I just signed up for the newsletter (#65), but didn't get the above mentioned on Journaling. Where can I read it?

Thanks

My system is hand built from 4x6" index cards and their standard manilla dividers that I label and hole punch to fit a vintage soft leather Covey binder ("pocket" size). The card stock lends more "weight" to my ideas and lists, its cheap (100 cards for a buck), and make great ad hoc note pads with a binder clip, enabling several consistent simulataneous "in boxes" (bedside, kitchen table, purse, work) that integrate with the binder. I've had impressed strangers approach me at bus stops to check it out!

Anonymous, sorry about that, we've been transitioning to a new system and hadn't yet put the latest newsletter on the reponse for new sign-ups. Should be fixed now. Send an email address and we'll send you the new newsletter. - David

David - I'm in the same boat - just signed up, but didn't get the newsletter which contains the article. I wonder if you might send it to me? Thanks

I recently started using a Moleskine notebook with gridded paper. It works well for daily thoughts, and the grid lets me flow chart & mind map when the spirit hits me.

Apparently these things are a little trendy. I just found mine at Barnes & Noble and liked the look and heft of it. It has both an attached bookmark and an elastic strap that holds it closed, plus a fold-out pouch attached the back cover for receipts or other paper scraps.

For some reason, I could never get into journaling. I've always been attracted to it as a concept but my implementation has been a series of false starts. Then I noticed that when I got a Wenger Pad Folio (similar to Davidco's Notetaker wallet), it was much easier to jot down insights and observations, then throw them into my In-basket at night and enter these on the Palm Desktop into a memo list called "Pathmarks."



I prefer the Evening Module's small slips to large notebooks that beg for fuller prose productions. I can get down the essence of the idea, then let it go until I get into processing mode. Ideas are holographic. Even a fragmentary representation of one will evoke the whole. As long as I get down the kernel of the idea, I can get it off my mind.

David - sorry to be adding a "me too" post but could I get a copy too. I've been reading the blog since it started but realised I'd never signed up for the newsletter. Have now, but didn't get the journalling article. Thanks for GTD and for the great blog.

I think it's interesting to see how paper journaling might differ from blogging for some people. Some personal blogs seem no different from diaries. But I wonder if most people would use paper for more purely personal thoughts than they would post to a blog. I guess it has to do with how one makes use of the different media.

You are so right about journaling using the right 'equipment'. I have kept a journal for the past ten years, but the regularity was haphazard until I got into a leather bound book and a Waterman fountain pen. It's like playing music on a fine piano or violin. There's nothing like pleasure as a stimulus for ensuring that you repeat a task with regularity. Be creative. Find a way of making it pleasurable.

Normally I receive the newsletter, but I didn't get this one. would you please send?

I recently started keeping what I call a "Thought Pad" (http://jameselee.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/14/662305.html) to keep track of my thoughts and ideas, and I've been shocked to see the effect it has on me. The feeling of confidence in knowing I've recorded a given thought/idea, no matter how "trivial", is a dramatic change from when thoughts were simply buzzing around in my head. Before doing this, I wasn't sure what I'd recorded or where, and therefore couldn't even begin to organize or take further action on my ideas. Now, when I'm ready, I'll be able to focus on doing something with my ideas, since my mind won't be cluttered by trying to determine what and where they are.




Although I'm not yet a "full convert" to the GTD method, I'm happy to report that your advice about recording things somewhere outside of one's mind really does create a sense of relaxation and clarity! As I'm sure you know, the concept is as valid for ideas as it is for tasks -- that might be the key takeaway for me when thinking about the value of journaling.




Thanks!




P.S. I haven't signed up for any of your newsletters, but I'm curious why you wouldn't just create a "Newsletters" blog category (if your blog software supports categories) and post newsletters there in addition to sending via email? That way, those who aren't using feed readers can still get them via email, but those of us who are can subscribe to the feed. Some feed reading services (such as Bloglines, which I use) allow people to create "subcription email addresses" to get newsletters (indirectly) as a feed, but the ability to syndicate content is one of the great features of using a blog to publish, so why not take advantage of it? (I know there are some advantages to sending to a specific list of subscribers, but I wanted to at least throw the idea out there.)

Julia Cameron, in The Artist's Way, has you do "morning pages"-three pages that you just write, don't think about. And always three pages, no more and no less.

I was never able to keep a journal until I started doing morning pages. I've been doing them off and on now for 4 1/2 years. I know that a day that begins with morning pages is a more focused day than one that doesn't.

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