Moleskin and Persistent Lists
I've been a follower of the "Getting Things Done" (GTD) methodologies since reading the book last January. The first and most "sticky" change I made was to use 3"x5" index cards to record items I need to do. The idea is to perform a brain-dump as soon as an idea occurs because the human brain does a poor job of recalling things out of context.
I've read a lot on the 43 Folders website about the popularity of the trendy Moleskin pocket notebooks. I have preferred the 3"x5" index card solution because it affords me the ability to dispose of cards that were for one-time notes (i.e. write e-mail to parents, etc.). Putting such notes in a Moleskin seems bad because those notes stick around for the life of the notebook. So, I've put off getting a Moleskin until a week ago when Natalie and I were buying art supplies for a drawing class I'm taking.
I finally figured out a good application for the Moleskin: lists. Long-term lists. Here's a good example: I'm at the grocery store looking for a bottle of wine. I know that I've tried many of them before, but can't remember which I liked and disliked. Maintaining a list of favorite wines would help solve the problem. Another good application would be too keep a list of favorite restaurants organized by type of food or environment.
Through the GTD methods, I've learned that I'm really good at solving immediate problems, but suffer at maintaining information about experiences had during abnormal contexts. Persisting that information in an organized medium seems like a good solution. I'm going to give it a try and will report on the success at a future date.
