Note-taking In The Shower

About a year ago, I found myself having a lot of ideas while in the shower. It was terrific, but I often had too many to remember them all upon exiting. So: how does one take notes in the shower?

Dry erase, it turns out, is named so for a reason. So, this is all the further that experiment went:

I found a good solution for notes in the shower thanks to my friend Vanessa's help. It's pretty simple:

Your Shower PDA

1. Purchase a Rite in the Rain Memo Book. I'd recommend the 6" by 3 1/2" Tactical Memo Book to maximize your page space per dollar.
2. De-bind the booklet. This works better with Rite in the Rain's notebooks (bound with staples) and bound books (bound with adhesive).
3. Cut the pages into into notecard size sections. I tried to keep these sections pretty uniform, as I'm more likely to use a nice-looking tool.
4. Add a mechanical pencil and a binder clip. Voilà: you have a hipster PDA for the shower.

I opted for a mechanical pencil because I don't own a pencil sharpener, and chose a pack of cheap 0.7 mm BICs so that I don't have to worry if the moist environment destroys them.

For me, hipster-PDA-style notes are critical to my shower notebook being useful. If you leave the paper in the booklet, then the booklet has to travel between the bathroom and your office. I'd often forget to do that. Keeping slips of paper in the bathroom has been much better. With the hipster PDA, the note-taking apparatus stays in the bathroom and only the notes themselves have to travel.

The shower PDA has the added benefit of degrading a little more gracefully than Rite in the Rain's Tactical Pocket Notebook -- though that could make a good solution if you're more tolerant of gorpkins than I am.

Hope this helps you! Please let me know if it does.

As Below, So Above: Big or Small, They're All Just Projects

The beauty of Getting Things Done is that, regardless of the scope of what you're doing, the tools you use to manage your work are always the same. No matter the type of action, it's still an action. No matter the scope of the project, it's still a project. This is great because practice doing anything makes you better at doing everything.

It's All The Same

With GTD, larger projects are managed in the same way as smaller projects, all the way up to your overall goals for life and work.

I keep a !!LIFEX.txt file in which I maintain a list of the 10,000- through 50,000-feet goals for my life and work (more about this here). These include big, hairy goals like "earn a graduate degree," and "document and preserve live culture." Pretty heady stuff, right? How will I ever accomplish those?

I'll accomplish them by doing one thing, and then doing another thing, and then another, etc., until I have accomplished them. It's that simple. Maintaining notes for goals all the way up to the 50,000-foot level trivializes big goals in a helpful way. After all, each goal is really just a project. Each project is a "stake-in-the-ground" reminding you of that incomplete. Returning to that stake-in-the-ground on a regular basis and determining next actions for it is the way you move that project from goal to reality.

Sometimes projects will require an added level of organizational thought. No problem: GTD outlines a useful mind-mapping system. Don't be afraid to explore that or other options for managing larger projects. Just be sure that you use each tool in a way compatible with GTD. Review these project support files on a regular basis at the same time you update the rest of your system. Bonus: mind mapping is great for other tasks as well -- writing, for example. Time spent mind mapping for writing will make you better at mind mapping for projects, and vice versa.

Practice For All Things

Mind mapping will help you get a lot of ideas out in a hurry. However, don't pressure yourself to generate the total idea of a project in one sitting. Valuable ad-hoc project thinking can hit at any moment. These ideas must be captured, stored in a consistent way, and reviewed on a regular basis. In this way, project planning materials are living documents that will grow and evolve over time as each new idea occurs.

Similarly, Getting Things Done skills don't all arrive at once. David Allen suggests in one of his podcasts that it can take two years to really understand and get good at this stuff. That has been my experience. Please don't let this discourage you, though! Getting Things Done spurred immediate, profound changes to the way I do my work. There have just been even greater gains as I have become better with the system.

Lucky for me: everything provides an opportunity for practice.

Developing Story Ideas with Don Murray

I have been working through Don Murray's Writing For Your Readers - Notes on the Writer's Craft from The Boston Globe in an effort to improve my writing skills. I will collect some of my favorite lessons from the book here. This will help me retain these lessons both internally and externally. If these ideas resonate with you, please let me know!

Suggestions for Crafting Story Ideas

Finding story ideas has been one of the greatest challenges of my brief writing experience. Murray devotes an early chapter of Writing For Your Readers to a 14-point list suggesting ways to find new stories to write. These were my favorites.

"Look for story ideas among the things that are changing your world and the worlds of those around you." - Seeking "tension," or "the crossroads where the forces of the world collide" is a recurring theme in the book. There is always tension between old and new. That tension may reveal a story idea.

Brainstorming and Mind Mapping - I prefer mind mapping, but haven't yet done so to find story ideas. However, mind mapping is extraordinarily powerful for everything else -- so why not this? These techniques don't exist in a vacuum, either, and may be most-powerful when used in conjunction with other suggestions from this list.

Change your point of view - Murray suggests creating a point-of-view diagram. Write the story topic at the center of a page. Then, position all parties affected by that story around that central topic. You may even want to "walk in the shoes" of one of the parties affected to better write from that perspective.

Ubiquitous Capture - Murray carries a journal or daybook. I use Captio or a Hipster PDA. How you implement it is up to you, but it is critical that you be able to preserve each good idea you have. Further, you should be able to engage in longer form composition wherever you are should the urge strike you.

Pursue a different artistic interest - Murray sketched, and, as he said, "I have to know the bone structure within the face to reveal the face." Different forms of art force you to understand things in different ways so that you can portray them accurately. Pursuing a different form of art will also let your brain take a rest from the one you work on most often, giving you a welcome break and fighting burn-out.

"Compost" - Keep a drawer (or other container) of materials of interest to be reviewed on a regular basis. You can easily do this online with a bookmarking service like Pinboard and offline with a file folder. The key, though, is to make sure you review these materials on a regular basis.

Keep Consuming Words - Murray suggests reading one magazine per week, varying those choices amongst of areas of interest. Similarly, he recommends always having a book outside your normal interests on tap. There must be intake of new words and ideas to ensure that the outputs of the same remain fresh and interesting.

Try a Different Format - Genre's dissimilar from your own may approach topics in different ways that could be helpful. Using the language and structure of a different form of writing can help you see a story in a new way. Murray's suggestion to try free writing -- putting as many words down as possible within a set amount of time -- also falls into this category.

More Help

I'm only 80 pages in to Writing For Your Readers, but it has already provided a ton of other ideas on how to improve my writing. Most on my mind lately is "getting the lead out." Keep an eye on these pages for more on that topic and other ideas from the great Don Murray.

Bears

I can get really stressed about things that might be the case or come to pass. That's stupid. When I'm stressing an if, I need to take action to determine the answer to that conditional as quickly as possible and the move forward accordingly.

Stress

I made the mistake of looking at my undergraduate transcript last week.

I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize how bad. It turned out that I'd mis-read my transcript after I graduated. Though my IU undergrad GPA was the 3.05 that I always thought I graduated with, my overall undergraduate GPA was 2.982.

Portland State University's communications masters program has a 3.0 cutoff. I really want to go to grad school (perhaps to atone for the sins of my earlier college career). I started worrying that this would eliminate me from admission. I was pretty bummed out.

Depression

I moped through the next day, existing but being generally ineffective at all I was doing. Late in the afternoon, I considered my options. If I had to take a few hours of undergraduate credit to raise my GPA that wouldn't be the worst thing. I could do audio engineering classes at a local community college -- that would be really neat, actually. In the least I should email the graduate advisor ask what he thought I should do.

But still I delayed. I wallowed in my sadness. I was really afraid of what his answer would be.

When I finally emailed him, he replied almost immediately: "2.98 is considered 3.0 for rounding's sake."

Why the hell was I worried about this for a whole day?

Reality

I had been obsessing over a sad-sap story about my awfulness and had started to believe that story. As a result, I was a mopey bastard for 24 hours. Even after I decided what I needed to do, I didn't follow through with my next action -- contacting the advisor -- because I was anxious as to what his response might be.

"Sorry. You are too stupid for graduate school. Try again in the next life."

Bears

In episode 4 of Back to Work, Merlin Mann uses the metaphor of a bear to describe the difference between anxiety and fear: "Fear means, ‘there’s a bear here’ and anxiety means, ‘there might be a bear here’."

I didn't contact the advisor because I had anxiety about what he might say. I was so sure that this would be the end of my academic hopes and dreams. I couldn't picture a reality in which this worked out OK. I was obsessed with the one where everything sucked, forever, and it paralyzed me.

I put off taking the action I needed to take. This also delayed me from feeling better. Even if everything sucks, as long as I take next actions, I can feel better about working against the suck.

Moving On

When I am anxious about a potential bear, I need to recognize what I'm feeling and why I'm feeling that way. Then, I must determine whether there is actually a bear there -- likely, there isn't. But I need to rip that band-aid off quickly, because sitting around feeling badly and doing nothing doesn't help me.

If there is no bear, I can feel better. If there is a bear -- well, then there is a bear. That sucks. But that suck doesn't change the fact that the bear needs to be dealt with. I must determine an answer for that bear and act accordingly. After taking that action, I need to move on as much as possible. Because being a mopey bastard isn't helping anyone.

Dealing With Stress

April 16th was National Stress Awareness Day¹. So, be aware: you are stressed.

As if you needed a reminder. Stress is such a constant in our lives that we forget it's there. Worse, even when recognized, some of us think there is nothing we can do about our stress. But there is always something we can do to make our lives better, if we're only savvy enough to find it and courageous enough to pursue it.

Recognizing Stress

Probably, you know you're stressed. But you may not know how stressed.

Often, I don't realize how stressed I am until after I have a chance to let go of some of that stress. It's like carrying a pack up a mountain. The pack becomes a part of your reality. You grow used to its weight. When you get to the top and drop the bag to the ground you feel light as air. Only in the burden's absence do you understand how heavy it is.

I felt this same recently after completing a few large projects. I was calm and comfortable. My mind was much closer to the "mind-like-water" state I want to achieve than it had been even a few days earlier. It was great. That is exactly how I want to feel.

I think, with practice, we can better maintain the mental state we desire, even in the face of stress. These are the tools and behaviors I have used to deal with stress in a more productive way.

Recognize the Full Picture

I'm never stressed about just one thing. There are a number of stressors: I'm broke, I'm tired, I don't want to clean the bathroom today, I'm worried some big project will fail. Stress is a landscape with dozens of different factors. You need a full picture of that landscape to deal with it properly.

I've found a collection process helpful sometimes when I don't know what exactly I am stressed about. Stressors that result from a short brainstorm are processed to two different lists: Active and Aggravating Stressors.

Aggravating Stressors - These are recurring conditions of life that make me more likely to have disproportionate reactions to stressors. When I'm tired and hungry, for example, things can seem far more dire than when I'm rested and well-fed. Recognizing that these conditions can be factors in how I feel helps me deal with stress more objectively. My aggravating stressors list includes things like "needing to eat, being tired, having a messy room, lack of sunlight, doing new things." I try to be constantly mindful of how they affect me mentally.

Active Stressors - These are temporary sources of stress that can be addressed by one or more next actions. I create an active stressors list when I'm feeling really badly, or when things seem out of control. I try to note all of my sources of stress, even those that I'm afraid to or feel badly about (see: "Is mom mad at me?"). I process the results of this brainstorm to my projects and next action lists and address them as I'm able. Not only does this give me action steps to deal with my stress, I get an immediate psychological boost from knowing what I have to do to move forward.

See my post on Stressors for more on this.

Go Exercise

Regular exercise is a cornerstone of my efforts to combat stress.

Being cooped up in an office all day -- as so many of us are -- is unnatural. Even a short walk in the sunshine can change your perspective on things.

When I was younger, I would solve all my problems while mowing the grass. I got some fresh air and raised my heart rate. I stopped thinking and focused on the physical activity. Now, I do this while running or riding my bike.

A bit of exercise can cut your stress level immediately. A regular habit is even more beneficial. Physical health makes everything a bit easier. You just feel better. Plus, a consistent exercise habit is a life habit you can feel good about maintaining -- a psychological benefit that can be almost important as the physical.

Get Organized

How many commitments do you have at work? At home? Is managing that load becoming a source of stress?

As our record label became more serious, managing its activities became more and more difficult. I'd never had to juggle so many commitments before. I couldn't keep it all straight in my head. Because I didn't have a clear picture of all of the things I needed to do, I didn't know what it was OK for me to not do. I felt like I had to work all the time just to stay on top of everything. I badly needed a change.

Enter Getting Things Done. David Allen's system has helped me massively in every phase of my life. Lessons from Getting Things Done are now key to essentially everything I do -- including work with clients, managing Banana Stand Media, and even writing this post.

Your mileage may vary. Making lists could be all you need to do. But getting organized, even in a limited way, can have a tremendous effect. You can stop and smell the roses more often when you grow comfortable with the things you're not doing. That will make you happier and make each new source of stress easier to deal with.

Mind Your Substances

For some weeks I began each Saturday and Sunday with a large bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats chased with liberal amounts of coffee. I may as well have been eating Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. Half an hour later I'd be practically levitating out of my chair -- the sugar and caffeine combining to amp me up far more than required for my largely email-based existence. Sometimes my thoughts would turn to worry. My only recourse was to get some exercise to calm things down

Caffeine, nicotine and sugar can really increase my stress level. So too can a lack of them. Keep an eye on your intake of each if stress is a problem.

Talk to Someone

There are professionals you can talk to if stress is having a severe effect on your life.

I'm not too proud to admit: few things in my life had as positive an effect as a stint in talk therapy when I was in college. The safe sounding board it offered provided an opportunity for me to talk through things I'd been storing up and obsessing over. Please don't be afraid to pursue this. Therapy is something that more people you think do, and it can be an incredibly powerful tool in your pursuit of happiness.

Just Do Something

If you take one thing away from this column, make it this: you can have a positive effect in your reality. There are always things you can do. Sometimes it may seem like there aren't, but that just means you have to bear down, think hard, and get creative. Each time you address something stressful it makes it easier to do so again in the future.

So, if you are stressed, get to work... and to feeling better.

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1. My first draft of this column was written April 18th, but I'm only getting around to posting it now. Yeah, I suck at writing -- sorry. ↩