Making NotebooksProductive
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Making Notebooks More Productive

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a notebook productive. Many people use them to dump their thoughts, but I know as an IT person that if you can’t get the information out again, there is no point in putting it in.

I’ve been thinking about this because of my experimenting with the Bullet Journal (see here and here), and because I am fighting myself from wanting to put my thoughts in other notebooks. The stuff in my Bullet Journal is easily accessible and easy to find…other notebooks are not. So why am I trying to veer back to the non-productive way?

Why Notebooks Aren’t Productive

There are a lot of reason notebooks aren’t productive. And I will confess that I am guilty of all of them.

Too Many Bits

I have discovered that having one notebook keeps things simple. I have one place to put things, and one place to look for things. I used to have multiple notebooks, separated by work, writing, blogging…you name it. But then I would find I didn’t have the right notebook with me, and I would refuse to write notes.

Where Did I Put That?

Even worse, within the notebooks, I couldn’t find things. I would flip through, looking for bits and pieces. They might be scattered, or embedded in the middle of something else. Chaos!

The Great Pit of Information

Even worse, I never pulled stuff out. So when I wrote out a quick list of things I needed to do, it would sit there…and be ignored. Ideas were never consolidated, contacts never entered into my address book.

One Notebook To Rule Them All

Multiple notebooks leads to chaos. While I still have multiple planners, these are the end points of the information. I have one notebook, my Bullet Journal is the only place I now take notes.

By eliminating the other notebooks, I not only make it easier to take notes, but I also eliminate extra stuff I need to carry.

Table Of Contents

I still do a table of contents, and thanks to the Bullet Journal, it is now done as soon as I start a new page. Every page is in the table of contents, and the entries match the heading on the page.

The table of contents allows me to quickly find whatever I am looking for, and eliminates the need to hunt through all the pages.

Color-Coded Markings

I still do color-coded edges on the pages, but not for everything. I only use two at the moment, but it makes it easy to find the pages when the notebook is turned sideways.

While the table of contents is good, the markings give me quick access to the pages I may need.

Regular Transfer

In the previous article, I told how I clipped the corners of the pages ala DayTimer in order to indicate if I have processed a page. While this seemed like a good idea, what it did was leave me with pages clipped and others not. I didn’t process everything I needed to, and it lead to chaos.

Now, I don’t bother to clip the edges. Everything gets processed into the systems once a week. Of course, it helps that much of my information is in Evernote, and I can simply take a picture of it and load it right into the appropriate notebook. 🙂

Discussion Questions

Now, over to you. What makes notebooks non-productive for you?

Image by miss_rogue. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text Added.