Another Drone in the 75 cent Notebook Army
A while back, Brip Blap wrote a post entitled “Another Drone in the Moleskine Army” all about how he bought a beautiful fancy notebook to make lists and notes in that he could not resist once he touched it. The title of that post has jammed itself into my head and I cannot shake it loose. Clever, Brip Blap.
But also from that post, I kept thinking about having a notebook for listmaking. I make too many weird and varied lists for a notebook to store them all, and I have a good number of my lists housed on the computer now, but there is something about putting pen to paper and simply… writing. Typing is effective, but typing cannot completely compare. And a good cross-out with a pen beats a click to delete any day of the week. I was thinking about asking for a notebook specifically made for lists for Christmas but it seemed… excessive. But oh, a centralized list of all my many varied lists and progress, kept daily… ah, the thought.
Fast forward to last week, when I needed to buy my son a notebook to take to his speech preschool with him. My son is behind the curve a bit in expressive language, and he is going to a specialized preschool this year to help encourage him to talk more with others and have conversations. We needed to send a notebook with him because we are supposed to write down things he did at home that the teachers can use to start conversations with him. Or so I thought. In fact, I misread the sheet, and the school was providing the notebook for him. So now I had a random little notebook that I’d already written in so couldn’t be returned…. that we had gotten at a back-to-school clearance sale for $0.75.
For the past few days I have been making a daily “to do” list in this notebook for myself, with a heading from each of my other major lists (Blog posts, Blog-related activities, Finances, Work, House, Errands, Misc) and writing down everything from each of those master lists I want to accomplish that day in the appropriate places. And I feel… organized! Productive! Calm. Mellow. It is amazing. And every day I cross out what I’ve accomplished and transfer the rest to the next day, adding whatever I need from the original master lists, and… ta da! I’m getting things done and feeling good about it.
I may not be a drone in Brip Blap’s moleskine army but I’m a drone in its very cheap cousin-army… the 75 cent notebook one. (It is striped and has an elastic to hold the pages in place… what more could I want?)
~J
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Related entries for your reading pleasure:
September 13th, 2007 at 9:44 am
I know exactly what you mean about the written lists. I have tried lists on the computer or in my palm, but it’s just not the same.
I really like the idea of master lists broken down into daily lists, I am going to try that now! Usually my master lists just get longer and longer and hard to read as I cross things off.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:23 am
I think (and I’ve only been doing this for a week) I’m getting at the perfect balance for me with this system.
I also had master lists all scribbled on and hard to read. Now I keep those on the computer - so much easier to delete things and move things around and find old things that would have been lost between scribbles.
But having a written list I can transfer parts of the master list to for what tasks I want to accomplish that day — I can scratch things out to my heart’s content.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I got one for about $4 - it’s got several sections, and …. POCKETS! That’s what more you could want. *chuckle*
I keep my running to-do in one section, running shopping lists in one section, and running money tabs in the third. each one has a two-sided tagboard pocket, and in those 6 pockets I keep ….
random coupons I pick up, until I can take them home and file them
receipts as I’m out and about - same as above
pages ripped out of sales circulars
printed directions or whatever forms and things I need for today
You get the idea. But yeah, I like your 75c book!
September 13th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
That sounds excellent. I am seriously a list junkie.
I would say I was an organization junkie but I feel I must be more organized to be able to make that kind of statement.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Wow! I’m very flattered… I’m glad that you joined the more-sensibly-priced army. I had a little notebook, too, but it started falling apart - maybe it was just being too roughly used. I still love my Moleskine. I am still a drone.
In any case, I loved the post (how could I not?) and I am always deeply pleased when something I say is jammed in someone’s head. Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I am
September 13th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I was wondering how long it would take for you to find this post! lol
Well I have no illusions that my cheap clearance notebook will last a long time or anything, and I am sure that a moleskine would be very perfect and beautiful and I would become a drone. But I must resist! For now at least.
