Keeping a Notebook

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And I don’t mean keeping a laptop. I meaning having a place to write things down to get them out of your mind.

I have written in a notebook for almost twenty years now. I started early. It has been a practice that always brings a lot more with it than you expect.

By writing things down, you make them concrete. I am a dreamer. Always dreaming up new ways of doing things. These things float into my mind at random points of the day. Sometimes they stay and sometimes they move on. Some ideas are good and some are bad. But if I can, I write them down. This fixes them in place. It makes them real instead of a dream. Writing is an action and by taking that first action, the work is set in motion.

Now not every idea is a good one. But when they are down on paper, I don’t have to worry about losing the good ones. Somehow the act of writing brings life into the good ones. A few days or weeks later, those ideas come back to me more complete, almost by magic. I don’t know what mechanism is at work in this process. I just have learned to trust it over the years.

Another benefit of writing things down is that is seems to free your mind up, as if the ideas I currently have are blocking future ones. Once they are out of the way, watch out. They will come twice as fast tomorrow.

But I try to do it daily. I just start writing. Eventually there is a point where the pen won’t stop moving. And that’s when I find things I never even thought.

Notebooks are for more than to do lists.

Tags: Writing, writing notebooks, writing practice

3 Dec, 2007 Blogging, Writing, ZTD

7 Comments so far »

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Matt (Profile)

Matt said

December 3 2007 @ 1:47 pm

Great post…lol to the laptop part ;)…my dad has kept a journal for 30 years…you two are dominating the game hehe..I started keeping a journal out of necessity while running my websites online. Helps you stay focused and keep ideas that would otherwise be forgotten, remembered like you stated.

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Stephan Miller (Profile)

Stephan Miller said

December 3 2007 @ 1:51 pm

I just moved from a small notebook to a full sized one. My ideas are bigger now. Just another observation.

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Hope Wilbanks @ HopeWrites.com (Profile)

Hope Wilbanks @ HopeWrites.com said

December 3 2007 @ 6:16 pm

I totally agree. I have TONS of notebooks…EVERYWHERE. Just ask one of my sisters or my husband…they’ll tell you I’m a notebook nut.

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Marko Pyhajarvi (Profile)

Marko Pyhajarvi said

December 4 2007 @ 7:55 am

Hi Stephan,

I agree. It is a must to have a notebook. Without my notebook I would have lost few good ideas. In fact, I have forgotten some ideas because I haven’t had my notebook when driving my car, taking a shower or when running. Those are the situations in which brains set to “free-running” mode and ideas just keep on coming..

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Stephan Miller (Profile)

Stephan Miller said

December 4 2007 @ 8:49 am

Hey Marko. Good to see you.

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Djakson Cleber (Profile)

Djakson Cleber said

December 5 2007 @ 2:00 am

I’ve got to tell you, you’re 100% right, not only you have a clearer perspective of your life but you can in fact learn from your mistakes and pitfalls by looking at them.

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Ryan (Profile)

Ryan said

December 5 2007 @ 11:36 am

I totally agree, I always have a notebook or notepad handy. People laugh because I work on a computer all day (with quick access to Notepad), yet I still prefer to right down my ideas with a real pen and paper. In a pinch I can use the voice recorder on my cellphone.

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