NoteBooks
I’m a big fan of notebooks. Proper, big gsm notebooks with glossy finishes and elaborate sections for recording your goals, failures and life lessons. All bound up in eye-rollingly hip linen and finished off with a couple of coloured fabric bookmarks that dangle down like your Nan’s shredded doylies after the cats had them. That’s just the kind of hopelessly far gone consumer I am.
It was through this mild and harmless obsession I discovered a particular journal which devoted a fair few pages at the start to eulogising about the importance of planning your working day. I also happened to read Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” around this time which is equally gushing about the value of this practice. So after a bit of skepticism I started to do it.
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I found it very bloody useful indeed.
First thing in the morning when I sit down to work I draw out a timeline of the day. I then plot on there exactly what I’m going to do and when. Some days, this plan bears as much resemblance to reality as Piers Morgan’s twitter timeline. But for the most part it allows me a structure to blend what I need to do with enough of what I want to do to achieve my long term goals.
After a few weeks of doing this, I began to wonder if there was a better and easier way to do it. And, in the story of our times, wondered if I could improve it by making it ‘digital’.
After a few hours in Sketch and a few more in VSCode I’d made a little website that allowed me to plan my day and keep track of long term goals without resorting to scraping graphite on to pulped wood. It’s here.
The problem of course is that I started to miss the feeling of flicking through my notebook and seeing my past day’s work. I missed the fancy paper, the linen, the ability to sketch, to doodle, to practice my completely illegible handwriting.
And so, in our story’s final ironic twist, I’ve just bought a new fancy notebook. Its got thick paper and a fancy paper type I’ve never heard of. Its nice to be opening up something real every morning.
