Using Field Notes

Several months ago, I started a new habit. In an effort to become more productive, I started using Field Notes memo books. If you’ve never seen or used one before, they’re about the size of a passport and contain 48 pages. I use it in combination with Parker Jotter pens. They help me write articles, come up with ways to improve my employment campaign, remember books I want to read, and capture ideas for things I want to try.

I learned about them through the bullet journal/productivity people on Youtube. I tried keeping a bullet journal (BuJo) using a Leuchtturm1917 A5 notebook. Note: if you want to keep a BuJo, this is the way to go. Ultimately, I decided using Obsidian is the right solution for me. Part of the BuJo method is writing your tasks in a notebook. While some people like writing the tasks down, I think they’re best managed in a digital solution. For this, I use Todoist. In my mind, tasks are ephemeral. They’re only worth keeping around until you complete them. So recording your tasks for the length of time you preserve you journal just feels like a waste of space. I’d rather see that space used for the content that really matters, and that you want to remember. You do need a place though for the minutiae of life, to capture the random thoughts, and record data that happens in the moment. This is where using Field Notes notebooks are useful.

If you don’t have a productivity system currently in place, then using Field Notes notebooks are an excellent start. I think of them as a catch-all notebook, for short-term storage. They give you the time to find a better place to put the information. My current mental model is that there are three base components to a productivity system: Calendar, Task Manager, and Notes. Everything of value goes into at least one of these. If an email has something of value in it, it should be copied into one of these three places. Did someone send you an invite and you want to attend? Great add it to your calendar. Is something due? Add it to your Task Manager. I’m using Todoist, but you can write it in your bullet journal. Did you learn something awesome? Wonderful! Write in your Notes. While I’m using Obsidian to manage my notes, you might write in your bullet journal, common place book, or compendium.

When I’m out in the city, I’m using Field Notes to capture things I want to organize later. I don’t have to trust my memory. Have you heard the term “affordance” before? Wikipedia says “in psychology, affordance is what the environment offers the individual. In design, affordance has a narrower meaning; it refers to possible actions that an actor can readily perceive.” The dimensions of the Field Notes memo book are small, light, and portable, so it holds a small amount of content. This tells me the affordance is the contents are easy to access and ephemeral. So this informs how I’m using Field Notes notebooks. I treat the content as temporary, and that I might lose it at any moment. As a result, I regularly copy the contents to one of the three base components of my productivity system.

Conclusion

I’ve really enjoyed using Field Notes to capture my thoughts. It started my thinking about how I can improve other aspects of my life. My father was a mechanical engineer, and I inherited my terrible handwriting from him. I’m a software developer, so I normally have very little occasion to hand write anything. Using Field Notes notebooks to write my notes has got me thinking about how I can improve my handwriting. I’d like someone to think I have good penmanship. It’s also helped me to become more organized. I forget less. It also makes me more goal oriented; using field notes helps me capture thoughts to organize later. Part of what makes me want to write notes is using a good pen. So I use Parker Jotter pens to write anything these days—whether I’m using Field Notes to capture thoughts, or otherwise. When you have a pen that feels good, you want to write more. But that’s a post for another day.