The habit of making notes can be very useful for writers of all types. The habit of carrying a notebook and using it can be useful for almost any profession or calling.
The art of note-taking is very simple. It’s really the act of mindfulness. Anyone can carry a notebook, but it takes an act of will, a habit, to experience something and then to stop, think, and then note down your thoughts.
It takes practice. It does not have to become an obsession. And it can be very valuable.
For today’s assignment, carry something to make notes on and make five separate notes throughout the day.
It doesn’t matter what you carry. You can make the notes electronically on your phone or you can fold a piece of paper and write on that. The notebook is not the assignment. What I am assigning you to do is to remind yourself to make notes, to stop and think, and to pause long enough to process your thoughts and to make notes. Do not write whole, finished observations. Jot down the basics and save the rest for later work and writing. Just write enough to remind you of what you saw, experienced, and thought.
Your notes can be as simple as, “remember to buy milk and eggs,” to “The cottonwood fluff is so thick here that it is drifting up around my ankles and filling the sky like a fluffy, warm storm of summer snow.”
Spread your note taking across the day. You don’t have to limit yourself to five notes, but make at least five. Then at the end of the day, review your notes, take action where required, think about what you observed and noted, and then consider writing more.
That’s why we take notes.
The Writing Assignment: Write Five Notes Today by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.