An Ode to Pens and Notebooks

Image Credit: D. Andrew Boyter

I take notes in a notebook. It's not very techie of me, I suppose. Pulling out a pen and paper seems decidedly last millennium. I'll explain why I take notes in an expensive (and I suppose, mildly pretentious) notebook shortly, but first:

Joshua Ginter wrote on his use of Markdown tags in his physical notebooks for note-taking. He uses the same style of formatting tags for his digital and physical writing, which I found particularly fascinating. You can check his thoughts out on his excellent site: The Newsprint. I take notes quite differently, though, so I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts on them.

First the Tools: My note taking tools are the Parker Jotter pen and Moleskine Squared Large Notebook (linked above and pictured left). The pen was a gift and one of my favorite pens I've ever used. The notebook I purchased (along with several others of the same brand) when I was working at a bookstore and could get them at a discount. I have several awaiting the day I fill this one. I've been using this particular notebook for over five years, so that may take a while.

I love using these tools. They feel good in the hand and are comfortable to work with. It's been easy to get in the habit of taking notes with this notebook and pen. I think that's the most important part of note taking: if you hate using your tools, you won't use them. This combo works for me but if you want to take notes regularly, I encourage you to find a pen and notebook that you like.

Second, I only occasionally look back at my handwritten notes. Since I'm not in school anymore I rarely need to reference the notes I take. I primarily take note during my pastor's sermons and during (all too infrequent) times of private reading and reflection. Occasionally I'll write as I pray, but that generally takes the form of an essay, maybe we'll deal with that another day.

I take notes in order to focus my thoughts as I listen. My natural tendency (I doubt I'm alone) is to allow my attention to drift in and out when someone speaks for more that ten minutes. Note taking allows me to focus my wandering thoughts on the page in front of me, not the funny hat that lady over there is wearing. Because I'm thinking about my writing, and I'm writing what I'm hearing, I naturally focus on that rather than my own thoughts. I could try to take notes on a device, but smartphones and tablets only encourage the wandering: Twitter is two taps away; so are the articles that have been piling up in Feedly. But I can't tweet or get distracted by my notebook page.

Third, I take notes in an unordered outline format using a "-" to denote a new item rather than Roman numerals. I do this in digital and physical notes, actually (this is where the similarities between Ginter's system and mine emerge). I like the structure the outline format gives me, but keeping it unordered gives me flexibility over the rigidity of the traditional outline. On the computer I can copy-and-paste or click-and-drag if something is out of place. In my notebook, a quick arrow solves the problem.

Occasionally I want to add emphasis to a point. An asterisk in the margin indicates an important point; perhaps one that was repeated multiple times or that struck me as particularly convicting. Ginter described his methods for marking things as bold or adding double emphasis, but I rarely need to be so detailed. I love the simple, structured, straightforward style of my notes, and the simplicity makes this style flexible enough that I need never add more formatting tools.

It's not terribly techie of me to use a notebook, but I can't imagine using anything else. I'll use OneNote or something similar when I need to jot something down or take notes on a meeting at work. But for the Real Things, the Important Things, I have my notebook.