Moo notebook

As a “writer-downer” I recently filled my Moo notebook my children gave me this year. I milked the last few pages writing  in tiny print, as I wanted to be sure I bought the next notebook, so I didn’t get left without. I have a decades long habit of writing each morning as well of taking the vast majority of notes longhand, writing most things I wish to write well long hand as a first draft,  logging work outs etc. and so on. Even this was written first. The science behind the benefits of writing aside, there are plenty (see the UCLA and Princeton study), I am struck by the number and variety of notebooks we can select from to take notes, journal, write morning pages, sketch, doodle engineering designs, and  gasp out shitty first drafts as writers. I’m lefthanded which leaves me biased to notebooks that can lie flat. If you aren’t lefthanded, it’s hard to explain. It’s similar to the reality that I require pens that don’t smudge the page as my upside down hand slides across what I wrote a few lines above.

I see handwritten notes prevalent among personal trainers who, for the most part, reject digital versions of writing workouts.  They prefer to create handwritten workouts that may have just slight variations that matter for the moment but much of what they do is contained on notecards or scattered files or spiral notebooks.  Yes, there are programs that hyper-track performance and data but my own experience has been that many that keep a handwritten record will learn from their notes and tweaks and small changes that come within the plan.  

The studies confirm that taking notes can improve memory and even improve understanding and follow through.  The act slows us down and turns writing into an act of either creating or understanding. If logging what was said was the point, we could all just use our computers or become stenographers and come back to the notes later. I watch lawyers hunch over legal pads in court taking notes on what matters most rather than simply logging what is said. Indeed, in the medical field it has become a problem for doctors where they are forced through rote electronic note taking and box checking. In some cases, the practice is a treasure trove for mistakes where doctors in an attempt to comply and get through what is actually more time consuming that writing notes, check boxes and log notes that have greater inaccuracy when they return to review their electronic notes. It bears witness to a drive to simply digitalize rather than capture professionals’ thoughts and process.

With our informal notebooks, our tastes run wide. The notebook I recently filled from Moo lies flat and is great for lefties.  I am on to a Leuchtturm which has kept the quality of their paper high while others prefer Moleskine. It was even a topic Neil Gaiman delved into as he opined on his notebook preference. In a way, this is a process to slow my thinking to a more manageable pace to be more methodical in my thinking. But in essence, just filling up a notebook is a first step of creation that appears to join our senses and our intelligence. Luckily for me, no one is trying to force me to type my notes into the cloud. I’m not against it, just not when I’m first getting it down. If you haven’t tried, then do, it’s worth just walking into a bookstore and seeing your options for becoming a “writer downer.”