Considering the amount of engagement and positive anecdotes people are putting into this; It appears to me to be evidence that writing things down (in some format) is really helpful. As in, helpful enough that if you are not already writing down your thoughts and ideas you should at the very least take five and come up with an easy way to try it out. This is one of those things that’s extremely low cost, with a lot of benefit. Please take the low-hanging fruit.
One more anecdote for the pile: I found carrying and using paper very unwieldy for a long time and recently bought a small messenger bag to carry it all for not much money. This holds a journal, folded up large paper, four differently colored pens, and whatever other miscellanea I happen to have on me. This has completely negated my issues with using paper in a productive way on a daily basis.
Fantastic post Qiaochu, and let me strongly recommend Swerve’s point about four colors of pen.
I regularly carry black, blue, red, and green pens, and they make paper much more useful.
I use blue and black for ephemeral items, green for things that should merit reviewing, and red for urgency/emphasis.
Typically, I write to-do type items in blue and cross them out as they complete. I use black pen for “working memory” / “scratchpaper” type tasks… things that I typically won’t need to review later.
It’s then a matter of writing important stuff in green or red, or if I realize the importance of something later, circling or starring it in green or red. Red is “look at this now!!” whereas green means it’s possibly important for review later.
Reviewing paper and notebooks becomes simple — skim rapidly for green and red items. If I want greater context, I can study the blue and black notes around the green and red, but it’s not strictly necessary.
Highly recommended. I feel a little dumber when I don’t have a notebook and four colors of pens with me — I’ve been doing it for some years now and it makes a surprisingly big difference.
Considering the amount of engagement and positive anecdotes people are putting into this; It appears to me to be evidence that writing things down (in some format) is really helpful. As in, helpful enough that if you are not already writing down your thoughts and ideas you should at the very least take five and come up with an easy way to try it out. This is one of those things that’s extremely low cost, with a lot of benefit. Please take the low-hanging fruit.
One more anecdote for the pile: I found carrying and using paper very unwieldy for a long time and recently bought a small messenger bag to carry it all for not much money. This holds a journal, folded up large paper, four differently colored pens, and whatever other miscellanea I happen to have on me. This has completely negated my issues with using paper in a productive way on a daily basis.
Fantastic post Qiaochu, and let me strongly recommend Swerve’s point about four colors of pen.
I regularly carry black, blue, red, and green pens, and they make paper much more useful.
I use blue and black for ephemeral items, green for things that should merit reviewing, and red for urgency/emphasis.
Typically, I write to-do type items in blue and cross them out as they complete. I use black pen for “working memory” / “scratchpaper” type tasks… things that I typically won’t need to review later.
It’s then a matter of writing important stuff in green or red, or if I realize the importance of something later, circling or starring it in green or red. Red is “look at this now!!” whereas green means it’s possibly important for review later.
Reviewing paper and notebooks becomes simple — skim rapidly for green and red items. If I want greater context, I can study the blue and black notes around the green and red, but it’s not strictly necessary.
Highly recommended. I feel a little dumber when I don’t have a notebook and four colors of pens with me — I’ve been doing it for some years now and it makes a surprisingly big difference.
Thanks for the reminder; I lost all my colored pens recently and it feels bad.