Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

–C.S. Lewis

I like that one. But I like this one even better:

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.

–Howard Aiken

Well, no more of that nonsense. One day I was inspired to buy a small, pocket-sized spiral notebook. I designated the book my “phone journal,” but it soon became much more: the repository of all the scraps of information that I used to lose. I adopted a simple system. I dated each entry. If the notes were related to a phone conversation, I noted who I was talking to. (I went a little crazy taking notes on every conversation, including non-work-related conversations–hey, it helped me listen better. I am not an auditory learner–I can’t be sure I’ll remember something until I write it down.) If the notes pertained to something I was supposed to do, such as information I needed to add to my calendar or address book, or a task I needed to do, I crossed off each task once it was completed. I used a simple diagonal slash across the area of the page on which I had written the task, so that if I needed to later, I could still read what was written there.

A phone journal seems like such a simple innovation, but I have found that this technique is life-changing (at least for those of us with suspected adult ADD!). I’m just not into cute organizational systems. I am not motivated to color code and cross-reference. I have to keep things simple.

A small spiral notebook is about as simple as it gets. One notebook, one pen. It can’t fall behind my desk. It can’t help but be in one easy to follow order: chronological order. All I have to do is write down the same notes that I was already writing down and losing — only now I’m not losing them.

Sometimes, the answer to a productivity problem is not a new gadget or piece of software. Sometimes, the answer is more old-fashioned. No, I can’t sync my notebook to the Cloud. But if I lose it, am I screwed? Not really. Almost all the information in my phone journal is there for one of two purposes: a) to help me pay attention while I’m talking on the phone and b) to help me remember to do something. Once I’m done with the phone call, the paying attention problem is solved. The “to do list” function of the notebook is the only part that I could lose if I lost the book, but that’s usually just a matter of the last two or three entries, and I generally have other reminders coming if I lose my scrap of paper (oh, not to worry–I have other systems in place, set up from the days of relying on not-so-sticky notes!).

I know there are new versions of sticky notes out there now. There are super-sticky notes with glue that just won’t become unsticky and fall down. There are sticky note software programs that allow you to pin sticky notes to your computer desktop, or to actual electronic files, where they won’t fall off. But I am going to stick (no pun intended) with my notebook. It still allows me to experience the satisfaction of writing with pen on paper — and it keeps me organized like no other tool ever has.

But please comment: do sticky notes work for you, or have you replaced them with something entirely different?

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