Myndology Notebook - Hacking Update

About two weeks ago, I posted about how I found a Myndology Junior Notebook and Myndology Index Notebook in my remote part of the earth. I was very happy to have found these, as I was wistful of the shipping cost, and now exchange rate, for the Levenger Circa notebooks. I gave a favourable initial impression of these notebooks, and to date that hasn't changed.

I did mention that I was going to do some hacking on these notebooks, and after a productive 10 minutes with my labeller, I'm happy to say that I've had terrific results for someone as un-crafty as I am. SWMBO, now she's crafty - and I will leave that to you as to how you want to interpret that.

I stayed up very late the first night I had this notebook, essentially reading a novel and doing a brain dump. Any thought and I jotted it down. I enjoyed the feeling of writing in it, and really enjoyed the quality of the paper.

Tabbed Dividers


So then, the next morning, I set out to tab the pages as I had outlined in my initial post. Very simply, I used 3M Post-It Rigid Index Tabs, and added the following "sections":

• Calls - for voicemails to be returned or put into my system when I'm on the road

• Tasks - for capture from meetings, or random thoughts where the notebook is handy.
• File Notes - for notes on my "defined work" from meetings, etc.
• Projects - mind mapping and thinking on paper.
• B.G. - separate tasks for an organization I am involved with.
• WR Ch - my handwritten weekly review checklist (frankly, easier to use than my Splashshopper Checklist).

To get these tabs formatted, I set my label maker to the smallest sized font, and printed them out in a single tape with three spaces between each word. I then printed a second copy, to have one for each side, in case the notebook happened to be upside down. Not so dumb, me.

These tabs have worked famously. Unfortunately, due to operator error, I was often turning to a tab and then writing on the page for the next one, so in the principle of KISS, I slapped a label from my label maker on the front of each page. Works like a charm as a divider now, and it was cheap. This was probably $0.50 that will last for a very long time, if I keep with this notebook system. No hours on the internet searching, no finding the perfect, no spending another $15 at the Levenger store for no reason... this just plain works for me. Yay me for keeping it so simple!


The Advantage over spiral-bound and three-ring

Let me go no further before I say this: yep, I get it, it's just a friggin' notebook. The funny thing about all this is that it showed me how ineffectively I was using my current notebook. Which itselfwas just a friggin' notebook. However, the non-linearity of this one led me to change the way I looked at things. I don't know why it is different than, say, a 3-ring binder, or my old paper planner, but it just is. When I had one of the Franklin Covey planners, it was such wonderful paper that aside from writing appointments in it I was afraid to mark it up. I never used it very well, and certainly not for any note keeping. It was almost an affectation more than it was a planner. All the grand designs I had about keeping notes in the thing all went to pot.

The Myndology products are happy to have you store them in a file folder. Just pull them out. You can write on them and toss them if you need to. There is a feeling of both flexibility and non-permanence about using it that makes my old spiral-bound notebook seem so dated. By the time I stopped using it I was basically using the spiral-bound as a voicemail log - very very inefficient. If I'm going to write, I want it to be efficient and practical for the way I want to work.

The amazing thing is that I fell into a trap with the old Blueline A9. They came with great labels that allowed you to tab the pages, record them in the index, and even archive the notebook itself. However, they are very linear, and even though the pages were perforated, I felt like I was somehow defiling it. Again, I know, it was JUST a friggin' notebook. It was the weirdest feeling, like I wanted to archive all this stuff. In fact, most of it I can just toss, but there the old, used ones sit, on my shelf - the information in them useless and outdated. Somehow, because the pages can be moved, sectioned, more easily removed for filing - somehow this notebook seems better, in every way.

Oh, and it is very comfortable to use if you are a left-hander like me.

Customer Service

I have been speaking with Myndology directly, mostly to let them know about the good success I've had with their products, and to make some suggstions about what I might like to see. They are really quite open and friendly folks, and responded fairly quickly. Because I am a nerd, I did send them to other sites to show what I was suggesting for their product, which they seemed to appreciate. Their products are really quite good, and you owe it to yourself to pick one up and give it a try!

Myndology Notebook

I've just begun trying out a new notebook - the Myndology Journal (in the swish neon blue), and the Myndology Index (in the red). I got these because I had been interested in Levenger's Circa Notebooks, but when I tried to order from their site, the $12 or so starter pack was going to cost me $48 or so in shipping to the Frozen North of Canada. (WAKE UP, LEVENGER! We're a market the size of California, with 90% of us living within an hour of the border! Make it easy to buy from you and guess what - I will. Hose me, and I will rant about it on a blog!)

Anyway, I dropped by Stylus, a very cool fountain pen and ink store in Edmonton. I discovered it after becoming the proud owner of a set of Levenger True Writer pens, one fountain, one ballpoint, scooped from e-bay. Hmmm... an individual can figure out it costs only $8 to ship to Canada. Levenger, you listening yet? Stylus happens to be the local carrier of the Myndology products, which I discovered totally by accident. After paying $16, I walked out with the Journal and Index size. Very nice, if a little more than what our U.S. friends would pay. Still cheap to play with interesting technology.

Overall, the quality of the paper is great. It is better quality than my Blueline A9C, which I have used for several years. I'm not sure how I'm going to archive it, but then again, maybe the fact that the pages are removable, I will be better off trying to file the information than store it in a linear book that I'm too afraid to tear the pages out of. Maybe it was the fact that I was tabbing each month in the Blueline... and referring back to it. I want to start filing my notes properly, not linearly in a book I rarely reference.

The great thing about these is that the pages are removable - you can move them around, put them back in, etc. Look at this video from youtube:



This shows how easy it is. The other great thing is that for left-handers like me, this sort of notebook is actually very comfortable to write with. The rings aren't as harsh as an aluminum spiral of any type, and are definitely easier to write on the front / right side of the page than using a ring binder.

I plan on using the 3M Post-It Durable Index Tabs to organize it into different sections. Right now, it will be:

1. A call sheet - voicemails to return.
2. Tasks - things I need to get into my task list.
3. Notes - the notes I take all the time.
4. Projects
5. A separate section for an organization I'm involved with.

It will be interesting to see how the use of this notebook evolves. I'm quite looking forward to putting it through it's paces.

The Weekly Review

The Weekly Review – The Heart of “Getting Things Done”

I admit it.  I am right now a closet runway planner.  I am only looking at GTD from a runway level, and the 10,000 foot level – very rarely higher.

10,000 feet feels different than I thought it would – it feels like getting through the week, and all I am doing is checking off to-dos that I’ve done.  Then again, that is a good thing, although I could check them off when I did them and that would be even better.  But there is more to it than that – there is a ton of self management that is involved in that process.  It gives me a feeling of being in control, of deciding, what I am doing next.  It makes me feel like nothing is slipping through the cracks, and that is terribly important.

One of the keys that I’ve found to ensuring that nothing is slipping is taking notes throughout the day.  Most people I know would freak to find out I was “taking notes on them” but that isn’t the principle.  It lets me process my notes from the previous day and ensure that nothing is slipping.  It lets me keep a record, so that I know what I have committed to – childish, but if I haven’t written it down, it’s like my mind doesn’t think it exists.  I’ve heard lots of people rave over Moleskine notebooks – heck I even bought my wife one for Christmas, and she loves it.  However, I’ve found a great, cheap notebook that does the trick, and you can find something for your needs too.  If you have to know, mine is the Blueline A9C, a steal for about 8 bucks Canadian, and from a Canadian company too.  Reviewing my notes from the week prior during my weekly review or the first thing on the first morning in the office really helps me to stay focused on that runway and 10,000 foot level.

Now if I can just get myself to soar a little bit higher….

Actually, I'm feeling kind of harried...

This has been one of those crazy, hectic times where you wonder where the day goes.  By the end of it, you’re just happy that it’s over, and that you’ve managed to accomplish something.  However, these are the times that show exactly how effective GTD can be.

I admit (sorry, SWMBO) that I left work late tonight – in a bid to ensure that I had emptied all of my in-baskets.  I am going to be super-busy tomorrow, the continuation of a 2.5 week trend, so I prioritized those few tasks that I must do tomorrow morning, to ensure they get done before I head off on my merry, busy way.  I will once again be in and out of the office.  But this is where GTD shines.

On my Palm Tungsten E handheld, my lists are with me.  I can make my calls, I can hammer away at other tasks – anything that doesn’t need my computer or my office, I can do while I’m in my car.  All because I have my lists.  I’ve also started to take a page from Michael Hyatt in his blog article Working Smart: Recovering the Lost Art of Note-Taking, although this only reinforces something I never did under the Covey system – the Daily Record of Events.  Within my notes I also record all of my voicemail messages, with this notebook becoming an indispensable part of my “trusted system”.

The thing is, GTD doesn’t make these periods any less busy.  But it does make them much more manageable and much less stressful.