Do You Write Your Thoughts Out? Re: Work & Personal?

[HappyDude]

David Allen mentions in his new book that he writes thoughts out. The "Cognitive Distribution" from the array of thoughts passing by in the mind to writing them out helps us as humans to actually GTD.

It was interesting that I heard of this tip before reading DA's new book Making It All Work and when I heard him mention it I was like, "Ahh!!!"

Well he mentioned something I heard also in passing. That for his personal life and things he needs/wants to do in regards to say Family, Friends, Etc...he writes using a pen and paper. He mentions he's gone as far as to carry around a personal leather bound journal...but as for the work related stuff he says typing it out in a word processor in the beginning of the day is enough for him.

So here I am wondering if you do this at all to any degree?

Personally I've found writing thoughts out and what I plan to accomplish for the day helps out big time...but don't do it everyday. Though i'd like to.

I'm running on a Mac, using MacJournal in attempts to write out thoughts, both work and personal but truth be told I hardly touch the application. I do however notice if I'm bored in class or have time to kill at a Starbucks i'll grab the nearest pen and paper and just write away. Admittedly I enjoy typing more so than writing by hand as its quicker but pen and paper seem to have a more permanent effect when it comes down to having a productive day.

Finally I'm wondering if you keep your writings. See, if one day you're in front of your desk and decide to write out thoughts and just things on your mind...and hopefully it gets done and goes as planned....what need do you have for that piece of paper even just a week later? For personal writings i'd understand, though personally mainly only if it was in a journal or notebook and not just a torn random sheet of paper...

...but rather than me ranting, i'm seriously curious about others thoughts on all this.

[kewms]

I'm a writer. Even if I'm not actively writing stuff down, I feel lost if I don't have pen and paper handy. And it needs to be pen and paper -- electronic notes just aren't the same, I think because any program imposes its own structure.

Do I keep it? Depends on what it is. Reminder lists and the like get tossed after (GTD-standard) processing. Daily planning goes in a paper planner, and I purge the pages about once a year. Brainstorming and similar pages get filed with the relevant project and tossed during file purges. Journal-style notes are kept essentially forever, even though I rarely look at them.

Katherine

[HappyDude]

I'm a writer. Even if I'm not actively writing stuff down, I feel lost if I don't have pen and paper handy. And it needs to be pen and paper -- electronic notes just aren't the same, I think because any program imposes its own structure.

Do I keep it? Depends on what it is. Reminder lists and the like get tossed after (GTD-standard) processing. Daily planning goes in a paper planner, and I purge the pages about once a year. Brainstorming and similar pages get filed with the relevant project and tossed during file purges. Journal-style notes are kept essentially forever, even though I rarely look at them.

Katherine

I'm taking what you described here to heart.

Why keep lying to myself? I hardly ever write in MacJournal and I feel like I actually took a grasp at my thoughts and motivations by writing things out with pen & paper. I always write out thoughts in class and many times whenever i'm sitting at a desk. I always have a Pilot g2 #7 pen on me, no matter what size or color... I think i'll continue this trend.

I also found what you mentioned about keeping notes interesting and the once a year purging. As much as I'd love & want to tell you right now that I would want to continue what I currently do and throw away w/e I wrote any particular morning at night...I have to admit that keep even these little tactical writings weeks later finds a purpose. At night when I go home, I'll find writings I did earlier that day. Some just thoughts, concerns and others actual steps for what I wanted to accomplish that day...well, at night i'll throw them away but there have been a few times when weeks later i'll open up a random notebook and i'll see things I wrote 15-20 days prior and I'm always amazed at the things that got done, how they got done and the things that even weeks later can still be on my plate.

I'll go ahead and do my best to keep everything I write, though of course i'll need to organize these notes and not just pile them up...but that shouldn't be too tough.

I keep detailed records of what I did in my calendar, initially paper, then various computer programs and now in iCal. I print those out each month. I now am keeping those records as archives, and in fact plan to save them as PDF's as well as paper backups. I have them from 1989 on in full form and abbreviated form from earlier years.

I write in a personal journal, irregularly, and have done so for nearly 50 years. Those I keep forever. They are mostly thoughts and feelings and sometimes the mundane. My frequency is related to season, I write more in winter and less in summer. Probably because I am so busy in summer.

I also write in scrapbooks, (called journaling in the SB parlance) and have them detailing life, what happened, how I felt, what we are doing on the farm, major construction projects, the stories behind the pictures etc since 2000. I am going back and doing past years as well.

And I have a backlog of file boxes full of various writings of my mothers who also kept all sorts of scraps of paper and notes. Many are related to farm projects that I inherited as well as the farm and some are slowly being finished. If she had done GTD they would have been part of her reference filing system and things might be moving much faster now. As it is I tend to collate them into reference filing and project folders now.

I tend to keep most anything that looks even remotely useful, interesting, odd or fun. Some stuff that I thought was irrelevant 10 or 15 years ago has proved itself useful now so I'd rather keep than toss.

I never really thought about the importance of keeping things for thoughts 10 years down the line, though many may find it excessive, I think its an incredible habit. Especially with the farm you can leave the information specific for other people to view, or future generations. And of course its great to always know you can look back at something in your past; whether it be just for emotional recollection or data specific processing.

[Oogiem]

I never really thought about the importance of keeping things for thoughts 10 years down the line, though many may find it excessive, I think its an incredible habit. Especially with the farm you can leave the information specific for other people to view, or future generations. And of course its great to always know you can look back at something in your past; whether it be just for emotional recollection or data specific processing.

Part of the value is because projects on a farm may span seasons, years, decades or lifetimes. If you have confidence that the heirs will continue the process you darn well better leave detailed info on what you did. Not so much what worked, that is obvious (the lush pasture, the healthy sheep) but what didn't work (the failed turnips field, the phantom cattle no longer on the farm) and most important the Why. US agriculture is in its infancy with respect to what works over time and the most important task I can do over the course of my lifetime is a clear concise list of what I tried, why it failed and what I'd do differently. That is more important than what worked.

I'm now 11 years into sorting my mothers' notes and every time I tackle yet another box of her stuff I wish she had known about and practiced GTD. It would make my job so much easier.

[QuestorTheElf]

Sometimes I do write things, depending upon the level of detail and intensity I want to capture.

Other times, I've found mindmapping is very efficient. It doesn't take up much space, and it can quickly get you to recall the thoughts you had.

As far as holding onto notes, I used to keep them indefinitely. I don't any more once reading about purging in GTD. If they do serve a purpose I keep them. If not, I'm glad GTD has a Trash category.

It's particularly interesting when old notes are of a different value system that's been revised due to countless forces, from revising dreams to coming to grips with business and personal realities. I've always loved how people insist we have to be the same person at 42 that we were at 22 (e.g., reference checkers), yet also say we must be into continuous lifelong learning. If you do want to make space for new things, you must let go of old things, including written and mental beliefs.

Then again, I've seen and heard one of the biggest growing industries is self-storage. You can always warehouse your physical papers there. (Electronic scanning is optional; I've sometimes done that too, thinking technology was always a catalyst -- I've changed, having grown up on computers!)

[Layla]

Great thread!!

I was wondering about this too!

I have journals from when I was a teenager, and sometimes find myself laughing over what I wrote! The concerns I had then seem so petty and trivial and unimportant now.. Yet I still feel 'the same' person...

I'm still keeping them all, though not quite sure what to do with them - I guess they're on my someday/maybe list, to someday catalogue, maybe put labels on them and write down what's in them (some contain bits of poetry or short stories or useful stuff.. Maybe some notes from books etc.)
Partly I wish I had known about GTD earlier and filed according to topic or something, it's still good to get a glimpse into 'my life then' too..

I have heaps of notes and journals on paper too (for when I didn't have the notebooks, or preferred to just grab paper and go), and have been wondering a bit what to do with them. Some of these got tossed, some kept..
I thought to put them on my 'someday/later' list and go through at least the more recent and more relevant ones, when I have the time..

Basically, your journal is an 'inbox' (one of) and I'd like to include it in my weekly review.. (And then slowly work through the backlog too..)

[Oogiem]

I've always loved how people insist we have to be the same person at 42 that we were at 22 (e.g., reference checkers), yet also say we must be into continuous lifelong learning. If you do want to make space for new things, you must let go of old things, including written and mental beliefs.

As an alternative POV, I would argue that it is possible to just add rather than let go. I am a more well rounded person because I do not "let go" of old things but instead adapt and incorporate those things into the new me. I do not think that decluttering or letting go is necessarily a good thing. It may be but you can also lose a lot of what made you who you are if you deny or delete past experiences. I think the human mind is much more capable of incorporating and holding much more stuff and that is is part of what makes us human, to keep the details of our past experiences. I would much rather keep what I learned than get rid of the old stuff that may actually prove more useful in future than I think it is now.

That said, part of the reason I believe that is my own personal experience, where many things become much more valuable with time compared to their relative importance given to them initially.

[Oogiem]

i'm seriously curious about others thoughts on all this.

I keep detailed records of what I did in my calendar, initially paper, then various computer programs and now in iCal. I print those out each month. I now am keeping those records as archives, and in fact plan to save them as PDF's as well as paper backups. I have them from 1989 on in full form and abbreviated form from earlier years.

I write in a personal journal, irregularly, and have done so for nearly 50 years. Those I keep forever. They are mostly thoughts and feelings and sometimes the mundane. My frequency is related to season, I write more in winter and less in summer. Probably because I am so busy in summer.

I also write in scrapbooks, (called journaling in the SB parlance) and have them detailing life, what happened, how I felt, what we are doing on the farm, major construction projects, the stories behind the pictures etc since 2000. I am going back and doing past years as well.

And I have a backlog of file boxes full of various writings of my mothers who also kept all sorts of scraps of paper and notes. Many are related to farm projects that I inherited as well as the farm and some are slowly being finished. If she had done GTD they would have been part of her reference filing system and things might be moving much faster now. As it is I tend to collate them into reference filing and project folders now.

I tend to keep most anything that looks even remotely useful, interesting, odd or fun. Some stuff that I thought was irrelevant 10 or 15 years ago has proved itself useful now so I'd rather keep than toss.