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this is a notebook you've probably owned
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a few of them before but how can using
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one change your life well in this video
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I'm going to explain how some of the
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most influential and creative people in
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the whole world have benefited from
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something that you can buy at any Corner
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shop I'm going to talk about the systems
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that they use and the Neuroscience that
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underpins them and by the end hopefully
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I'll have convinced you to use not just
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one notebook but two first of all though
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why use a notebook at all so it's easy
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to point to all the people throughout
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history who have used the notebook to
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plan their schedule or organize their
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thoughts but most of them had no choice
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these days there are hundreds of ways to
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store your ideas digitally and most of
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them are more convenient than a little
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book that you carry everywhere so what's
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the benefit well firstly there's some
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evidence that simply writing things down
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by hand makes them more memorable than
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dictating or typing them one recent
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study from Tokyo University shows that
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brain activity is higher when you recall
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information that you've written out by
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hand with the study authors suggesting
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that the more complex spatial
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information that handwritten notes
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contain can Aid memory in another study
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the authors suggest that taking notes by
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hand helps students process the
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information in lectures bear because it
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forces them to make conscious choices
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about what notes to take rather than
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just writing down everything verbatim
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and this is something that I found when
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I'm taking notes from books if I
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highlight paragraphs on my Kindle it's
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easy to forget them but if I go back and
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write them down in actual notes then
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I'll remember them as Raymond Chandler
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one said when you have to use your
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energy to put those words down you're
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more apt to make them count and this
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leads us to point two which is that it
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lets you clear out your brain so if
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you're anything like me you probably go
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through your whole day remembering
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things you need to fix or jobs you need
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to do or people you need to stay in
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contact with and if you don't have
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anywhere to put these thoughts then you
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have to carry on throughout your day
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kind of juggling them around in your
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brain with everything else you're doing
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in psychological terms What's Happening
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Here is that when you've got something
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important to remember your brain is
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afraid to forget it and so it keeps
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going over it and what cognitive
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psychologists called the rehearsal Loop
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obviously the rehearsal Loop evolved in
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an era when we didn't have any pens or
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paper and so it's almost too good at
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remembering things and it'll keep
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bringing them up while you're trying to
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concentrate on what's actually important
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and so what Dave Allen the author of
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getting things done suggests is having a
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system for writing all of these things
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down which gives the rehearsal Loop
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permission to let your brain go and
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focus on something else Allan calls it
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clearing the mind and the idea is that
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it sort of reassures your brain that
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it's okay to forget all of those other
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things it's trying to juggle as long as
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you have a trusted system for capturing
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them all but it's also important to
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remember that you think better on paper
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so in his book presentation Zen G
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Reynold talks about visiting a senior
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director at Apple to get his input on a
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project the director said he'd sketched
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out a lot of ideas and Reynold was
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surprised when he got out a notebook to
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show them off the way he explains this
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now though pen and paper lets you get
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your ideas out of your head and into a
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space where you can physically see them
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and that lets you relate to them better
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than if you're looking at them on a
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screen once you start scribbling it's
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easy to make a kind of visual map of all
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the things you need to focus on and
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prioritize on what you need to do it
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also Al helps you to focus on what's
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important because writing things down
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takes more effort than typing or cutting
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and pasting it forces you to distill
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your ideas down to their core rather
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than like just transcribing stuff it's
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also harder to get unintentionally
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distracted if I'm filling in tasks on a
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spread sheet it's easy to tell myself
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that I need to go and like check
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something online which 10 minutes later
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turns into me looking things up on
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social media but if I'm writing in a
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notebook I have to like physically put
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it down and go back to my computer to
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find something that's distracting and
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this relates to the the next point which
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is that you need an ideas Park so Ryan
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holiday talks about the idea of a
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commonplace book which is a place where
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you write out by hand all the most
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meaningful quotes from whatever articles
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or books you're reading and I think that
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can be really valuable but gram allot's
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productivity Niner introduces another
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concept I found really valuable which is
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having an ideas part which is where you
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just scribble down any notes or thoughts
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that don't really fit into your current
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list of priorities these might be
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headlines for articles concepts for
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things that you'd like to try out or
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even even threads that you're going to
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write on Twitter this is a kind of place
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for stuff that you don't want to do
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immediately but also that you don't want
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to forget about and you can do that
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online and it definitely works but
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there's something that I found about a
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physical Journal that really encourages
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Serendipity like thumbing backwards and
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forwards through a load of notes can
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encourage you to see connections that
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you otherwise wouldn't when you're
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looking at a document maybe you'll be
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flicking through to find one thing and
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something else will catch your eye and
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it'll encourage you to put two thoughts
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together and you'll come up with
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something amazing and the value of a
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good notebook is everything goes in that
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one place so it's not like you're going
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to jot it down in an email draft or some
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random Untitled document and then forget
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about it and never see it again and it's
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also a good place for what all cot calls
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a watch read hear list when you come
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across good films to watch books to read
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or music and podcasts to listen to and
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that brings us to a notebook will help
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you make friends so there's actually a
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scene in Captain America the Winter
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Soldier that gets this idea across
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perfectly after they've both been doing
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laps around the Washington Monument
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Steve Rogers tells Sam Wilson that he's
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been catching up on the decades that
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he's missed and Sam responds by telling
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him to listen to Marvin Gay's seminal
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1973 album troubl man and then comes the
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important bit cap immediately pulls out
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a notebook and writes down the
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suggestion along with a load of other
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suggestions that show he's done this a
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bunch of times before and I actually
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still remember the first time somebody I
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was talking to did this I recommended
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something and he immediately pulled out
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his own little notebook and wrote down
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the suggestion to look at later that guy
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was a friend of a friend now we're
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friends and I do that thing myself and
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there's something really cool about
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somebody writing down a recommendation
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by hand cuz it kind of reassures you
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that they're taking you seriously and
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that they're actually probably going to
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do it rather than like forget about it
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at the end of the night and doing it in
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a notebook is even more special because
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you're devoting physical space in
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something that you don't have unlimited
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space in to like put that information
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down in a place where you will
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definitely reference it incidentally if
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you want to check out some of the
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recommendations I get then I have a
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newsletter where I put all of the best
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things that I find in every week it's
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totally free there's a link in the
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description of this video and I would
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love it if you signed up up so how do
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you put all this together well this
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leads me to my final point which is that
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you need two notebooks so I do actually
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have two notebooks I have one big spiral
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bound one that stays on my desk all the
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time and then I have one pocket sized
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one that I carry everywhere with me the
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big one is for day-to-day tasks it's
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where I write down all of my jobs for
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the day in a list that I can check off
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as I run through I call it my first
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thing list because I take the first 5
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minutes on my workday to write down the
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first thing that I need to do on every
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project and then tackle them throughout
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the day that's also where I can scribble
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down notes from like work calls or fresh
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things that come up and keep them open
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constantly no matter how many tabs I
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open on my computer so everything that I
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need to focus on is there at a glance
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and my mind says pretty clear because it
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isn't constantly scrambling to remember
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like 10 things by the way a benefit of
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spiral bound is that it will lie flat on
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your desk without you like crushing it
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open which isn't something you get with
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smaller notebooks and then the smaller
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one is for everything else so one
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example is that I've been using Ryan Hol
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day's advice to go back through digital
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Kindle notes and write out just the most
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meaningful ones in a notebook but it's
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also for notes ideas movies I might want
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to watch music I want to listen to
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recommendations from friends and
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everything else and if you're watching
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this and Going H this guy seems like the
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sort of person whose recommendations I
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might be into then you can find a whole
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bunch of them here thanks for
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watching
