Notebook Writing

One of the reasons I’ve been talking about writing notebooks so much lately is that I’ve been using them more than ever.

It’s just too danged easy to be distracted while on a computer and lately I’ve been extra distractible. E-mail checking, looking up data that I didn’t have any interest in a few moments before, following links from Facebook to articles I didn’t know I wanted to read, etc. I’ve been failing the Dr. McCoy test pretty miserably. Sometimes I promise myself I won’t be distracted and get good work done, and sometimes I fall prey to Resistance.

To break up the routine I’ve taken to writing the rough draft in longhand in my notebook and then punching it up as I type it in. I don’t do it ALL the time, or even half of the time, but I do it every few days just to break things up a little and get away from the computer. Varying the process has seemed to help, along with my revised outlining method. If I’m writing in the notebook I’m a LOT harder to distract, at least for now. I’m sure that as with most writing tips I’ll find that there are exceptions, but the important thing is that this solution is working NOW, so maybe this trick will help you, at least sometimes.

It also means I’m filling the notebook up a lot faster, which is the only downside. Fortunately I happen to have a lot of pocket notebooks lying around these days if I fill one up early…