Productivity Tips: notebooking

This guy up here, got it together for me. He represents a man in many ways, of many of the amazing things he did, he is also a normal man subjected to panic attacks and woes of family life.

I'm not talking about James, I'm talking about Tony. The crazy, fat, mean, fighting machine of a fictional Mafia boss. My favourite action spy is James Bond of course. And my favourite gangster is none other than Anthony John Soprano. He does a lot of things, he manages stuff, settles stuff and does stuff, albeit it is of illegal means. But he gets it, he here, is a guy who is seeking enlightenment whether he is aware of it or not. Dead or alive.

Anyways, one of the things that strikes me the most about him is he has a habit of taking notes. I mean, you see gangsters/wise guys, you see them hanging around butcher shops, pizza place. Beat up shit, do gangster-y stuff. And in their spare time, bone chicks and all. But this guy, this guy already visits a shrink in his spare time for 6 years, but that is of prevailing circumstances and the greek chorus of the show. But for him, being a wise guy, amongst beating people up and asking for money, he also has a freaking NOTEBOOK. He goes around day to day, doing his gangster stuff. But he writes them in a notebook (although I've only seen him doing it for one episode, but its done that way.)

Anyways, through out history, many great man are taking notes about stuff. Notebooks of Galileo, Leonard Da Vinci, Ernest Hemingway, Darwin, Twain, Einstein, 4d bookies and provision store owners in the old days.

I've decided to use my notebook, not for scrapbooking like a 15 year old girl or scheduling like a secretary of a boss. But to:
- remember stuff to do: write them in, do it, cross it out
- compare prices: write down what you getting and the price and where to get it. Compare 3 at least
- impt dates over a few events, addresses of hard to get places
- credit card bills to pay later at AXS machine
- remember stuff for my girlfriend.

For me I'm using a leather cover fauxdori from evatelier.com to bind in '555' notebooks. I know, the leather cover is crazy, but hey its a nice thing and in leather.

The notebook imitates the Midori Traveler's Notebook system where the books are held in by a elastic band, that you do not need to spend a lot to buy, just go Aries and buy those hairband material and there you have it.

pictures of the actual cover after custom-making my piece to size

(photo credit: evatelier.com/journals)

I didn't like the gay looking elastic band to hold the covers close, so I punched a hole at the spine of the cover and put an orange elastic band through it. There were complains that the Midori's punches a hole in the center of the back cover and put the band through it, this gets in the way of writing. Hence, punching at the spine is better. Now it looks like the Star edition from Midori.

actual pictures of the notebook after installing that elastic band

Did you just read '555' notebooks? Yes. '555' motherfarking notebooks. Like I said, no need to copy ang mohs with their moleskin/midori paper made from trees in Narnia. you just need a good pen and a paper to write on. 555 notebook is about $0.15-$0.30 a piece and are of extremely portable size to carry around.

(photo credit: google image search)

In our parents' days, it is super common in southeast asia and these notebooks is the credit cards facilities people use to keep track of finance records, and IOUs. No one knows the origin behind the 555 numbers. There are stories saying it is 'hahaha' in some dialect but no one can verify.

So guys and gals (guys especially because you have a lot of things going on), get a notebook and write stuff down, don't waste pages doing sketches or pretentious quotes of the day shit. Just write down what you have to do, do it, and cross it out. So just get a good pen, $0.20 notebooks and write down the next thing you have to do.

Maybe in future I'll write about some notebook systems around the place.

Here is an interesting article:
They hate us, cause they ain't us!

Write that down