Do you have a note taking habit?

photo of notebooks and a pencil

I have an undisciplined note taking fixation. Sometimes I think I might have a minor case of graphomania – but I like to think of it as graphophilia – a love of writing.

At any rate I need to tame the scribbling, discipline it into true tool. Something useful. Something that includes a zettelkasten!

The Road to a Note Taking as a Useful Habit

I’ve been thinking about scrap books, commonplace books, diaries, journals, zettelkastens, notebooks, bullet journals, and the like.

What will I do about these thoughts? First I think I’ll gather definitions.

  • commonplace books
  • diaries
  • journals
  • zettelkastens
  • notebooks
  • bullet journals

A quick fix to turn overthinking into something useful is note taking.

“You’re an important person. You should have a scrapbook.” ~Marge (Mr. Monk & The Lady Next Door – S7:E12)

Four Books that I find helpful

How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens is all about starting and maintaining a Zettelkasten.

Sketchnotes are visual notes. The originator of this method, Doug Neill shares a wealth of information about how to sketchnote and why.

Thinking on Paper is not about note taking per se but about the larger process of going from idea to a written product of some kind.

Surely you know about bullet journaling. If not get over to the official BulletJournal site and get started. BTW – they sell the most perfect journals even if you don’t follow the method. Their journal are numbered, made of great paper, have pages for a table of contents at the front, and they come in nice colors.