Writing Notes

Wait, don't you just write?

Not quite. Close, though.

In the Tiny Notebooks system, notes have just enough structure to be useful, but hopefully not enough to get in the way:

They have titles, and maybe timestamps.
They have headers, which look different from other parts of notes.
They are on numbered pages, in named notebooks.
They always start at the top of a page.

Notes can span multiple pages and you're free to use the space however you like, but when changing subjects enough to be a "new note", it starts on a new page. Notes don't have to be consecutive - if you start a note, think of something else so you start another note, go back to the previous note, and then discover that the note you made after it is in the way, your note will "jump" a few pages. That's okay, that's what the page numbers are for.

Since headers are unique and each note starts with a header containing it's title, you can flip through a notebook to look for a note. There's a Table of Contents in the front of each notebook, but you probably won't keep it up-to-date all the time, and finding note headers are how you'll go back and fill your ToC in anyway.

When starting a new note, start it on the next blank page in its notebook, with a header. (You'll use different notebooks for different things, although anything can go in Daily Carry if there isn't a real place for it or you don't have the "right" notebook with you at the time.) The rest of the note is up to you - record your thoughts however you see fit, be it paragraphs, diagrams, doodles, sketches, or anything in-between.

Headers

A header has:

The note title
A time stamp, if you want
A horizontal line going edge to edge

Whenever you start a note, come up with a brief title for it, underline it with an edge-to-edge line, and add a timestamp on the outside corner above the bar. This shape - an edge-to-edge line near the top of the page - is your signal when skimming through the notebook later that you've found the start of a note.

If you can't think of a good title, leave space for it but draw the header bar (and timestamp) anyway. Fill a title in later when you think of one. ("Thought debris" may be a good title to have on hand when nothing else fits.) The shape of the header makes the start of the note identifiable, and leaves space for the title later.

Note content

Note content can be whatever you want, over as many pages as you want. Since headers identify when a new note starts, you don't need to do anything in particular to continue a note onto the next page, or draw right across the center of your notebook and use both facing pages together if the occasion calls for it. (You may want to leave a blank right-hand page and start a note on a left-hand page for this reason.)

Avoid using edge-to-edge lines in the top third of any page in your notes - leave some recognizable margin at the outer edge (if not both edges) for all other lines. Otherwise, "fake headers" will slow you down when skimming your notes later.

If you're writing a note down, then start thinking about something else that needs to be another note in the same notebook, start a new note on the next blank page. You don't have to finish your current note first; just go back to it when you've written down enough of this other idea to get it out of your head. If your original note needs more pages, this is when page numbers help you...

Running out of room

If you run out of room for a note because you wrote another note after it or you ran out of pages:

Find the next blank page in your notebook. If your notebook is full, grab a new one, reserve the first two pages for the Table of Contents, and note which volume this new notebook will be (today's date if it's Daily Carry or Days, the next volume number in sequence if it's any other notebook).
In the bottom right corner of your existing note, write "CONTINUED:", the page number of the next blank page, and an arrow, as shown in the photo here. If the next page is in a different notebook, write its volume number as part of the page number. (There's more on that below.)
On the blank page you will continue your note on, in the upper left corner, write "FROM:", an arrow, and the page number of the page your note left off from.
Continue writing your note on this page.

If you're thinking about two things on the same topic at once, you may wind up alternating pages of two notes for a bit. This happens sometimes and it's not as hard to read as you might be afraid of.

If your new page isn't in the same notebook, you'll need a longer page number, since page numbers are assumed to refer to the same notebook. To refer to another volume of the same notebook series, use volume number : page number. For example, page 3 of volume 2 of a notebook series is "page 2:3", from any notebook in its series (although in volume 2, you will usually just call this "page 3"). If your new notebook doesn't have page numbers yet, add them as soon as you finish writing down the note that "wrapped", and then archive your full notebook the next time you get a chance.

Page numbering accidents

You may discover, while using your notebook, that you made a mistake numbering the pages. It happens. You should fix it when you find it; "fix" is relative.

If you skipped a number, you don't need to fix anything; your notebook just doesn't have a page by the missing pair of numbers (since you are probably only numbering odd pages).
If you are numbering every other page, but used a consecutive number instead of skipping one for the unnumbered page, number the previous page with an appropriate 1/2.
If you missed a pair of pages, number them with an appropriate 1/3 and 2/3.
If you used a number completely out of order, scribble it out, then fix it as though you had a missing page number.

It's good enough to find the note again later, which is the important part.

Cross-references (advanced topic)

Sometimes, you'll want to refer to other notes within notes. Page numbers can be used to cross-reference; use a right arrow after a page number to represent "See also". If it's a page in the same notebook, just use the page number with an arrow; if it's in a different notebook, you'll have to use more and more of the notebook's "full name" so you can find the note again. This is probably the most awkward part of this entire system, but it's not too bad once you get used to it.

Each notebook has one category (if you're using categories), one name, and one volume number. You'll have to use all these parts to label your cross-reference if you're referring to a note in a notebook in a different category, like the address on a letter to a different country, but you can skip parts that are the same as the present note. There's a lot more about this later in this tutorial, on Organization, which talks about categories, names, and volumes.

Next: Topic notebooks

Google Sites

Report abuse