on keeping a notebook
The true value of unbaked scrawls and sketches and whatnot is as a window to an artist’s process. Process is an ugly-sounding word—pedestrian jargon for the inherently wondrous act of creation—but it describes a method by which a thing evolves, which has always had a hold on me.
Adam Moss • The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing
A method by which a thing evolves (what if that ‘thing’ is us - or why I keep field notes for my life.
Connections can’t be made by siloing everything off. That is why I’m an advocate for having your ideas live in the same app as your meetings/todos/journals/etc.
Too often, we think of notebooks as a way-station: a necessary stop en-route to the perfected, polished work of art. But what if the notebook is the work of art? What if the process of taking notes is the point?
What if the process of taking notes is the point?
Look, my commonplace book is easily justified. I write and speak about things for a living. I need this resource. But so do you. You write papers, memos, emails, notes to friends, birthday cards, give advice, have conversations at dinner, console loved ones, tell someone special how you feel about them. All these are opportunities to use the wisdom... See more
Ryan Holiday • How And Why To Keep A “Commonplace Book”
Build a world. Make your projects and work a vessel for self-expression. Make your software match your vibe. Make reading your book feel like it feels to talk with you. Customize, make it bespoke, put yourself into it instead of doing what you feel you should. This has all kinds of benefits (reducing burn out for instance) but especially helps with... See more
Be an idea expander
That’s the essence of all this. I write in a notebook every day. But I almost never go back and look at what I wrote. Writing in a notebook is about transferring things from the world to your brain, not to your notebook. Your notebook is a lens for looking at the world, not a box to keep it in.
Russell Davies • Do Interesting: Notice. Collect. Share. (Do Books Book 36)
A lens for looking at the world
I keep a daily diary for many reasons, but the main one is that it helps me pay attention to my life. By sitting down every morning and writing about my life, I pay attention to it, and over time, I have a record of what I’ve paid attention to.
Austin Kleon • Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad (Austin Kleon)
“Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up in your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.”
— Jack London
— Jack London