4 Materials

You need a pen. Actually, you need three. And they need to have little four color clippies- Red, Green, Blue, and Black.

Theoretically, you can do this all with a black pen, but TRUST ME, you don't want it. Your ability to very rapidly switch colors will way more than make up for the nicer line that the G2 gel pens give you. Really.

You need one to carry with you, you need one for backup, placed in a trusted place, and you need one to be a backup to the backup. YES, you really need this. If you are wasting time looking for a pen that you lost, you are just wasting time. The pen will come back. In the mean time, you need to write, so you've got to fetch your backup. You have a backup to the backup. If you have ready access to a store, you need to buy another pen, should you not find your first pen by then.

These 4-color pens are expensive. Remember: Buy 3. Your pen is your life - don't lose it. But when you do, don't hesitate to start in with the backup.

Next: You want to have a list in your notes of the locations to search for your pen. Mine looked like this:

1. Jacket
2. Pockets
3. Pants
4. Pockets
5. Buried
6. Inside Notebooks.

Re: the last: ``Buried Inside Notebooks.'' IF YOU DO THIS SYSTEM, that will actually be a VERY common occurrence. Because you'll have 2-3 inches of paper. Those 4-color pens are BIIIIG and FAT. But they aren't so big that they can't get completely lost amidst a big fat chunk of paper. Trust me. So actually open up the book and flip through sections,looking for your pen.

I'm not going to talk about this much; This is just something you'll find with experience.

So that's the deal with the pen. I'll talk more about what the colors are for in the ``General Principles'' section.

Next.

You want lots of it. Always have at least 2 reams unopened, of about 150 sheets each.

Get COLLEGE RULE. You want as many lines on these as you can, because information density is the name of the game. 3 holes, of course, so it'll go in your binder.

8 1/2" x 11", or the new 8" x 10 1/2"?

Don't laugh- it's a serious question.

There are trade offs to both.

I used 8``x10 1/2'' for most of my notes. It was good because they fit within the larger tab dividers. Yeah. 8x10.5 is also a lot cheaper. With the volume of paper that you will purchase, price can become an issue.

But if I were to do this again (and I intend to- I intend to do this once, for three months, once every 3-5 years, to gain a ``situation awareness'' I would use full 8.5x11".

Why? It's not really the ``extra bit of page'' that is important (it isn't- having a better rule is far more important), but rather that your paper conforms to the global standard for paper.

You are invariably going to want to include leafs from outside your notebook system. And you should eventually make your own templated papers: You'll make standard form sheets, print them onto printer paper, and include it in your notebook.

Printer paper doesn't come in 8.5``x11''. So you have some big pages and some little pages. Yuck! When it comes to quickly flipping through pages to find a particular page number- yuck! It gets difficult.

So get 8.5x11" college ruled 3-hole-punch paper.

Major important.

First, let me dispel notebooks: Don't use them. I'm talking about spiral bound notebooks.

I used to use them. I have a huge collection of spiral bound notebooks in my closet. I love them, they are so cute and self-contained. And partitioning them is kind of fun, even.

But the binder system just so completely blows them out of the water, that I will just never go back to those things.

This isn't to say that notebooks don't have a place- THEY DO! Just not in this system.

Notebooks are great when you are doing a straight chronology. Or you are keeping JUST RECORDS. Not a big fat intricate total-thought-keeping system that I am describing here, but rather, I'm talking about- you have a business, and you are keeping records for it, and so you buy a notebook because it's nice and self contained and stuff like that. Another nice thing is that you know the pages aren't going anywhere. There are times where that's not what you want. And you can turn pages easier. It's just easier.

But this system that I am describing:

Impossible. You cannot do it like that.

In this system I am describing, you MUST be able to insert pages between pages. And it's so incredibly useful to be able to lift 50 sheets and put them in another binder entirely.

Okay, so, please don't use notebooks. You will die. Quickly.

Now, on to Binders.

What you want to look for:

• Inside Pockets
• Transparent Outside Pockets
• Obstructions on the Outside Spine
• Sheet lifters
• Ring Type
• Width/Size
• Durable vs. Sucky

So, let me start with the last one. I forget what they call the ``non-durable'' ones. They cost less. Maybe ``Economy'' or something like that. DON'T GET THEM! YES, they are CHEAPER. BUT, even on the budget that I'm on, you do NOT want them. Because they are going to snap open when they shouldn't. Believe me, there's nothing worse than being on the bus, hitting the notebook the wrong way, and suddenly WHAM- 100 pages on the floor. Luckily they are numbered and you can put them all back in the original order, but-

Trust me- Go with Durable.

You'll have to unchink both sides to open the ring, but you'll do so with the knowledge that it's keeping your data safe!

DURABLE! All the way!

Okay, next, we'll talk about width/size and the ring type.

If you are getting, say, a 1``-1.5'' notebook (my carry-about notebook is somewhere in there), then just get the normal rings. They are three loops, bound to a metal binding, blah blah blah.

But if you are getting anything larger (and you should have at least one of these, for your common store- it's going to be BIG), then you want to get what I call a ``half-loop''. I'm sure there's formal names for this stuff, but I don't care. These things look like one half is a loop (as normal), but the other half is straight, and has a 90 degree crook at the end. ALSO, it's not attached to the binding of the binder..! It's attached to THE BACK SIDE of the binder.

These things are SO great. It costs more, but GET IT.

What it does is it keeps your papers from flying out all over the place when you open your deeply packed notebook. That little 90 degree crook stops the pages. It's great. You'll have to see it to believe it, but do. It's wonderful.

So: Big Notebook, get the half-loop. Small notebook, I think they are all just normal full-loops. Never seen a small notebook with a half loop.

Sheet lifters. If your binder has a sheet lifter, Awesome. I like these. I'm not sure why. They just seem to help. This is more of a spiritual belief on my part; I'm not really sure. But I leave them there and they seem to be useful.

Now I'll talk about inside and outside pockets, and then the possible obstructions on the outer spine. Then we'll be done talking about binders. (It's a fetish thing, I guess.)

The inside pockets are really useful. I use them to store tabs in when they aren't in use.

Oh- REMEMBER that you (if you could) bought those pockets, right? Stick one at the front of every binder. Store donut holes and stickies in them. That's just the place to do it. And you'll store the tabs' ``guts'' in there too. You know, these long sheets of 1" wide paper, perforated at about 1/6" in height. You write whatever the tab's name is on them, tear them off, and put them in the tab page, right? And then you put the tab page into your notes, and you can quickly flip to them. Tab page guts- you know what I'm talking about, right?

Good. (One day, I may, or someone may, put pictures in this description. Then those of you who don't get ``tab guts'' can see what I mean.)

In the inside pockets, you'll store larger things like your tab pages themselves. And when people give you stuff, and of course they didn't triple hole punch it, you'll put it in there until you get home and punch it yourself.

Outside pockets. This is really important.

You're going to identify your notebooks quickly by the outside pockets. You can get away with not doing this, but it's a pain in the butt. Pay the extra money (this is becoming a theme, is it not? trust me, I'm not rich, if you haven't picked up by reading this yet- [HEY, I'm a PROGRAMMER, and it's the year 2003] but pay the extra money nonetheless) and get the pockets.

Here's what I do with them:

For archive notebooks, I put the letters that are archived. For example, ``A-M'' and ``N-Z''.

My common-access notebook (a big fat one) doesn't have covers. I think that's because I got it for free at a college giveaway, and wasn't being picky. No matter, it is jet black, and none of the others are, so I can easily identify it.

My carry-about notebook has, ``default'', two pictures of Lions on it. My name is Lion, so I put Lions in there, and people are able to put it together that it's mine. The Lions are smiling, and it communicates something of my nature to people. I think.

But usually the ``default'' isn't there. I keep a variant of the GTD system running (``Getting Things Done'' by David Allen), and so I generally have my day's alerts, options, and chores on the very front. (Not that this is strictly defined in GTD, but I've adapted it a bit.)

And I usually have on the back cover, covering a Lion, a general plan for how my day will go out and bus trips (http://transit.metrokc.gov) for the day. It is very, very useful.

Finally, you want to look at the spine, if you have outside pockets, and make sure it is not obstructed. Frequently there are three ``bolts'' on the outer spine, and they sometimes pass it through the transparent pocket on the spine. NOOOOOOOO! We don't want that!

That means you can't stick an identifying paper back there! Or if you can, you can only dig it in half an inch. No, that's not for you! You want to be able to put a paper in there that has the name of the binder on it, so you can quickly ID it when a bunch of binders are stacked in a row.

There. I am done dissecting binders. If I omitted something, mail me at lion@speakeasy.org

3-hole punch

Again- you're going to want to print out sheets, and then include them. Or you're going to want to include things that people give you. Very well then, you're going to need to x3 hole punch it. It's a wonderful tool to have, and it will go a long way. I absolutely adore mine.

Lets go through these small items quickly:

• Donut Rings

  I don't know what the official name is for these things. They are flat, round, have a hole in the middle, and they reinforce paper.

  When you have a lot of papers in your notebook, they will eventually start to rip at the holes. The rip will grow, and grow, and the next thing you know, your paper doesn't stay inside your notebook. The solution is to, when one hole tears, immediately reinforce all three with these donut rings. I don't know if you need to, but to be safe, I put 6 O-rings to a page. Three on the front of the holes, and three on the back.

  I've never had a problem since. I've never seen a donut tear.

• Stickies

  Okay- these are NOT yellow sticky tabs!

  What these are, are these little tiny stickers that look like small rectangles. They are about .5" wide, if that. You can stick and unstick and restick them to paper, AND THE PAPER DOES NOT TEAR OR DROP INK AS YOU DO SO.

  These are AMAZINGLY useful.

  You will use these extensively as you STRATEGIZE over your notebook.

  A brief explanation for now:

  Strategy is ultra-time-sensitive. It also involves a lot of prioritizing, and the priorities will change- rapidly.

  You don't want to mix up your rapid-change stuff with your low-change stuff. That is, you don't want permanent marks on your pages for things that are changing rapidly. So you use these stickies.

  On your GSMOC (Grand Subject Map of Contents), you'll have stickies pointing you to major important areas of work or thought. You'll take them off when they cease to be important, or when you fulfill them. The same goes for the subject maps within each subject.

  That's basically it. Small idea, but EXTREMELY useful. I'll write more about it when it comes time to talk about it.

• tab dividers

  You will use these to keep your subjects apart, and a few other things.

• pockets

  Now I REALLY don't know what these things are called. My girlfriend got them for me by stealing a few from work. When I saw them, I understood why.

  These are little pockets, that you can stick ANYWHERE. They have a plastic white back, and a transparent front. The back and front form the pocket, which opens from above, and is sealed around the edge. But the back ALSO has a sticky thing. You peel off a layer, and you can stick the whole pocket ANYWHERE. This is VERY useful.

  I use the pocket to store the following things:

  • my donut holes
  • my stickies
  • stamps (as in, postal stamps)

  It has worked like a charm.

So in recap, your shopping list is:

• paper - get about 8 reams, college rule, 8.5x11", to start with.
• pen - 3 four-color pens.
• x3 hole punch - get it at a thrift store if you want it cheap.
• donut holes - get 1-2 packages of many sheets.
• stickies - get 1-2 packages of many sheets.
• tab dividers - get about... 50 tabs. To start with.
• pockets - if you can find 'em, get at least 4 or 5.

Now we talk about transport issues:

• Storage
• Carrying
• Archival
• Handling Optimizations

Storage, Carrying, and Archival will be one big topic here. It's all intermingled.

SO.

You are keeping notes. You have papers. Here is a sort of scale of your papers:

1. scrawled notes on fortune cookie papers, backs of napkins, etc.,.
2. scrawled notes on blank paper.
3. notes collected onto pan-subject speed lists.
4. notes collected in your carry-about binder.
5. notes collected in your common-store binder.
6. notes in the archive.

There is another category, hovering around 5.5: special purpose collections. For example, I have a binder for ``Computers''. In it, it has subjects such as ``Networking'', ``Debian'', ``Programming'', ``Software'', ``XSLT'', etc., etc.,.

I should mention there is also item ZERO:

0) stored in your mind on a peg list.

I'll talk about that later. If I forget to, mail me, and let me know that I forgot: lion@speakeasy.org. Yes, I know that I could keep a list of promises to keep here in my Emacs buffer. But to be frank, after having been keeping so many lists for so many months, that I really just don't feel like making one. Pardon my rudeness, but if you actually DO what I am describing here, you'll understand what I'm talking about. Back to the subject at hand.

So let me describe each of these sources.

SCRAWLED NOTES ON FORTUNE COOKIE PAPERS

Some times, you just flat out DON'T have your carry-about binder with you. And you don't have your pan-subject speeds paper. And you don't even have a blank paper. And your peg list is full, or you don't feel like cycling it.

So you just have to make do with what you have.

You put a note on the back of the envelope and stuff it in your pocket. Or you take that fortune cookie slip out and write on it. Or whatever.

GREAT!

I mean, it sucks. But at least you got that thought! Good for you.

SCRAWLED NOTES ON BLANK PAPER

Or maybe you have a blank piece of paper in reach. Write the thought of it, and put it in your pocket.

PAN-SUBJECT SPEEDS

But if you can, be prepared in the morning, and put a pan-subject speeds page in your pocket.

I'll talk much more about speeds in my exposition on ``Intra-Subject Architecture'', but a little bit should appear here.

The Pan-subjects speeds page is optimized to have graduate-student rule. This is beyond College rule. You want 40+ lines on a pan-subjects speed page to cram thoughts into. Again: DENSITY is the name of the game.

Furthermore, the pan-subject speeds is partitioned. It has:

• Transcription Check-off
• Subject
• Hint
• Content

You can put whatever you want in there. Mine also has a place for a ``Psi'' marker. That's where you list what type of thought it is, in terms of ``Principle'' or ``Observation'' or ``Warning'' or ``Possible Action'' or ``Goal'' or ``Problem'' or ``Starting Point'' or a host of other glyphs. I'm not going to talk about these because they are beyond the scope of Notebooks. They go more into mental techniques; Has to do with mental structure and the anatomy of thought. While related and quite fascinating, I'm just not going to go there. Whole 'nother discussion for a whole 'nother day.

The point is, the format is malleable. Include whatever you want. I also have a date marker at the top of the page, for the Chrono archives. Whatever you want.

DO NOT PUT THOUGHT NUMBERS on the Pan-Subject Speeds page though. Bad idea. The purpose of the Pan-Subj speeds is to be a TEMPORARY placeholder for ideas.

So what are these four things:

Transcription Check-off: You check the box after you have moved the idea OUT to where it needs to go. Don't check it when you first put the thought in.

Subject: This will tell what subject the thought will go into. Remember: The subjects are the big things divided by the tab delimiters that have their whole own infrastructure on their own, that I will describe later.

Hint: Now, this is a quick 1-2 word, maybe 3 word, description of how this thought fits into things.

Something I learned late, but that is very important, and very essential to this whole process, is that:

Words to the wise.

So the ``hint'' describes the context. This is VERY IMPORTANT!

The context is fresh in your mind when you get the thought! It would take a while to recognize the thought, and then identify the context, if you didn't.