A mental note isn’t worth the paper it’s written on

Posted 25 March 2007, by Aaron

Every minute of every day, my brain is chugging away thinking of things. Usually I’m thinking of things that are irrelevant to the task I’m actually performing. Most of the time, in fact, my thoughts are centered around things I need to be doing in the future, like the interview I’m having tomorrow, or the design project I’m starting next week, or the the blog post I need to write tonight.

Yet, all to often, when I sit down to brainstorm project ideas or think of topics for my blog, my brain doesn’t want to play ball. All I remember about my thoughts and ideas is that they were brilliant, once. But now they’re gone and I’m starting from scratch. How irritating.

My new notebook So yesterday, I popped into town and searched for an A6 notebook. After concluding that masculine people clearly don’t buy notebooks, I bought this.

The notebook will fit in my pocket and be on my body at all times. Any creative seeds that pop in to my head - be it thoughts, ideas, quotes from reading, things that I see or hear - will be scribbled down for a time when they might be useful. So now I’m making a mental note to write more notes.

How do you record inspiration?

Whether you’re a designer, an artist, a musician or a blogger, capturing inspiration is key to your life. How do you do it? What tools and methods are your stock-in-trade when it comes to capturing those random ideas?

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8 fantastic comments

My newest procedure is sending emails to myself. iMail ( OS X ) is a great mail app. I created a serious of smart folders that will automatically file my emails by subject lines into the right folders.

Works great.

I’m a traditionalist, I love writing my ideas down on paper. Perhaps it’s the romance of writing that gets me… or the fact that my laptop is way too heavy to cart around everywhere while I wait for inspiration to strike!

In the past couple months, I’ve filled a couple notebooks with ideas and am always thrilled to look back and be surprised by a great idea I’ve forgotten about. In fact, my last notebook (which held up fantastically under a heavy writing and traveling schedule) looks suspiciously like that notebook you’ve used as the picture above!

yeah… i agreed with you, i even wrote my ideas on the tissue papers, or wrote the whole poem on it when the inspiration strike in middle of nowhere…

Marc - I must admit, I have been known to do the old “email yourself” trick. However I’m also not too good at keeping on top of email - when I have more than 20 messages in my inbox I’m prone to panic and get a tad over-zealous with my deleting.

Katie - What a coincidence we have the same notebook. I’d love to say that the notebook I bought has a much more manlike and macho pattern to it - but no, the notebook above is in fact the same one I have in my bag beside me.

jolenesiah - I can think of plenty of times when tissue paper is the only thing to hand… … you can’t choose when inspiration calls!

I struggled with noteboks until I discovered Moleskines. I have a variety of styles and sizes for drawings, sketches, notes, etc. But one, which is small enough to get in my back pocket, goes everywhere. It contains anything and everything that comes into my head from meeting notes, to phone numbers, to the odd scribble which may evolve into my next drawing. There’s something about the Moleskine which encourages its use - at least it does in me!

hahha… yup i agreed w you, and the weird thing about me was, my inspiration often came during “bored lecture” haha i can write plenty of poetry during that time… funny?

neil - I’d never heard of Moleskines before I read your blog. They look very nice. I think my WH Smith floral number will hold up until it’s full, but maybe then I’ll invest in a Moleskine.

ps - your sketches are very impressive!

I am a member of the notebook brigade too (how sad). I have even been known to put it beside the bed in case I get inspiration in the night!

A mental note isn’t worth the paper it’s written on

How do you record inspiration?

8 fantastic comments

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