Keep a small notebook

I have a notebook that is mostly unremarkable. A few shopping lists, a sentence from a conversation, a diagram that made sense at the time. Some pages have dates. Most do not.

For a while I tried to make it more organized. Different sections, a careful index, a system for moving unfinished things forward. Eventually, maintaining the notebook became another unfinished thing.

Now I just turn to the next empty space.

Write before it sounds good

The best thing about paper is that a sentence can sit there looking awkward. There is no need to tidy it up before writing the next one. Cross something out, draw an arrow, leave a question mark in the margin.

Some thoughts need that kind of room. I often discover what I meant halfway through trying to explain it. The first few lines are just how I got there.

I try to keep a few kinds of things:

• Questions I do not have an answer to yet.
• Small details I am likely to forget.
• Ideas that are not ready to become a project.

Come back occasionally

Every so often I read a few old pages. Most of them can stay exactly where they are. Sometimes a thought is useful again, or two unrelated notes turn out to belong together.

That is enough of a system for me. A place to put something down, and a chance of finding it later.