Struggling with only having one notebook

[gator]

Hello
I'm struggling a bit here. I'm in outside sales, work from home when not traveling. My handwriting is terrible! I use omnifocus for all of my lists and it seems to work ok. My struggle is that when I'm in the field meeting clients, I like to use a small moleskine, levenger circa Jr. sized notebook for it's compactness especially since many of my meetings are held at cafes, restaurants etc. When I am at my "stand up" desk at home or in a hotel, I lean towards using a lrge notebook or even a nice legal pad. I write big, legal pads hold a lot of info, but I wish I could keep everything in one notebook. Anyone else have this issue???
Thanks

 

[Oogiem]

Can you pick an intermediate size and standardize on that?

Ot just acknowledge that you will use a lot more paper in the small notebook thn you do when you have a larger space to write?

I use small spiral bound 3 x 5 inch notebooks as places to collect thoughts and notes. I often am lucky to get 1 thought per page in them but it does work.

 

[Oogiem]

Can you pick an intermediate size and standardize on that?

Ot just acknowledge that you will use a lot more paper in the small notebook thn you do when you have a larger space to write?

I use small spiral bound 3 x 5 inch notebooks as places to collect thoughts and notes. I often am lucky to get 1 thought per page in them but it does work.

 

[enyonam]

Yup, I used to be in this place.

I had two notebooks, both Levenger - one for portability and one for when I had the room to spread the paper and write to my heart's content.

I eventually compromised because I wanted to keep my system super simple and have just one notetaker. ... or at least one primary notetaker. I chose the junior-sized levenger. But ... I made sure to get the paper in my levenger that I really like (I'm all about being as attracted to my system as possible). So I've got Rhodia paper, and I've got the cornell-lined version + the no-lines version + storyboard version ... all in various sections.

Now when I look at my 8.5 x 11 Levenger or legal pads they actually LOOK too large.

If your handwriting is a challenge, you might also want to consider Livescribe so you can also listen back to your notes when they're particularly illegible.

Regards, Enyonam
www.enyonam.com

 

[mcogilvie]

Hello
I'm struggling a bit here. I'm in outside sales, work from home when not traveling. My handwriting is terrible! I use omnifocus for all of my lists and it seems to work ok. My struggle is that when I'm in the field meeting clients, I like to use a small moleskine, levenger circa Jr. sized notebook for it's compactness especially since many of my meetings are held at cafes, restaurants etc. When I am at my "stand up" desk at home or in a hotel, I lean towards using a lrge notebook or even a nice legal pad. I write big, legal pads hold a lot of info, but I wish I could keep everything in one notebook. Anyone else have this issue???
Thanks

I use both letter-size and half--size Levenger notebooks. The half-size pages can be placed in the large notebook as needed. The smaller notebook functions essentially as an inbox. This might work for you. OTOH, Moleskines are thin and good for more hostile environments.

 

[eldiente]

You might consider Field Notes (http://fieldnotesbrand.com/) for portability. Much smaller than a Levenger Jr, but portability of a pocket notebook makes it usable in most situations.

 

[Vickie]

My handwriting is horrendous as well. I use a Moleskine but then transcribe my notes to Evernote either during the week as I have time or during my weekly review. I prefer to have them digitally stored anyway for tagging and search capabilities.

Hope this helps!
Vickie

 

[TesTeq]

I wonder why so many people type "my handwriting is terrible or horrendous"? Wasn't it lovely in the primary school? What happened?

I like my handwriting. I like to watch my thoughts transforming into beautiful lines on paper - lines that represent words born in my mind...

 

[SiobhanBR]

I don't think my handwriting was ever lovely - but I'll blame that on being left handed and not being forced to learn to write nicely. I actually lost marks in exams in high school because my handwriting was hard to read. It is usually only when rushing. If I go slow, I can write ok, but nowhere near as nice as so many others I see.

When the ideas start flowing I switch to this odd mix of writing and printing and I tend to start one word but finish another. If I don't process my meeting notes within a day or two of the meeting I often have absolutely no idea what I wrote.

All that said, I love writing with a pen or pencil and paper. I use Field Notes all the time for a wide variety of purposes and still usually start a new report/presentation or even a difficult letter by handwriting ideas and thoughts. There is something special about the connection of hand to paper, my hand moving to create the words, my eyes seeing the words (and for some people it helps to say them out loud and involve the tongue and ears too!).

 

[Oogiem]

I wonder why so many people type "my handwriting is terrible or horrendous"? Wasn't it lovely in the primary school? What happened?

No my handwriting has always been terrible. I can print fairly well if I really concentrate but cursive never did work well for me at all. When I was learning to write I was also having significant eye problems and wearing trifocal glasses and that made the eye hand coordination problematic at best. Add to that not quite being able to decide whether I was left handed or right handed and picking up a pencil and doing things in either hand but neither very well. I am much more right hand dominant now but I still do some things as a lefty would.

I'm like Siobhan, I do a mix of cursive, printing and my own abbreviations and tend to get really sloppy when I am trying to go fast or at night. I too had better read my notes within 24 hours or I can't read my own writing.

 

[ProfessorSue]

And with age, arthritis in (my) fingers makes handwriting worse. Oh, the effects of aging.

 

[Oogiem]

Weren't you FORCED to write like this in the 1st grade? This is an example of my notebook.

Yes in school we were instructed in handwriting skills, but I failed miserably. I never did well at all, I have some of my old cursive papers and they are almost unreadable. I think I failed penmanship my entire school career. So even though it is taught that doesn't' mean everyone learned it or was able to complete the tasks.

 

[Judderman62]

would a voice recorder be a practical solution ? I oft have one in my pocket.

 

[devon.marie]

I use my Midori Traveler's Notebook when I can't use my iPad (lots of people in my area still view them as unprofessional, and they definitely can be distracting), because it lets me put a variety of different notebooks in it. It's also a great portable size IMHO and the leather cover looks really, really nice and professional. It's also got folder inserts for biz cards and such that work really well in the business world. Mid-sized Moleskines, Leuchtturms, and other such notebooks work, too, though aren't as flexible.

My handwriting used to be awful, too. I always got C's in penmanship. But, I firmly believe everyone who has terrible handwriting not due to physical impairments like eyesight or arthritis CAN improve it. The key is to stop practicing like it's handwriting and start practicing like it's drawing. It routes around your poor handwriting habits in your brain and can override them. I have always found cursive to be way faster than printing, and it's much easier to write on the go when you don't have to keep lifting the pen tip from the paper, so I found a cursive style I liked (italic handwriting) and practiced that. 15-20 min/day for a few months was all it took, and now I get compliments on my penmanship all the time and get asked to write greeting card content.

 

[adepijper]

I'm struggling a bit here... My handwriting is terrible!

Try not to become so frustrated by trying to take notes, that you are not present and focused on the conversation with your clients.

... I wish I could keep everything in one notebook...

Knowing why you're taking notes and where the info is going may help you determine the best way to solve. Why are you taking these notes? To record next actions? To write down commitments by you and others? To remember what was said?

Since you're using OmniFocus, I'm assuming that you're transferring the actions into that system so small notepad should work to capture the gist, correct?

 

[Candid]

Have you consider a Note phone or tablet from Samsung? They have a built in pen which converts your handwriting to text. They have their own note taking app, but the pen works with Evernote for me and in other apps as well.

 

[Dave Edwards]

I like how we are all admitting that we have had bad handwriting skills since our early days in school. I hope our math skills don't fall under similar scrutiny!

My penmanship is bad and while I'd prefer to type notes, I write out notes when I am in meetings and re type the main points in to Evernote as soon as I get a chance.

Ok, I'll admit it I need a calculator to do anything more than simple math.

 

[TesTeq]

I wish I could keep everything in one notebook.

Why?

You are processing your notes later, aren't you?

 

[TLS]

My job requires a lot of note-taking and much of it is in face-to-face/one-on-one meetings. I feel most comfortable taking notes in my junior sized Moleskine notebook (hard cover, lined pages) rather than my iPad or laptop. Using a keyboard to take notes seems impersonal to me, I guess. The "Bullet Journal" format has worked well for me as it helps me have just ONE notebook in which I can take notes, makes lists, brain dump, etc. thanks to the way they recommend keeping a table of contents in the front few pages of the notebook. I am able to easily find things I need. I also use a different color pen each month so I can quickly see when I shot to a different month (nerdy, I know!). Here is a link to a YouTube video of how the Bullet Journal works if you're interested: https://youtu.be/GfRf43JTqY4
Good luck!

 

[TMac]

TLS - where do you enter your meeting notes on your Bullet Journal? I struggle with this. Should it be on it's own page or simply as added point on the daily page along with my next actions.