My Note taking system
As someone who suffers from ADHD I find that when it comes to notes I need to have a structure but not too structured. Here is what I came up with.
The first part of my note taking is having a pocket notebook on me at all times. I call this the "Schrottplatz" which is German for Junk Yard. This is the place where everything gets dumped while on the go regardless of quality for dealing with later. I personally love to carry the Penco B7 notebooks, They are small but durable books, unlike fieldnotes and moleskins they can take a real beating due to their plastic covers. For pens I used to carry a really nice refillable Titanium Ball point pen however when it went missing instead I decided it would be best to go for a more commodity pen that way if i loose it in the field i should be able to find a new one in the shops fairly easily. For this reason I went for the PaperMate ComfortMate 1.0M in Black these things are ubiquitous, at least around my parts and I have found them in basically every store that sells stationary. That being said I always carry backups in my bag.
Now onto the notes themselves, The thing about on the go notes I believe they should be short and to the point but not too short that you cant remember what the hell you where talking about when you come back to it later. So to help with this I developed a key
This is designed to keep things glanceable and quick but also simple.
For example if a colleague tells me about a new show coming out next week I can put ◯ Cool TV Show Season 3 - Tuesday the 4th into my notebook and when I have watched the show I can go back and fill in the ◯to make it a ● so i know its complete.
The same goes for a task if I'm sat in the cafe and remember when I need to write the card I got for my Dad's Birthday I would put □ Write Dads Birthday Card on a new line. and once again when that is finished I would fill in the square. Lastly on the symbols front, I use a — for a note and a ⚡︎ for an idea.
This is stage one of the process. Tasks will usually live exclusively at this stage and my notebook is the first place I will look is the Schrottplatz but there is more to this system. As you may have noticed in the key there is symbols there for Migrated, but migrated to where?
Well that my friend is where step two comes in, I try to make time daily but as this isnt always possible at least weekly to sit down at the desk with the Schrottplatz as well as my Diary (A Hobinichi Techo if you where wondering) as well as the next tier of notebook That I call the Library. The Library is a more formatted and neat version of Notes and Ideas expanded upon from the short and sweet notes in the Schrottplatz so I will sit down to migrate them across them mark them as migrated in the Schrottplatz. I try to keep the Library as organised as I can, although its still not perfect. The way I do this is via the reverse index method, which is where you simply flip the notebook upside down keeping the spine on the same side and start the index at the back of the book. This way you never run out of room for your index or your content and eventually the two will meet when the book is full. This then allows you to quickly and easily locate the contents in the book. The plan with the library hence the name is to eventually end up with a full library of notebooks that can be referenced in the future almost as a personal encyclopedia.
Finally, when a full page in the Schrottplatz is completed in one way or another, I have a large red "Completed" ink stamp. I will stamp this across the page so that when I am out and about I can quickly determinate a page that still requires action vs one that doesn't.
That is the main basis of the note taking system. I understand this may not be for everyone but I decided to share about what system works for me because I developed this system by picking and choosing from other peoples systems who shared how they take notes and finding what works for me. The main thing to remember is, if something doesn't work for you that's okay but don't give up try something new, adapt it tweak it and most importantly try not to be too harsh on yourself. Notes don't have to be perfect they can be messy or sloppy and honestly if what works for you is writing things on sticky notes in chicken scratch then more power to you!
Last Edited: 1 month, 2 weeks ago.