scatter around my place for when I need to write something quickly. Like when I'm on the John and have profound thoughts and whatnot.

 

Once in a while I'll move stuff from my scatterbooks to the main book. A while back I was too depressed to maintain multiple books per subject.

 

I'm now splitting off into multiple books again.

 

1. Commonplace book. Google it. Moleskine large

 

It's what smart people used to use before disco destroyed everything. A commonplace book is a book where you put all the stuff you want to remember. The brain is not really capable of conveniently storing a lot of info. It's great at storing where to find info. Smart people used to use these books to store quotes, poems, scientific stuff, etc. and then used these books for example to look stuff up when they were discussing things. Think how extraverts talk about the weather, introverts about deeper, more elaborate things and commonplacers about super deep well thought out stuff with credible sources recorded in their commonplace book. For example, my book holds stuff like:

- Some impactful poems which I can use in conversations.

- Cool quotes like Seinfeld "All of human endeavour, is killing time." or Raymond Chandler on writing things down "When you have to use your energy to put those words down, you are more apt to make them count."

- I recently added a huge list of pseudo-sciences. While adding the list I read a commencement speech by Richard Feyneman about scientific method, cargo cult scientists, etc. I don't like to admit it, but some things I thought were real actually were pseudo-sciences.

- I added information about the scientific method, the engineering scientific method, critiques on the method and critiques on the critiques.

- I add names of people and papers so I can say "Yeah research suggests that people with this or that do the other thing" and then I look in my book and give the actual source of the information, which "normals" can't give because they don't bother doublechecking or defining anything >8[

- Definitions of things. Definitions are important. Having actual scientific or dictionary definitions on hand is a great boon to get everyone on the same page.

- Explanations of things. Difference between 14k, 18k and 24k gold in fountain pen nibs for example.

- As a weirdomcbeardo introvert who speaks too many languages, I have a hard time explaining what I mean. So I tend to write stuff in well thought out ways. Then I look up what I wrote and just read that out loud when I try to explain something.

- I also record the medication I take but I need a better system for that. It's very important for when something happens to you. You don't want anyone operating on you after a car crash if you've got aspirin in your system. Aspirin is a blood thinner. You could friggin die. Just an example. So when I get in some sort of medical trouble I can refer to page x of my commonplace and not die.

- Whenever I learn something new, I put it in there. I frequently page through the book to look something up. While paging I refresh my memory on other things.

- I'm about to add a large amount of critical thinking techniques.

- I've got a load of recent research links in there. Usually neurology or psychology things.

- It has pages for ink reviews or new pens.

- Random entry I just found by opening the book at a random page: The 4 modalities of learning: Auditory, Kinestehetic, Visual, Reading/writing. Use 2 of those to remember stuff or 1+ an emotion. See page 74. On page 74 I go on about how I looked up where those 4 modalities came from and found vague stuff about a paper which refers to some somewhat pseudo-sciences or other vague research. I then ended up looking for critiques on learning methods and it appears that there is a subtle war going on and nobody really knows for sure how people learn which explains the effectiveness or lack thereof of regular school and higher education. So now whenever I'm in a conversation about this stuff I can refer to that stuff instead of just nodding and feeling dumb because I can't remember the details.

- There's an entry about how our memories are actually reconstructions and how those reconstructions can be faulty, which makes having a commonplace book act like a band-aid or better, a corrective tool to make up for our bad memory reconstructions.

- I recently added Sierpinski's triangles, Appelonian Gaskets, Koch Curves and other math related cool stuff.

 

This commonplace book started out as a catch-all journal where I tracked my diet, weight, painkiller intake, stupid neighbour annoyances, etc. I'm going to keep using it like that until it is full, then I'm going to copy over all the commonplace stuff into a new commonplace book. I really don't want to constantly be reminded about all the hateful stuff I put in there. And when I do end up in a car crash and my jaw is mangled, communicating the page of importance is kind of hard so I'll put that in my planner and put a link to my planner in my wallet with my ID.

 

Although many commonplace books have been published in the past, it is not meant for public consumptions. It's an extension of yourself.

 

If you've seen any of the recent sherlock holmes series like Sherlock and Elementary, you'll see the sherlocks look through their own writings to find stuff they researched in the past. They're essentially paging through their commonplace books.

 

 

2. Scatterbooks. Disk bound A5

 

Books I scatter around. Pads, disk bound stuff, whatever. I transfer to commonplace if deemed good enough.

 

 

3. Disk bound notes. Disk bound A5

 

I take notes from audiobooks, books, lecture, youtubes, anything. These are not random like scatter book stuff and I keep them in disckbound notebooks with tabs and 160g cardboard/cardstock dividers. At the end of a book or lecture series I'll find more info then transfer stuff to commonplace.

 

 

4. My flip up open mini notebook. TeNeues

 

You know how cops and journalists on TV always have a notebook that is tall and skinny and flips open? And how it is usually a leather one? WHY ARE THEY SO HARD TO FIND?! I got a teneues one but I really want one of them leather bound thin refillable ones. They are great for making notes anywhere. Good stuff goes to commonplace.

 

 

5. My poop-brown stand up comedy notebook. Teneues large

 

So I've been told I should do stand up because I keep making these great observations and have a weird way with words. As if I were forged in the fires of a thousand flamewars. That type of stuff. So I got myself a poop brown (what better colour is there for this?) TeNeues large notebook to store all my great jokes and routines in. It's currently empty, which is showing of the quality of my work so far -.-

 

 

6. Journal. Unknown book as of yet.

 

Once my current one is full, I'll copy the non-commonplace things to a different book. There are things that happen which I don't want to think about. Constantly reminding myself of them only brings my therapists more wealth. I do need to find stuff at some point. So I'll have this as a side book.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion:

1 Commonplace

1 Journal that is currently in commonplace

1 Poop journal that goes unused

Several scatterbooks

 

 

I really only have one notebook right now. Rest are utility or auxiliary books. Having these though allows me to extend my brain's processing power and active memory. I can tackle larger issues.

 

In fact, if I were to go back to school, I'd use a commonplace from the start. I wish I'd known about this earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIIIT: and I have about 10 or more pens inked in rotation all in different colors, and I write every separate entry in a different color. Scatterbrain books I write super fast, commonplace I write slowly and legibly.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Don Zardeone

[alex137]

I've sort of solved this problem for myself with a Fauxdori notebook, but really it's got a Field Notes and a Moleskine Volant in it so really it's two smaller notebooks. FN for to-do lists, brain dumps, and notes on things as each day happens, and Moleskine for journaling. (There's a third book in there, but it's a datebook.) As I finish them I'm using a smartphone app called TurboScan (available for iOS and Android both; not affiliated just a happy user) to scan the pages to PDF and back them up on Dropbox. I love pen and paper, but I like having backups of everything.