#75 - Note taking on the go
Creating an environment for Sketchnote anywhere based on Atomic Habits
Our brain can hold
only seven concepts
in working memory at any time.
-=- Joseph LeSoux, Neuroscientist -=-
I am awed by the book Atomic Habits. That’s one book I keep going back for tweaking my daily routine to achieve peak productivity. One such productivity hack I ever wanted to try was to make Sketchnoting easy, accessible, and portable.
Notebook in my wallet
Mauro Toselli shared how he attached a small notebook to his e-wallet attached to the phone charger. Inspired, I wanted to create an environment for myself where I can carry a small notebook. Not as a separate entity but something that’s already part of things that I carry when I step out. I am not able to locate that post of Mauro so couldn’t link it. Mauro if you are reading this please share the link or photos of what you made.
My Context
Till now I have been carrying an A7 notebook and a pen. Though small they do occupy one of the pockets. Also many times I tend to forget the book as it might be lying on my work desk (and I don’t keep my wallet there). So I wanted to create something wherein I don’t lose out on space in my pocket, can carry essential items aka my sketch notebook, and not have to remember the items to carry.
The idea was to get make book part of the wallet. I searched for 2 things.
A book that fits the hand and a wallet that can fit the book.
I got a B7 size notebook (it’s ruled 😩, searching for a blank one). And a wallet that has perfect space to insert the book cover to make wallet the cover.
Going to use this for a month and see how it’s elevating my notetaking process.
The pen is still out. Next search is on that small enough pen to fit the pocket.
I wonder why Apple phones don’t have stylus.
Journey of sheet of paper
With 3 months to go for the end of the year we started with reflection workshop this October. As part of monthly challenge we took up learning different ways of Reflection. Conducted by Kanupriya from our amazing community, this workshop teaches us about different tools of reflection (journaling is just the basic one), nuances of reflection, and ways to keep going.
Here’s one such reflection exercise. We were asked to take a sheet of paper, crumple, open and lay it as flat as possible on table. Then observe and reflect on the paper.
You can learn more about the workshop here. The site is Work in Progress and will be updates as we keep doing exercises with the prompts.
That’s all I have for today.
Happy Sketchnoting.
—Kumar
I love your idea of carrying a notebook in your wallet.
I carry a Moleskine Pocket Soft Cover (3.5" x 5.5") in my back pocket with my iPhone.
Wacom used to make a collapsible/expandable stylus that would fit in your pocket, but they sadly quit making them. I still have two of them and often carry one with me.