Do you take notes in you everyday life and if so, what are your methods?
I have been pretty stubborn about note taking in school, even in college. Only recently, when working on ways to improve my sucking memory, I've found how useful they are. First I started with PC software (Tomboy Notes), but then realized that a regular paper notebook turns out to be much more convenient and practical for many daily uses - especially organizing your time. While paper notebook is great with things you're likely to need only for a short time, it's weak when you need to find a thing you noted a long time ago or organize the knowledge you've entered over multiple sessions (so that it lands on completely different pages).
Computer-based note taking shines for such applications. It makes searching and organizing it so much easier. I'm only struggling to find myself a software that would fill my needs. I know many people use Evernote. First it is unavailable on Linux (which is system of my choice), but what's even more important it has some pretty stupid limitations like not allowing nested notebooks (folders structuring notes into different categories/spaces) deeper than level 2. As I mentioned I use Tomboy Notes, which is a wiki-style, based on linking one note to others. I was pretty happy with it, until the number of my notes increased to a point, where I felt the need to organize them into some complex hierarchy of categories. Tomboy doesn't allow that, being based only on finding notes by either finding a link to it from another note or entering terms in the search box. I tried all different note taking apps I could find but none of them seemed to fully satisfy me. There is one called BasKet Note Pads which is great and gives a lot of freedom in creating the notes - treating the note space like a blank piece of paper, meaning you can write (and add other things like images, lists) anywhere in any order, rather than a linear text file. Unfortunately the project isn't maintained and the interface is very clumsy. I'm now even considering writing a note taking app myself...
Hey no-cheating If you can write a notetaking app yourself, do it. That might be the only way to get it to fit your needs. I imagine these things need lots of options so people can fit it to themselves. As for your question: I'm a huge notetaker. I'm not in school, but I often go to lectures and seminars. If I don't take notes, it would be like a long dream. When I wake up, I know I had a long dream and I might remember the emotions, but after a few minutes the details are gone. I even take notes while I'm having lunch/coffee/dinner with someone. I put at the top of the page something like My Dinner with Andre and the date. With certain people, words and topics emerge that I record for later use. With new people, I might interview them. Seriously. I may turn those lunches into a story or blog later on. To keep my answer short: longhand in notebooks. Is my system organized, searchable, structured, effective: No Do I go back to my notes: Yes often What's the best part of my system: I try to keep a teeny tiny notebook with me always. I ask for teeny tiny notebooks for birthday presents and recently got 6 Moleskins. My notebook collection is not unlike the ones posted here: In case you missed it - a recent post called "Show Us Your Notebooks." You have found, in hubski, a notebook-loving community. A few more things about notes, before I go on and write some: 1. Writing the note is more important than going back and typing them out or reading them over. 2. Writing the note fixes it in memory - so even if you don't remember the note, you might remember that you wrote it and you might remember the day or event and can find it. 3. Of course, hard copy notes take up space, digital notes not so much. Were humans meant to take notes? Absolutely. That's what cave drawings are. (Maybe)
How did I miss that post? I'm a notebook hoarder myself...
So how many notebooks do you write a year? Do you write everything in a linear fashion or have some own system to it?You have found, in hubski, a notebook-loving community.
That's great
Life, hubski, blogging, working, interfere with my notebook-keeping. During my time of greatest personal growth (end of marriage, new life, new relationships), I filled a thick notebook every month with content, not collage. Now it includes collage (for example, on the first page of my current notebook there is a sketch of a dog that wasoxygen sent me in June 2014 when that journal starts. While I might be working on one journal since June, I've also filled 4 or 5 teeny tiny notebooks. I might also print up something that I sent in an email and stick it in the journal. I'd like to print out occasional comments on hubski and put them in the journal as well (note to self: add this to goals list). Lots to do. In any event, the system hopes to be linear but often is chaos. Yet somehow I manage to function. Question no-cheating: What is your GOAL in keeping notebooks. To organize? to remember? to use as source material for creation? to solve problems? Leonardo da Vinci kept many notebooks. They are all on line now, brought to us by Project Gutenberg. HINTS for people keeping notes in notebooks and not digitally: 1. date fucking everything. 2. don't use abbreviations that you will forget in 20 years. In one notebook entry from long ago, I was writing randomly about sexual experiences and I mentioned having sex with t. d. & h. Several years later, I went back to that notebook for some reason and I had no idea what I was talking about. Who was t., d. and h? I didn't remember having sex with t. d. and h. and I couldn't find any other references to them. I drove myself crazy wondering what I had written about. Then I realized it was a reference to the expression "Tom, Dick, and Harry" - as wikipedia calls it "a placeholder for multiple unspecified people."How many notebooks do you write a year?
Question no-cheating: What is your GOAL in keeping notebooks. To organize? to remember? to use as source material for creation? to solve problems?
Organize and remember were clearly the root reasons, but I see notebooks give much more possibilities (e.g. storing and organizing the knowledge I'm learning, writing down my ideas and then build something out of it) I could use it for and would like to, just don't have a clue how to start. You see I have a pretty hard time starting things, when I don't have a good plan on how to act. Guess I'm more a scientific kind of guy and lack a bit in creativity. I like to have some kind of discipline I set on myself and that shows even in my systematized well-organized note taking.In any event, the system hopes to be linear but often is chaos. Yet somehow I manage to function.
That is something that really amazes me, when looking at other people's notes. I filled a thick notebook every month with content, not collage. Now it includes collage (for example, on the first page of my current notebook there is a sketch of a dog that wasoxygen sent me in June 2014 when that journal starts. While I might be working on one journal since June, I've also filled 4 or 5 teeny tiny notebooks.
So what is the difference between the notebook and the teeny tiny notebook? What kind of different things you store there? Also what do you mean by collage? It's a bit abstract to me, as can be keeping up with chaos in the notebook.
a teeny tiny notebook will fit in a pocket. a journal requires sitting down with it somewhere quiet and filling pages. by collage I mean the paper stuff that are evidence of a story or event, but I might not have time to write the details, tickets, maps, lists, pictures, etc. like you would put in a scrapbook.
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I have an overcomplicated system of notebooks and digital applications. I don't know if it makes me more organized but it’s fun. Right now I have seven notebooks active; each with a more or less specific use. First I always carry two pocket size notebooks. One is to record my thoughts, events or things that catch my eye while I'm out of home. The other contains my to-do lists and other tasks keeping systems (right now I'm trying the Bullet journal, which seems to clean for my taste). At home or in my backpack I have the remaining four, all of the in A5 format. The first I use for my field research. When I'm in the library or in the archive I use this one to take notes and to plot possible future texts. All of the formal notes are typed into my computer databases. The second is for reading not related with my research. In this I take quotes for history and philosophy books or I sketch the plots from novels or stories. Then I have my novel notebook used for the plotting and ideas for my own novel. And lastly my trash notebook, a thick spiral bound notebook, used for doodles, and throw away information like webpages, things to do once I end the task at hand, telephones and specially hotkeys. Most of this notebook is trash, hence its name, but once finished, I revisit it to tear the useful pages, which are stored in envelopes. The rest of the notebooks have numbered pages and indexes for future reference. Now, I would love to have all this information in a digital system. And the things I need for research or work are kept in a database. My systems end always in a mess, and for me a paper mess is easier to manage and navigate than a digital mess. Furthermore I have a lot more of fun writing longhand than typing in a keyboard. Every now and then I try to make the change, but never really do.
I am a big time note taker. As a chef, we always have a notebook on hand. I have dozens from my years in the trenches. Sometimes I think about digitizing them. Then I remember that I just bought a new whiskey that I want to try. I have been playing D&D for almost 30 years now. I have boxes and binders and folders full of notes. Stacks of notebooks, large and small, filled with details of created worlds, plot hooks, and ideas for devious traps and puzzles, etc. Then I have the digital notes. I have a few folders on my desktop with around 1,000 original documents in them. As far as digital notes go, I just use a word processor. LibreOffice, in my case, because fuck Word. I set up some custom templates for the types of notes that I commonly take (e.g. recipes, menu ideas, types of evil organizations). I organize them in the traditional Windows folder/file hierarchy. It works well for me. Like you, I tried Evernote and, like you, I was unimpressed. I also made a private subreddit just to act as a compendium of things I want to take note of. The subreddit is not ideal. The 6 month limitation on active posts is quite limiting. Sometimes I even post things to Hubski so that I have easy access to it for later reference.
I found an app TagSpaces, which is something you may find very handy, if you use simple files to store notes. For my purposes files aren't enough, because you can't easily hyperlink between them (unless they are HTML files) which is something I do often and find very handy.
Looks very helpful. I'll have to give it the old test drive. Thanks for the link.
I'm interested what are the notes types of evil organizations about :). As for the notes being just files on the system, it's a nice idea. It has some obvious restrictions, but maybe it'll still work in my case. I'll need to think about it some more.