“I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now.”
The famed Field Notes tagline is all very well but what if, even having written it down, you fail to remember it? Quasi-disaster ensues, if you’re me. As usual, the culprit is past me not paying enough attention to future me’s needs.
I had to ask someone a delicate question. I knew we had emailed in the past. I knew we had met at a conference. I knew the date and location of the conference, and that I had written down what we talked about. More than that, no recollection at all. Could I find the note? Of course not.
In the past, I have tried to fillet the good stuff out of daily notebooks, but not in a very organised fashion. Often, all I do is go through the old notebook as I start the next and transfer over things undone, or to keep, or to investigate, but I don’t even do that very regularly or thoroughly. So when I need to find something I know exists, I often cannot. I’m aware of the problem, which is why in the past I bookmarked p1k3 :: notes on notes and, especially, My Notebook System by ratfactor, of which I am in total awe. But I haven’t done anything about it. In fact, I am so damn lame that although I date most notes, I don’t record the year.
So, yet another task that can only be accomplished in a little-and-often fashion, starting just as soon as I have published this.
Webmentions
Webmentions
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