my unglamorous, but effective, method is to use the notes app on my phone. i write down dreams, ideas for writing, topics to research, media to look into and read/watch/listen to. this is also where i take notes on lectures or write questions that arise for me.
i usually look through my notes about once a week to remind myself or to discard things i have acted on.
i have contracted with a neighborhood mutt to bite me each friday if i don't show him proof i have been reviewing.
honestly, i just *want* to review them because the stuff i write down matters to me right now. and it's easy to do since i'm in and out of my notes app 20 times a day.
Hey, I do that too, and I find it works better than anything else at this point. I will find myself thinking, “I haven’t written anything in quite a while,” but when I go back and look at my notes, I realize I’ve been writing all along.
I write in a journal most mornings,just kind of a “set the day” standard for me. I copy a brief scripture, quote or encouragement, and my thoughts of what is happening or just happened. Every night I write a brief to do for the next day in my notes app.
It’s so fun reading how everyone goes about it in different ways ways.
Substack algorithm notified me of this. I continue to be baffled: Why does it do what it does? I'll simply comment that I prefer my commonplace book to a mere notebook. And that I have convinced myself that the first draft of my book is in it, except the words are not in the right order. Haha. And that, meanwhile, I continue to add words and article links and other things. It's digital, so no pressed flowers. But no regrets. I write mostly using my little glowing rectangle.
I usually write in Google Keep. Then when I'm at a keyboard I copy-paste from there to a Dropbox file I edit with Emacs in Org mode. I save images and link to them.
I prefer this to the turnkey solution I was using up until last year: Evernote. For most people I think Evernote would work just fine.
I got fed up with the lock-in and price increases.
Do you write your ideas down? What’s your process? I do. Lately, it's book ideas, so I've been writing them down in an Excel spreadsheet.
Do you revisit your old notes (this is something I am teeeerrrible at so I wanna hear how people do it lol)? Yes. LOL. See #1
Are you also obsessed with learning about how amazing artists took notes? Who are some of your favorites? (two of my fav collections of notes are Jillian Hess’ Noted and Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note) I am not. Because like golf, note-taking is boring, and I could care less how other people do it. Famous or otherwise. BWAHA!
I have a newsletter about how and why I keep a notebook, that also quotes heavily from Didion … coming out tomorrow 😄
My notebook is my planner, diary, and sketchbook. I try to include mundane happenings as well as big stuff. There’s also plenty of bad ideas—so much so that I just made stickers that say “Warning: Contains Bad Ideas”
What I wish I'd stop doing: stashing my digital notes in new places just because I like playing with apps. I have a cycle of *Ooh! New toy! My brain will live HERE now!* and then two weeks later: *Welp. Guess I'll export it all to Evernote again sssssigh*
But my physical notebooks: there at least I've learned some consistency. Leuchtturm 1917 A5. I know I like the paper & it plays nice with my pens, I like the fat spines b/c I can write dates on them with a Sharpie, and I feel comically proud when the side of my finger is inkstained, like woo, look at how *devoted to my craft* I am.
I took Holly Wren Spaulding's "Secret Life" course in 2018 and now I re-take it on my own every year between Christmas and New Year's, and part of that is rereading the past year's notebooks. I use colored pencils to mark anything I might want to pull out for use elsewhere. Then I type those fragments into whatever notes app I'm in love with at the moment, and lose them by Groundhog Day, and rediscover them when I inevitably heave a big sigh and export Shiny App's notes to the unbearable muddle that is my Evernote. But I tag them well, and when I'm avoiding a book deadline I roam through the tags and find all these little Lego pieces to play with. It's not efficient, but it works. Eventually.
I’ve been keeping a notebook since I was 6. It’s so fascinating to look back, but the most interesting entries are the ones with the detail of what I was eating or who I saw that day that I’ll never remember otherwise.
I carried a little notebook around with me earlier this year and loved it. I can read those notes and instantly be transported back in time to who I was, what I was seeing, who the note was about. I’m not sure why I stopped… But this has reminded me in the value of noticing and treating myself as an artist and my thoughts as an artist’s thoughts. THANK YOU.
“Say yes to the tickle in your brain that went ‘whoa.’”
I reread my old journals all the time. It’s nice to visit past me. Pre-heartbreak. Pre-middle age. Pre-pandemic. I feel some pressure to keep writing every day so future me will have equally interesting things to read. The only form of time travel I have …
Great essays - by both you and Joan Didion. I feel the same way. What we write doesn't have to be something that actually happened in the "real" world. But they are things that happen inside our heads. We shouldn't be restricted to simply being journalists and writing the facts. We can envision new, alternative possibilities. In fact, as writers, that is, I believe, our responsibility, to ourselves and to everyone else - even if most other people think we really don't do anything. We know better.
I’m a notorious note taker and I journal consistently. I have physical proof of the shit that went through my head and seemed normal when I was at my lowest, when I was stoned 24/7, when I would have days or a couple hours that felt better, and when it all came crashing down again. My journal contains the slow, nonlinear healing process (which for a while never feels like a healing process) of my first heartbreak, and my second. Right now it’s colored with entries of hope for the Great Next, attempts to pick apart my self-serving tendencies without becoming self-deprecating (i’m nothing if not a pendulum swinger), and encouraging messages for my present a future self that all growth is slow and often invisible until you wake up one day more grown than before.
Aside from my journaling, my notes app is full to the brim. It’s faster to type, so I use it for my book/movie ideas until they’ve got enough beef to them to be transferred to a google doc, funny little sentences or questions that pop into my head (one of my notes contains only the question, “is he hot or does he just pull off a buzzcut?”), a page dedicated to funny real-life quotes from my friends/family, many short scenes inspired by life. I’ve been writing since I physically learned how, so it’s always felt natural for me to do so, and honestly it’s one of those things where if I go long enough without it I feel like I might explode or something equally pretty.
As for tips on re-visiting, honestly, I go through my notes app once in a blue moon, but I go through my journal pretty regularly. I have to go into it with my guard up somewhat, because it can be triggering and mess up my mood, but it’s encouraging to see how far I’ve come from such a low low. So it’s like equal parts grief for my past self, which has defined my present self, and hope for my future self. I do it automatically, so I don’t really know how to encourage you to do it as well, it’s a just do it situation I think. Maybe you could make it a routine, like every Saturday morning, you go through your notes from the week or something.
Just realized how long this is. Sorry! Hope it’s worth the read hahaha
Justin was dropping some wisdom in that video about how he uses Sublime to trace where his ideas came from. I feel like thats a great way to foster curiosity and self-awareness
(1) I try to write things down immediately. my notes app is like the elephant graveyard in lion king. if i get enough skelies i move it to a google doc.
(2) when im either blocked or need a good laugh i read my old notes.
(3) I’ve never thought about it and now I probably won’t be able to stop thinking about how other people take notes.
1) Do you write your ideas down? What’s your process?
-- i carry a digital recorder all the time and when i have ideas i record them with my voice. then at some point, i listen back and write those ideas down into physical notebooks. then at some point, i take those notebooks and type the ideas into my laptop. i'm very meticulous AND ALSO i have about six notebooks waiting to be transcribed (from the last couple years).
-- i also do freewriting each morning on 750words.com, and if i come up with things that i think are worth revisiting and shaping into work to present publicly later, i'll record them into my digital recorder and start the above process again, OR i will text them to myself and later go back through my texts to myself and put them into my digital recorder.
2) Do you revisit your old notes (this is something I am teeeerrrible at so I wanna hear how people do it lol)?
-- i do, and i think the most helpful part of my process is that each of the tools i'm using have limited capacity. my digital recorder can only hold so many files. my notebook has only so many pages. so, when one my recorder gets close to full, i need to empty it in order to keep filling it later. the same with my notebook, though i have managed to get around that limitation by buying new notebooks.
3) Are you also obsessed with learning about how amazing artists took notes?
my unglamorous, but effective, method is to use the notes app on my phone. i write down dreams, ideas for writing, topics to research, media to look into and read/watch/listen to. this is also where i take notes on lectures or write questions that arise for me.
i usually look through my notes about once a week to remind myself or to discard things i have acted on.
How do you get yourself to look thru your notes though??
i have contracted with a neighborhood mutt to bite me each friday if i don't show him proof i have been reviewing.
honestly, i just *want* to review them because the stuff i write down matters to me right now. and it's easy to do since i'm in and out of my notes app 20 times a day.
Hey, I do that too, and I find it works better than anything else at this point. I will find myself thinking, “I haven’t written anything in quite a while,” but when I go back and look at my notes, I realize I’ve been writing all along.
I write in a journal most mornings,just kind of a “set the day” standard for me. I copy a brief scripture, quote or encouragement, and my thoughts of what is happening or just happened. Every night I write a brief to do for the next day in my notes app.
It’s so fun reading how everyone goes about it in different ways ways.
I love that
Substack algorithm notified me of this. I continue to be baffled: Why does it do what it does? I'll simply comment that I prefer my commonplace book to a mere notebook. And that I have convinced myself that the first draft of my book is in it, except the words are not in the right order. Haha. And that, meanwhile, I continue to add words and article links and other things. It's digital, so no pressed flowers. But no regrets. I write mostly using my little glowing rectangle.
YES!! Reminds me of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote:
Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.
What tool if any do you use for your digital commonplace book?
I usually write in Google Keep. Then when I'm at a keyboard I copy-paste from there to a Dropbox file I edit with Emacs in Org mode. I save images and link to them.
I prefer this to the turnkey solution I was using up until last year: Evernote. For most people I think Evernote would work just fine.
I got fed up with the lock-in and price increases.
Do you write your ideas down? What’s your process? I do. Lately, it's book ideas, so I've been writing them down in an Excel spreadsheet.
Do you revisit your old notes (this is something I am teeeerrrible at so I wanna hear how people do it lol)? Yes. LOL. See #1
Are you also obsessed with learning about how amazing artists took notes? Who are some of your favorites? (two of my fav collections of notes are Jillian Hess’ Noted and Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note) I am not. Because like golf, note-taking is boring, and I could care less how other people do it. Famous or otherwise. BWAHA!
1) https://jillianhess.substack.com/
2) https://news.lettersofnote.com/
I have a newsletter about how and why I keep a notebook, that also quotes heavily from Didion … coming out tomorrow 😄
My notebook is my planner, diary, and sketchbook. I try to include mundane happenings as well as big stuff. There’s also plenty of bad ideas—so much so that I just made stickers that say “Warning: Contains Bad Ideas”
Also: Noted is the best!
What I wish I'd stop doing: stashing my digital notes in new places just because I like playing with apps. I have a cycle of *Ooh! New toy! My brain will live HERE now!* and then two weeks later: *Welp. Guess I'll export it all to Evernote again sssssigh*
But my physical notebooks: there at least I've learned some consistency. Leuchtturm 1917 A5. I know I like the paper & it plays nice with my pens, I like the fat spines b/c I can write dates on them with a Sharpie, and I feel comically proud when the side of my finger is inkstained, like woo, look at how *devoted to my craft* I am.
I took Holly Wren Spaulding's "Secret Life" course in 2018 and now I re-take it on my own every year between Christmas and New Year's, and part of that is rereading the past year's notebooks. I use colored pencils to mark anything I might want to pull out for use elsewhere. Then I type those fragments into whatever notes app I'm in love with at the moment, and lose them by Groundhog Day, and rediscover them when I inevitably heave a big sigh and export Shiny App's notes to the unbearable muddle that is my Evernote. But I tag them well, and when I'm avoiding a book deadline I roam through the tags and find all these little Lego pieces to play with. It's not efficient, but it works. Eventually.
I’ve been keeping a notebook since I was 6. It’s so fascinating to look back, but the most interesting entries are the ones with the detail of what I was eating or who I saw that day that I’ll never remember otherwise.
I carried a little notebook around with me earlier this year and loved it. I can read those notes and instantly be transported back in time to who I was, what I was seeing, who the note was about. I’m not sure why I stopped… But this has reminded me in the value of noticing and treating myself as an artist and my thoughts as an artist’s thoughts. THANK YOU.
“Say yes to the tickle in your brain that went ‘whoa.’”
I reread my old journals all the time. It’s nice to visit past me. Pre-heartbreak. Pre-middle age. Pre-pandemic. I feel some pressure to keep writing every day so future me will have equally interesting things to read. The only form of time travel I have …
Great essays - by both you and Joan Didion. I feel the same way. What we write doesn't have to be something that actually happened in the "real" world. But they are things that happen inside our heads. We shouldn't be restricted to simply being journalists and writing the facts. We can envision new, alternative possibilities. In fact, as writers, that is, I believe, our responsibility, to ourselves and to everyone else - even if most other people think we really don't do anything. We know better.
I’m a notorious note taker and I journal consistently. I have physical proof of the shit that went through my head and seemed normal when I was at my lowest, when I was stoned 24/7, when I would have days or a couple hours that felt better, and when it all came crashing down again. My journal contains the slow, nonlinear healing process (which for a while never feels like a healing process) of my first heartbreak, and my second. Right now it’s colored with entries of hope for the Great Next, attempts to pick apart my self-serving tendencies without becoming self-deprecating (i’m nothing if not a pendulum swinger), and encouraging messages for my present a future self that all growth is slow and often invisible until you wake up one day more grown than before.
Aside from my journaling, my notes app is full to the brim. It’s faster to type, so I use it for my book/movie ideas until they’ve got enough beef to them to be transferred to a google doc, funny little sentences or questions that pop into my head (one of my notes contains only the question, “is he hot or does he just pull off a buzzcut?”), a page dedicated to funny real-life quotes from my friends/family, many short scenes inspired by life. I’ve been writing since I physically learned how, so it’s always felt natural for me to do so, and honestly it’s one of those things where if I go long enough without it I feel like I might explode or something equally pretty.
As for tips on re-visiting, honestly, I go through my notes app once in a blue moon, but I go through my journal pretty regularly. I have to go into it with my guard up somewhat, because it can be triggering and mess up my mood, but it’s encouraging to see how far I’ve come from such a low low. So it’s like equal parts grief for my past self, which has defined my present self, and hope for my future self. I do it automatically, so I don’t really know how to encourage you to do it as well, it’s a just do it situation I think. Maybe you could make it a routine, like every Saturday morning, you go through your notes from the week or something.
Just realized how long this is. Sorry! Hope it’s worth the read hahaha
Justin was dropping some wisdom in that video about how he uses Sublime to trace where his ideas came from. I feel like thats a great way to foster curiosity and self-awareness
“Sublime - so you don’t get stuck in the grooves”
(1) I try to write things down immediately. my notes app is like the elephant graveyard in lion king. if i get enough skelies i move it to a google doc.
(2) when im either blocked or need a good laugh i read my old notes.
(3) I’ve never thought about it and now I probably won’t be able to stop thinking about how other people take notes.
dear alex,
thank you for sharing, as always!
here are my answers to your questions:
1) Do you write your ideas down? What’s your process?
-- i carry a digital recorder all the time and when i have ideas i record them with my voice. then at some point, i listen back and write those ideas down into physical notebooks. then at some point, i take those notebooks and type the ideas into my laptop. i'm very meticulous AND ALSO i have about six notebooks waiting to be transcribed (from the last couple years).
-- i also do freewriting each morning on 750words.com, and if i come up with things that i think are worth revisiting and shaping into work to present publicly later, i'll record them into my digital recorder and start the above process again, OR i will text them to myself and later go back through my texts to myself and put them into my digital recorder.
2) Do you revisit your old notes (this is something I am teeeerrrible at so I wanna hear how people do it lol)?
-- i do, and i think the most helpful part of my process is that each of the tools i'm using have limited capacity. my digital recorder can only hold so many files. my notebook has only so many pages. so, when one my recorder gets close to full, i need to empty it in order to keep filling it later. the same with my notebook, though i have managed to get around that limitation by buying new notebooks.
3) Are you also obsessed with learning about how amazing artists took notes?
-- nah but i'm glad you are!
love and thanks, my friend!
myq
Very relatable