DISQUS

Better Communication Results: Moleskines and working methodologies

  • ALR · 3 years ago
    Perosnally I make the first three pages an index and number the pages as I go. Then just write, when I continue a topic I put in link indications to the previous or succeeding page on the topic. It makes following things a little trickier but I don't feel constrained by sections and scale. I write on a topic until I don't feel the need to write any more, move onto something else, then come back to the topic later. I started also identifying links on the index pages as well.
  • Lee · 3 years ago
    WOW! That's a really cool working method. Sounds even too organised for me :-)

    I guess that having blogged for nearly a year now, the blog mentality of self-contained thought pieces has either become engrained in my working style, or else 'blog style' is how my brain works anyway (I personally think the latter). Which is why blogging has become so much a part of my life -- it's how my brain works. You have no idea how hard it can be to *not* blog about something I've just thought about, because it's completely off-topic or just too personal for every one else's comfort levels.
  • ALR · 3 years ago
    I think I saw the suggestion on lifehacker or something like that. It's not original :)
  • Lee · 3 years ago
    Original or not, it's new to me -- sounds like a good strategy.

    Too late for my current Moleskin, but certainly the next one will use this system (assuming that my addled brain remembers it).
  • Alice · 3 years ago
    You can put the index in the back and work towards the front (while writing from front to back). Unlikely to run out of space, or waste pages that way.
    And if you are left handed just reverse it all. Start at the back, writing on the left hand pages, with the index starting from the front of the book.
  • Lee · 3 years ago
    Goodness me -- that's WAAAY to complex for me {smile}.

    I remember how, many years ago when I was a male secretary, a department I worked in used to file all their correspondence on projects in reverse order, so that you always put the newest letter on top and didn't have to flip all of the pages over in the folder to enter a new one. Very smart process, I thought. I've since used that method on all my paper-based project tracking (using Doug Johnston's D*I*Y Planner sheets). Works a treat!

    But the idea of using that 'from the back to the front' idea in a bound book is just too much of a mind-shake for me to cope with. Pass me another cup of java and I'll have another crack at believing I can work that way! {grin}
  • Allan Jenkins · 3 years ago
    Ooooh! You got a Moleskine! Aren't they terrific?

    I use one of mine only for ideas and thoughts, and the other for my compulsive list taking. No business notes, no shopping lists. Keep them sacred to one purpose & they become remarkably useful and valuable.
  • Andrew · 3 years ago
    Like Allan, I use two Moleskines. The one with ruled pages is used for taking notes at meetings - complete with my own symbols in the left hand margins (checkboxes for actions, flags for hot issues etc). Each day starts with a new page with the date written on the top line. Lots of meetings in 1 day = lots of pages of notes.

    The one with blank pages is my personal journal. It has everything from traditional "journal" text when I feel like dropping thoughts on paper, through goals and the related steps and targets, through to mind-map summaries of things I have read or studied. I number the pages and have a mind-map that takes up a double page at the front where I "index" topics.
  • Lee · 3 years ago
    G'day Andrew,

    Certainly I agree with you on the blank, unruled pages being reserved for your more personal text. Once I have filled the pages of my first moleskine, I will be purchasing a same-sized one with blank pages. I find the lines cramp my thoughts, plus the paper still allows my scrawl from one side be slightly visible on the other.
    I guess I'm too 'precious'... :-)