It’s been about 3 weeks since school has started.  This semester, I decided to take all my notes by hand.  One thing I noticed is that it’s a lot easier to stay focused on the class material if you art being distracted by emails and such on a computer.  I’ve also noticed that my writing speed has been gradually increasing.  I used to think that I would need to learn shorthand in order to take notes on par with someone who had access to a computer.  While there’s no way that I could be as good of a transcription-ist, I’m convinced that handwritten notes can be just as good as typed ones.

Should be a good semester all in all :)

A few months ago, I was out shopping for a good notebook to use either for school or as a journal.  I know that those are two very different ways to use a notebook.  And I know that if I find a good notebook for school, it’s likely that the same kind of notebook wouldn’t be good for use as a journal, but anyways…

I came across composition books.  I know, there’s nothing particularly special about them.  I used to use them in grade school and haven’t touched them since.  But I’m not convinced that they’re useless.  In fact, there’s a lot to like about composition books: they’re durable, they can be laid flat on a desk, and they’re smaller than letter-sized paper.

I had a contracts professor in law school that I respected a great deal.  She was a fantastic speaker, she was incredibly organized in her teaching, and she respected everything that students said in class - even if someone said something a little silly, she found a way to turn it into a positive learning experience.

We had a guest speaker for class one day, and I saw that my professor was frantically taking notes in a composition book.  As I learned at other events, my professor was constantly taking notes in composition books.  I guess it goes to show that you don’t have to use fancy writing equipment to record good ideas.

I mean, I knew that anyway, but it’s easy to get distracted by fancy stationary :)

I’ve noticed that most writing tips online focus on the editing process. For example, words or phrases to avoid, ways to remove passive voice, awkward phrasing, etc. But very little of it focuses on the planning process. The planning process is summed up in a few words by “make an outline” or something similar. That’s great advice if you already know how to make an outline. On the other hand, if you already know how to make an outline, the advice is redundant, right? So I decided it was a good idea to sum up the process I go through before I start writing. I’m no Shakespeare or Hemingway, but maybe this advice will still be useful to others.

So before I start planning, I spend time reading. I read everything I can about the topic I’m about to write about. I also try to read it all together. If I read it together, rather than spaced apart, then I’m able to retain more of it for the planning stage. My memory is mediocre at best, so I can remember more of the details if I read the materials together and if I read it right before I have to create my plan or outline. While I’m reading, I take notes and highlight text that I think will be useful later. Even if I don’t reference my notes later, the act of writing imprints the important points in my mind. Finally, if there’s time, I write a one or two-sentence summary of what the articles are about at the top of each article. That way, I can look at the article later and instantly remember the main point. Keep in mind, you don’t necessarily have to write down the main point of the article. You can also write down the main point that is relevant to your article. The point of reading sources is to help you strengthen your own article. After you finish reading and taking notes, you can move on to the planning stage.

Next, I pick my topic. That’s right, I usually pick my topic after I do my research. Why? I can probably count the number of times that I’ve been an expert at the topic that I’m writing about. Usually I have to do a lot of reading to familiarize myself with the subject matter. After I finish my reading, I can come to an informed conclusion. Picking a topic isn’t always easy though. Maybe the paper is supposed to be argumentative. In that case, you should pick a side and develop your topic based on that selection. Other times, the paper is supposed to be purely objective - almost like a survey. In that case, you’re presenting the information that you found, not arguing a point. So, make sure your topic or main point is related to the appropriate type of writing: argumentative or objective (or others, but you get the idea).

Once you figure out the core thrust of your piece, then list out the various points you want to make. The number of points can vary depending on the length of the article, but I try to stick between 2-5 points. Why? Well, if your article has ten different points, then it’s just hard for a reader to retain it all. If you find that you have too many points to make, try to clump them together.

For example, if I’m writing about reasons I should buy a new car, perhaps the points I want to make are: 1) my current car is in need of extensive repair, 2) I need a safer car, since now I have a family, 3) Honda just came out with a great new model Accord, 4) my wife hates our current car, 5) I can make more friends if I have a cooler car, 6) the local dealer is running a great promotion, 7) I need a bigger car, 8) my job requires me to have a more presentable car for driving clients around, and 9) I want a hybrid card to save on gas.

Wow, that’s a lot of points to make. Odds are, you probably have even more points to make. Sure, you can arbitrarily make these points, but if there’s no organization, some of the points will probably get lost, and the reader might miss something important that you have to say. Instead of random listing, you should think of a few broader points that you want to make and fit your points under these more broad points. So in the above example, maybe your broad points should be: 1) my current car is inadequate, 2) a newer car would be more practical, and 3) a newer car would lead to better opportunities. Then, you can fit the smaller points into the bigger points. Providing structure and organization to your writing isn’t superfluous, it helps make it stronger and more effective.

Along the way, you may find that one of your points is weak or doesn’t have much support. You can do three things: 1) collapse the point into another point, 2) research more information that supports that point, or 3) cut the point entirely. Leaving a weak point is never a good idea. It dilutes your strong points.

Planning can take a long time, but I find that the writing is a lot easier if I plan properly. Of course, really short pieces don’t need much planning. Maybe jotting a few things down is sufficient. But for longer pieces, planning is definitely a good idea for improving the quality and effectiveness of your writing.

Fish! is a philosophy for work, life, etc. It’s not rocket science, but it’s four principles that you can apply to your life to make things a little better: 1) choose your attitude 2) play 3) be present and 4) make someone’s day.

**Edit: the name Fish! needs some explaining. The name comes from the workers at the world famous Pike Place Fish Market. Those guys do nothing but sell smelly fish all day. Yet, they find a way to make their work fun and they have a lasting effect on customers that pass by. The four Fish! principles were extracted from the way they do business. If you’re in the area, you should check it out. I’ve never been, but I’ve seen video. You can watch them for a few minutes and instantly see the four principles in action.**

You can read this to learn more about it. “Choose your attitude” basically means that while you can’t choose the things that happen to you, particularly the bad things, you can choose your attitude. You never *have* to be grumpy, right? And if you really try, you can choose to be happy or thankful no matter how bad things get.

“Play” means just what it says. Have fun doing your work. Find ways to make your work fun. Even though you may have a very serious profession, you don’t have to take yourself so seriously. It’s okay to have fun. At my old job, on March 14th every year, we would celebrate Pi-Day by taking a break at 3:14pm to eat all different kinds of pie. You get the idea.

“Be present” means to make sure that if you’re working with someone or helping someone, give them your full attention. How many times have you been on the phone with someone, and you can tell that the person is zoning out or bored out of his or her mind? Lots. Well, do you like talking to people like that? Nope. No one does. Therefore, if you want people to enjoy being in your company, whether it be over the phone or in person, you need to be there for them. Besides, you’ll probably get a lot more out of the conversation too.

“Make their day” sounds a little like “pay it forward” to me. But that’s okay, it’s still a good principle. The work place can be a boring and mundane place. For some people, work is a miserable place. I was in college, and on Valentine’s Day, I remember folks trading a bunch of the kiddie Valentine’s that have super heroes on them. It was silly, but it was kind of nice too. After that, I thought it was a good idea to do fun little things like that on holidays. Candy canes around Christmas, etc. It can be anything. And when you make someone’s day, you’ll feel better about it.

That’s a simple breakdown of the principles behind Fish! Go read the book or watch the film if you want to learn more!

Amazon sells these neat shopping totes called the Baggu. I try to reuse shopping bags, or bring a cloth bag, but a lot of times I get lazy so I just leave the bags at home. Well, maybe that’ll change with the Baggu. I haven’t purchased any yet, but they look like they might be the answer to my laziness. They fold up so your can keep one in your pocket. When you expand them, they’re the size of 2-3 regular plastic bags. Neat! They’re washable and have a somewhat flat bottom so things will sit in them more easily.

Millions of plastic bags end up in land fills, and they don’t biodegrade. They just turn into toxic materials that kill wildlife and pollute the air. So these are a great idea.

In law school, everyone takes notes with a computer. Last semester, I took a bulk of my notes by computer as well. This helped when I was studying for finals because I could create outline by cutting and pasting a lot of material from my notes into my outline.

The semester before, though, I took all my notes by hand. I can’t write as fast as most people speak, so I was forced to process the information before I wrote it down. At the end of the semester, when I make my outline, I had to process it again, since I had to read all of my notes before I typed the relevant information into my outline. When I copy and paste my typed notes into my outline, I have a tendency to overlook a lot.

Anyways, what’s the point of all this? Well, at the end of the semester I became quite good at taking notes. As the semester went on, I noticed my notes looking better and being more comprehensive. I got all the important stuff and less of the not so important stuff.  Plus, it was well organized.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve taken extensive notes by hand. I was in someone’s office talking to them about some work I had to do, I had a pad of paper and pen to take notes. I jotted a few notes down, but I felt like my writing was slow. When I got back to my office, I looked at my notes. Basically, I remembered what I was writing about, but my notes weren’t very good.

That’s when I realized that taking notes is a skill that needs to be maintained. So, I’m going to start taking notes by hand more often!

If you’re ever in Covington, Kentucky or Cincinnati, Ohio, you should take a trip to the Beanhaus on MainStrasse (Main Street) in Covington, Kentucky. It’s a cozy coffee shop that has a lot of wonderful hot drinks on their menu. The seats and tables are comfortable. The store is a historic home that was converted to a coffee shop. There’s a cute fireplace that understandably doesn’t get much use during the summer. There’s a shelf stocked with board games for those that are bored. The background music is nice and soothing, but not overwhelming.

Great place. The baristas are friendly and the java is tasty. Highly recommended.

Keeping an analog system can be difficult in a digital world. Everyday, I see more and more people relying on digital technology and computer based workflows, which also manage to exclude the use of paper. For example, somebody recently told me that their company was “going green” by making everything paperless. Now, when I use paper printouts to edit things, etc, I still try to recycle paper and print on both sides to conserve paper. I get the feeling that sooner or later, even mentioning paper will be taboo.

If you know me, you know that I don’t like inefficiency. Time, being as precious as it is, doesn’t need to be wasted on things like reinventing the wheel or redundant tasks. As a result, I’m often torn when I receive an assignment that needs to be done on the computer. My gut instinct is to do it on paper first and then re-enter it into the computer. Maybe that works for some folks, but I hate redoing tasks. So even if I’m an analog person, I’ll do a lot of things on the computer to avoid having to repeat something.

Is the analog world just fading out and being subsumed by the digital? Perhaps. I’m not convinced that everything needs to be done digitally. One analogy would be tablet pc technology. I’ve used a tablet pc for a few years now. On a tablet pc, you can go into slate-mode, which means that writing on the computer screen with a digital pen is the primary method of input. For a while, I was convinced that I needed to do everything in slate-mode, even drafting documents. Keep in mind, I’m a fairly fast typer, so by attempting to write Word documents by hand, I suffer a large drop in words per minute. Well, one lesson I learned was that trying to do everything in slate-mode was silly. You should only be using slate mode for things that lend themselves to being optimally used in slate-mode. For example, taking notes in slate-mode is great. I can draw arrows, highlight things, and best of all, since I can’t write as fast as most people speak, I am forced to process everything *before* I put it down on paper, which helps tremendously with comprehension. Anyway, the point is to use the right tool for the job. If you’re going to have to write a long paper in a very short amount of time, don’t do it by hand. At the same time, don’t pull out a computer and use a fancy program if all you want to do is create a grocery list.

That said, I’m not convinced that doing everything digitally is better than doing it on paper or by hand. And as long as I think so, I’ll keep doing some tasks on paper. I’ve noticed I’ve been doing more things electronically. Some of that is a result of the policies at work, and some of it is because it’s simply more efficient to do certain tasks on the computer. Though, as I do more and more tasks electronically, I feel like I’m inching closer to a world where analog tools are obsolete. Frankly, it scares me a little.

If nothing else, I’ll always have my personal journal where I can write things out by hand. Yay for some forms of indispensable analog tools.

Some people can work while listening to any kind of music, but I am not one of those gifted souls.  Sometimes, I can listen to classical music that I’m unfamiliar with, but that’s about it.  For me, the difference depends on whether the work is, as I call it, “mindless” or not.  If I’m doing mindless work, then I can listen to music without any negative impact on my work.  In fact, if the work is really boring, then listening to something keeps me from passing out from boredom.  Conversely, when I’m doing work that involves a lot of thought, I get too easily distracted by music with words or familiar musical themes.  To keep from getting too tired or fatigued from doing work that involves a lot of thought, I (get ready for this) . . . chew gum.  I know, nothing particularly novel, but it’s pretty effective for me.  There’s something about chewing gum that keeps my mind alert and active.  It probably won’t work for everyone, but give it a try if you’re pretty bogged down with work.

I’ve always thought the large moleskine journal was a little bit small. It’s been great for jotting down quick notes. The cover is rigid so you don’t necessarily need a hard surface to write on. The elastic band keeps it from opening when you stick it in a bag, and the soft yellow pages are easy on the eyes. Really white pages are a little too bright. Welp, I was on the moleskine US site and I saw these. They’re soft cover moleskines that are extra large (7.5″x9.25″). Bigger than the current large moleskine, but with just as many pages. Moleskine cahiers come in the extra large size, but they don’t have that many pages in them. While the new extra large moleskines won’t have the rigid cover or the strap to keep it shut, I plan on improvising ways to achieve those features. For the time being, I’m thrilled that they’re making bigger moleskines. I always felt that the current moleskines were a bit too narrow for doing things other than writing down random thoughts. Wahoo for new moleskines. Though, it looks like the US shipments are being held up in customs. I hope they make it through quick! On the website, you can punch in your email address and receive an alert when they come in stock for ordering. Nifty.