My small red, green, and blue notebooks
I have three small and cute notebooks β and each color represents a category:
- π Red β Words
- π Green β Ideas
- π Blue β College
How small?
- Height β 11cm
- Width β 8cm
The Initial Idea
Prior to those colors, I had a black one. It was used in my college classes to take fleeting notes. And I got to say, it's VERY effective⦠The purpose of the note was to quickly capture an idea/information and to subsequently build upon it later. I did not rely solely on the physical notes, it was a team effort between physical notes and digital notes, a 50/50 effort! Since I am fast at typing, I take it upon myself to extend the note digitally through my own personal wiki, built using TiddlyWiki (check 'em out _).
There's no complicated system here at play β I reserved those for the digital notes (e.g. tagging & backlinks). Like normal notes, I put the current date and number of meetings on the top right and the name of the class on the top left. Finally, I just put bullet points for each thing I deemed important for subsequent callbacks.
| Introduction to Literatures | No.10 - 02/21/2024 |
|---|---|
| * The Sun Also Rises was written by Ernest Hemingway | |
| * Blabla here | |
| * Blabla there |
Inside the Red, Green, and Blue
Let's start with the red one. The red notebook is called "Words, " which means it stores vocabularies and their translation. The green one is called "ideas", and it is used to free-write and brainstorm any kind of ideas. Although small in size, I try to implement Barbara Sher's Scanner Daybook, from her book, "Refuse to Choose!". I write down any kind of idea that comes to mind, whether it's unfinished or not β I can still reference the unfinished idea in the next note. Those ideas do not need to be necessarily put into implementation right away. Last but not least, the blue one. It is basically the black notebook, in which I store all of my class notes. Oh, I forgot, I put labels in front of their covers.
Why small notebooks?
Some people might resort to binders because you can add and remove papers instead of buying a new notebook altogether. That's absolutely right. I believe both of these methods to be right. The reason as to why I chose a small notebook is because of its portability, you can take them anywhere without taking too much space and they are cheap! In addition, when I hold them, it feels like I am holding a phone β which can be an alternative for those who are attached to their phone. Consequently, it feels organic to take these notes, away from the digital world.
What's next?
Maybe I would like to talk about how I use TiddlyWiki as a personal wiki and home for my notes. Having a personal wiki is just like having a digital garden. Not only that, but with TiddlyWiki you can have so much control without taking too much space (literally just a single HTML file). If you're interested, be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed!