On Interruptions — The Brooks Review
What it means is that if you want to get work done, uninterrupted, you better not be doing it on an iPhone. And if you really want to be left alone, write on paper.
Solid advice. Ben took a poll so it has to be true. Plus, more reasons to write on paper.
The Pile of Index Cards PoIC system | Unclutterer
Hawk Sugano you’ll find him on Flickr as “hawkexpress” has devised a system he calls Pile of Index Cards PoIC. It’s a combination of a “brain dump” emptying one’s mind of all important information by writing it down, long-term storage for reference, and David Allen’s GTD method. It’s all managed by a “dock” of 3×5 index cards, and the result is tidy and searchable. The following are instructions for how to set up and use the system.
It is rare that I come across a paper based productivity system I haven’t heard of before. This looks like a really neat.
Ultimately, the Hobonichi Planner amazed me. Its benefits are subtle, and it is meant to be used daily. The Planner is thoughtfully designed, able to be employed for a multitude of tasks, and a pleasure to use. The more I used, the more I started to appreciate it, and to feel that it truly belonged to me. It truly does exemplify the Japanese concept of ‘Yo no bi’ – or ‘beauty through use’.
A good review with some really nice pictures. This is what I use for my daily log. I love mine.
How I Use Notebooks — Productivityist
I tend to keep either a stack of Frictionless Capture Cards or a smaller notebook (like a Field Notes notebook, for example) with me for when I’m out and about, and I use my Pilot Coleto multi-pen to write down anything in it. Why a multi-pen? Because I use the different colours to represent different things.
For especially visual people, the use of a multi-pen might be a great thing to try. As Mike goes on to say:
That way I have a visual trigger whenever I look at the notebook – I know what item is for what category. Again, the colours create a firmer connection for me.
Handwritten lyrics for “Love Will Tear Us Apart” – Boing Boing.
Very cool. Posting this one for my friend Dawn who is a huge Joy Division fan.
Mechanical pencil torture test – Boing Boing.
We tortured these mechanical pencils. You can probably imagine what happened next.
Actually, most of them survived well enough for a short review of easy at the end. Glad to see my personal favorite, the Kuru Toga, faired well.
Subscribe to your favorite notebooks | Out of Pages.
Out of Pages offers subscriptions to notebooks for people who love thinking on paper.
If you are the type of person that fills up your notebooks with a certain regularity, this service might be just the thing you need. Sign up for automatic delivery by mail of either Moleskine or Field Notes notebooks on the schedule of your choosing (for instance, every 3 months). If you finish one up before your next schedule delivery they include a postcard you can send them to get it sooner. It’s a neat idea. I only wish more notebook brands/types were available.
I’m fascinated by the new (to me, at least) uses people find for notebooks.
While I was in San Francisco, my friend Dawn showed me one of the ways she uses a small Moleskine Reporter’s Notebook while she is traveling. Often, if she meets someone new, she hands them the notebook and asks that they write anything they want in it. It could be long or short. Just their name or their life story. Anything they want.
I found it a neat idea. Similar to the notebook-as-greeting-card idea that I linked to a while back. Other people get to write themselves into your story. And you get to take away something personal and tangible to remember them with.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the MPR News Top Coast Festival. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give Sketchnoting the event a spin. Sure, there are lots of small details I could point out and nitpick. But, ultimately, it is about capturing the key ideas and images that made the conference memorable for me. I’m pretty darn proud of how they turned out.
I have long admired the Sketchnotes that my friend Mike Rohde did at conferences. Mike pioneered this style of visual note taking many years ago and I’ve been a big-big-fan from day one. I’ve always wanted to learn how to do it myself but have never been comfortable with my drawing skills. Mike gave a Sketchnote Workshop in Milwaukee last year that I attended. It was fantastic and, between that and his book on the subject, it went a long way for improving both my skills and my comfort level. If, like me, you look at Sketchnotes or drawing by others and say to yourself, “I could never do that.”, I totally recommend checking out what Mike has to offer.
You can check out the full set on Flickr. For those that care (meaning, likely, all of you), I used a large Moleskine Sketchbook, a Pentel EnerGel RTX 0.7 (on day one), and a Retro 51 Tornado Black Stealth 0.7 (on day two).
I have a long and rocky relationship with pen and paper. Ive often romanticized the idea of keeping a paper journal to record the passage of my life. Yet, despite many attempts over the years, Ive never been able to stick to any kind of journalling habit for more than a couple of weeks at a time.That was until I came across Ryder Carrolls brilliant Bullet Journal concept and mashed it up with Patrick Rhones Dash/Plus pen and paper markup system into a "Hybrid Journal".
Nice mashup of the two paper based markup systems by James. A reminder that, while adopting someone else’s system as is is OK, adapting it and making it your own is better.