Some Notes About Notes

Steve makes it look SO easy.

I have, in my three decades of existence (I'm turning 30 soon!) amassed a formidable stack of notebooks. I've used them all my life and yet, I haven't made a system that TRULY works for me just yet. I'm too much of a Rebel when it comes to these things. I mostly write things down to get rid of anxiety, but end up relying on my memory most of the time anyway. Still, I want to keep working on making it work for me. Because as I grow older, I can rely less and less on my memory! It's already started. Sometimes I look at my notes and feel like a stranger had broken into them and wrote jibberish while somehow being able to imitate my handwriting. It's creepy. So here I am writing down notes about notes, and some things I thought I should do to make them work a bit better:

• During activities that require concentration, I'll make a note when distraction strikes. This serves two purposes : 
• If the distraction is an idea I want to pursue, this saves it for later so it doesn't get lost 
• I can keep keep focusing on the task at hand by replacing the pursuing of the thought with the jotting of it down.
• Be more specific about the call to action - many times, I end up jotting down something really vague (like just today, my notebook screamed at me saying "BIRDS!!!" and I'm like.. Okay?) and so when it's time to visit the notes I have no idea what I meant
• When note taking for songwriting, I should write the date and record the tune on my phone. I've lost so many songs this way.
•  Make a habit of revisiting the notes. I know, "make a habit" is SO MUCH HARDER to do than to say, but well. That's what it takes.
• Sometimes, I revisit something and it doesn't feel so exciting anymore. So... Take what you will with that. Either "strike while the iron is hot" or "maybe it wasn't so interesting" both are probably true. I have to make your mind up about what to do with that.

None of this ultimately matters for anyone but myself, so I get to decide what to do, how much I can enjoy it, how much time to spend on it, etc. Sometimes you just have to do right by yourself.