I’m talking about my notes.
You see, I have several notebooks (not laptops, paper note books) in which I scribble down stuff for various subjects. Stuff worthy to know, interesting quotations, good playing tips for the bass… That kind of stuff.
But after several years, I’ve lost my way in them. Hundreds of pages are lying besides me and I’m going to put an end to all the lost information. :mad:
Now I need your help… I want to create a system for a paper notebook with which you can quickly find something. :eek:
A system. It can be anything, I’ll rewrite the notebooks anyway since it’s impossible to find half of what you want to find.
I was thinking of writing several identifier words atop every page, describing which type of notes (e.g. “info on how to develop characters for a book” could be CHAR and “string manipulation techniques for bass guitar” could be STR MAN) and then underline or put in a different color the core words of every note.
Doesn’t look too bad, but what are your ideas? You can be as creative and unorthodox as you wish, as long as it’s in some way effective and efficient you’ll be useful.
I had just the same problem a few years ago, in the end I found the best solution was to buy a second low voltage computer and keep it on all day, scribbling my thoughts down into a hard drive (Or scanning anything I couldn’t type). It’s alot easier to sort and maintain than several dozen notebooks
A file cabinet huh?
Two hundred A5 pages would not even take up a full drawer.
About the computer, that’s a no go. I tried and failed two times to keep my notes on a pc, but I always failed. When it comes to the type of notes I make (with sketches, arrows pointing at the paragraph before, my own set of glyphs and such) a computer is just too tedious to work with.
I really want ways to keep order and searchability in paper notes (of which there are always new ones piling up at the bottom).
Don’t hold back on any ideas!
The system I am using at university is like the one you have mentioned already.
I simply write the date and the topic in the upper right corner of the page.
(e.g. “physical chemistry, 25th May 2342”)
If I write more than one page about one topic at one day the pages get roman numbers.
(e.g. “physical chemistry, 25th May 2342 II”)
This system works for me for about 3 years now and I am still alive.
I buy those nice handy dandy cheap 3 subject mead notebooks, they have three things of paper with tabs and I put my notes in each tab, like one for math, science, art, history etc… and I have like 9 of them, with equals 27 subjects, and I also at the start of every new ‘subject’ in the tab that I deem really important. i.e quadratic formula, or a chart of powers up to 100) I fold the corner down until it hits the margin, and the next one takes the lower corner and folds it up into the margin, then you can easily flip to important parts in your notes inside your tabs!
if this sounds complicated, its because I am not that great at explaining steps, its more of a visual thing…
I use the looseleaf 3 ring binder for stuff that is organized (class binder has a section for syllabus, class handouts, class notes, projects, homework) but for the day to day notes I’ve switched to index cards.
I use index cards for addresses, insights, memorable quotations, shopping lists, and so on. The advantages of index cards are: they are large enough for a single idea, but usually too small for two ideas, so they are easy to index. They are sturdy enough to last forever (memorable quotations) and cheap enough to toss when they’ve served their purpose (shopping lists.) I carry around a pocket full of blank and written index cards, and every few days I sort the written out cards into stuff to file (my files are decks of index cards, with a title or subject written on the top card, wrapped up with a rubber band), stuff still to do (goes back into the pocket), and stuff to throw away.
On the rare occaisions I find a card that belongs in two decks, I simply write out another card, and put one in each deck. (I say rare, but in the beginning it was a more frequent occurance. I’ve trained myself to segregate ideas as I’m writing them down, and just use two cards from the git-go now.)
Maybe you could try putting them all under different categories, then placing the categories in alphabetical order. It’ll make it easier to find specific notes then as well as groups of notes.
Charlesworth999, This is exactly the problem I have – most of my best ideas end up written on some insignificant-looking scrap of paper. And I have a lot of ideas, so I know how frustrated you feel. Orinoco - I’m liking your idea about index cards, I think I shoud do that. (As well as Charlesworth999, if he likes it.) Thanks!
