I've been dragging around a paper journal for quite a while now, but I mainly use it for 2 things--complaining about myself and making lists.
I like making lists, and making them makes me feel in control, so that is not actually a problem. But on the other hand, if I put more on my lists than I can reasonably accomplish, I beat myself up about the lack of accomplishment rather than try to figure out what is a reasonable amount to accomplish in one day and how to schedule the other items on other days.
I bought a book, Getting Things Done by David Allen, that was recommended to me to help with organization, but a lot of it is aimed at managers, so I haven't actually finished it yet. One thing that was somewhat helpful, though, was his argument that unfinished tasks--whether big or small--prey on our minds, even when we are not consciously thinking about them; to counter this, he suggests making a master to-do list as a way of siphoning off this unconscious worrying. I have to admit that this has actually worked as promised: I don't feel like I am flying apart all the time. But I am not good about going back and reviewing the list on a regular basis to see what must or can be fitted into my upcoming schedule.
The other problem with the master list is that I don't know where I should put it. I mean that literally--I have been keeping it in the back of my paper journal, but since I am not actually reviewing it or updating it on a regular basis, there is really no need for me to be dragging around those extra pages. Also, whenever I fill a journal, I have to copy those pages into the new one or cut them out and tape them in. I tried putting the master list on index cards in a filing box, but I have not opened the box even once since I spent a whole afternoon arranging it.
I like it when I can approach things in a systematic way, I just have not been able to work out a good system yet, and that is what drives me crazy. I really like the feeling of writing things out by hand, which is one of the main reasons why I drag around a paper journal, and I also want to have something that is readily available for my note- and list-making. But searching back through my notes is made that much harder by having everything jumbled together on paper. I am too lazy to go back and type up my journal, and frankly, most of it is moaning, so I don't really want to type up most of it.
And now I seem to have lost control of any argument I might have been trying to make.
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Obviously, this blog has been defunct for a *very* long time now. I don't think either of us has done much writing to speak of, or none that we are ready to talk about yet, so I am going to highjack this space for my own purposes, which are mainly to get back in the habit of expository writing. So don't expect much entertainment value.
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