And I often find my best ideas turn up just below one of these lines - that is, after I've thought for a while and come up with something. It's helpful to see the gaps of time in working out ideas. Top of each page: Project name, Page number, and Date I started writing on this page.ĭaily: Draw a line across the page, and write the current date (and sometimes the time) down before adding more notes. UPDATE: I'm extremely gratified at the response of my peers to this simple answer, and so I thought perhaps I should elaborate on my methods.įirst off, I find the typical Moleskine notebooks to be too small, and they tend to be expensive. This lets me revisit my thought process in addition to the solutions I found - and that tends to be more enlightening than merely recording a solution. Scribbling on paper lets me record partial thoughts instead of doing a 'finished' write-up. I find it very helpful to grab a notebook off my shelf and re-read my maunderings from when I was thinking my way through something.
One notebook per project, typically, unless they're really small projects, in which case I reach for a partially used notebook and add to it. Preferably small ones (4圆 or 5x8, not 8.5x11), permanently bound (spiral bound, book binding, etc.).