Maria's Response
Hi Mary,
Thanks for your note. I'm glad to hear you're writing down notes of what you'd like to refer to in the future, but yes, I can see how all of this writing, in many paper notebooks, can get extremely overwhelming. The more you write, the harder it's going to be to find what you're looking for. Here are a few
thoughts:
1. Go Digital
My best advice to you is to go digital. Use a program like Evernote. Within it, you can have tons of digital "notebooks" organized by the topics you mentioned. Within each notebook, you can type notes and add "keywords" to each.
For instance, if you're typing in notes about batch cooking, and you use "batch" and "cooking" as your keywords, later you can just type batch or cooking in the search box and your notes will pop up immediately. No endless searching.
2. Or, at minimum, make a digital cross-reference
Now, if you're the type of person who would much prefer "writing" down notes, versus typing them into a computer program, perhaps at minimum you can make one spreadsheet or document that lists:
- Category (Cooking, Decorating, etc.)
- The notebook page it's on (yes, you'll have to hand number your notebook pages to know this.)
In doing so, at least you'll have a cross-reference and use of the digital search feature.
Also, keep your paper notebooks organized together in one place, in alphabetical order by topic. Be sure each notebook is properly and boldly identified with the name of the topic.
If each topic is a different color notebook, it will be easier to find. For instance, if you know the gardening notebook is green, you'll be able to recognize it quickly.
3. Exclusively write notes for the one or two projects you're working on "right now"
Finally, and I do have to mention this, lots of people like to take notes for the sake of taking notes. But they never, ever refer to those notes again once they're in a notebook or even typed in a computer program.
What I like to do is focus on one to two topics at a time. Let's say decorating my home office. I'll then jot down, collect photos, etc. for this project, keeping all of this in a file folder or binder. Then, I actually work on the project, and once it's done...I no longer need the folder or binder and I
use those for something else.
Yes, there are some instances when I'll jot something down for a future project, but it has to be something that I'm 99.99999% sure I'm going to pursue shortly.
If it's something I "may, possibly, do someday at an unspecified time," I refrain from writing notes now and just begin researching that topic when I have more definite goals in place.
Hope this helps!
