Inspired by a fascinating article by Alison Birrane from BBC Worldwide I thought I would share my own OCD about notebooks and the need to write, write and write some more .
Alison explains that even in this high-tech world the need to write things down on paper to help articulate thoughts and plan your schedule still prevails. She interviews some really interesting, young professionals who have a need to use notebooks, sticky notes, whiteboards, coloured pencils and marker pens.
Everyone is different but I still love my notebooks. We all know the tremendous success of Moleskine but other quality notebook manufacturers such as Leuchtturm1917 and Il Papiro to name a few are doing really well too. The notebook, alongside your mobile phone is becoming a way of showing who you are, just like the pen you use. It’s a statement.
I have to confess that’s not where my obsession started. Quite simply if I didn’t write it down there’s a very good chance I would forget. I believe this is true for a lot of people and am always cautious when people turn up to meetings without a way of taking notes. Will they remember what we discussed? More importantly, will they remember the action points they agreed to (and there’s a good chance they’ll have a few)?
I was kind of pleased when I read in the BBC article that research proves that written notes are better than those taken electronically. #JustSaying
As well, when I’m trying to work through a complex problem or put together a program for clients (and even when I’m preparing a Blog post) I will invariably find a quiet space, get out my pen and notebook and start writing. I find writing down my stream of consciousness just helps me to get where I need to go. It’s easy to refer back to, to scribble on, to cross out and to add to. Like Word and a keyboard just much, much better.
My budget allows me to use a nice notebook, even to convince my company to invest in nice notebooks for us to use and give away to clients. And, with every new notebook I write my name, contact details, reward information and start date at the very front. As my notebook comes to the end I ensure every outstanding action point is transferred from my old notebook to my new one, and I write the end date in the old one. Very OCD, I know. Even worse is that I keep them all. I have boxes full in the shed. My wife wants me to throw them out from time to time but I just can’t. I just can’t.
So, thanks Alison 🙂 , and you can read Alison’s article here.
