I cannot count the amount of notes which I have written down in the past. They are all stored within several sheets on my laptop. They are all related to different topics: Music, Finance, Business, Self-development, Personality and so on. Either it´s an idea, a small piece of knowledge, something I wanted to check or a website link which might be useful in the future. I will not start counting. It´s a lot. And it´s an issue.
The issue is: How to handle that amount of notes? I´m asking myself: Why did I not progress with the content what the note tells me to do?
Background
When the idea or that piece of knowledge occurred in my mind I simply took a note. I simply did not want to forget about it. It could be so useful in the future. It could be the ice-breaking stone.
Yes. Sure. That´s why I simply put a note rather than putting the idea or that piece of knowledge into action immediately. Because it was so ice-breaking. Nowadays I assume the following: If that the note will have been that important meaning that it will have been that little idea or piece of specified knowledge that was missing (like mentioned above „ice-breaking“) I would have turn it into action.
Current situation
Currently when I check my notes which I took several years ago I do not know how to deal with them. I just feel that the content is getting less and less important with every passing day. But still I consider the notes as being precious. By reading these notes I wrote down in the past I´m aware of what I was thinking during the time I put that note. What was important to me. Or better: What seemed to be important to me.
Maybe that´s one of the issues why I´m not able to progress with my notes. Progressing with a specific note will mean that after completing it I have to delete it. That´s not an issue by itself.
But it´s so enlightening reading my past notes. It´s so interesting to read on which kind of topic I wanted to put my focus on. Which kind of approach I wanted to follow. Which approach seemed to be the „best strategy“. My opinions. The variety of my assumptions. My way of thinking.
It´s not about the issue of making a decision like: Do I want to progress with that note? Yes or No? For about 90% of my notes I´m confident that I will be able to make that kind of decision. But with making that decision I have to delete my old notes. By doing so I will delete a part of my basis which I consider as a valuable servant in terms of self reflection. Currently it feels wrong to simply delete that basis. I have not figured out a solution yet.
But that´s okay. Within this article I intend to state why I will try to stop or at least reduce the amount of taking notes. Here´s why.
Why I try to stop taking notes
I have indicated one reason above but it´s my intention to carry out the raised one a little bit more precisely. Taking notes usually comes with a free mind in first instance. What´s on paper is not part of my mind anymore. I cannot forget about it anymore. That´s good. But I said in first instance. Because taking notes on and on leads to an overwhelming list of ideas and small pieces of specified knowledge. It leads to an overwhelming amount of things that need to be done. So the freedom is not real. It´s a fake freedom. Nothing has been progressed. Nothing has been put into action.
So if the reason for taking notes is just to reveal my mind from that specific idea or small piece of knowledge in order to feel „free“ again then that´s an approach which I cannot follow anymore. If I never put the things into action which I write down then there is no need to write them down.
This leads to a second reason which ties in seamlessly to the first one. Rather than taking a note it seems to be more efficient to implement the respective content immediately. This is real freedom. It´s out of my mind AND it has been turned into action which means that it has been completed. It´s not one of the tasks anymore which I have to progress with one day. Following that new approach sounds so simple hence I assume the obstacle to just stick to that approach is that following that approach requires effort. Which ties in to the above. Taking notes is not much about taking effort. It´s innocent. Nothing will happen. Nothing bad will happen by taking a note. No justification needed. No energy is required. It´s so convenient.
Exception
As every rule or new approach is likely to be led to success when a minor amount of exceptions is allowed here is one of my exception of which I intend to maintain. It´s the list of potential names of unwritten songs. The current list is huge. Very huge. It´s one of my major tools. As part of that list I take a note of every single name or phrase which in the moment when it arises it sounds like an interesting song name. A cool album title. A catchy book title. I do not see myself being able to write as many books as I have cool titles for it. Sticking to that list has served true value as part of my creative process in the past.
Why that list?
The intention of that list is to solely capture impressions at the moment when they arise. It does not matter that I will not make any use of around 90% of the written content as part of that list. It´s stored on that list. It´s not my intention to ever delete it in order to get rid of the note which has been taken. That note is a positive note. There´s no need to get rid of it. That´s why I still consider myself to follow that approach. Because it´s a list from which I feel totally well by following it. It´s not a to do list. It´s a list that does not require any progress. In no way it´s my intention to write a song for any cool title which is part of that list.
Worse than taking notes: Bookmarks
Until now I have just highlighted the issue of taking notes by writing something on a piece of paper or as part of a word file. But I was confronted with that issue when checking my bookmarks on my laptop. In the past I bookmarked almost everything. Creating a huge amount of folders where I placed what I found. I remember that the following thoughts popped up in my mind continuously:
That website is so cool and beneficial. Likely that it will be even more beneficial in the future. You should bookmark it so that in the future when you will progress with the topic (never happened) which you currently consider as being world-changing you exactly know where to start. That website is the only source which provides that secret and specified knowledge. Bookmark it. You are the only person who is aware of that website so you don´t need to progress with that specific and secret knowledge now as there is no competition expected from other persons. Progress with that topic when you will be in a 100% good condition (never happened). You can progress with that topic when you´re in the best condition which you can imagine by yourself.
Conclusion
That being said has lead to the following: Six months ago I purchased a new laptop. I said to myself: No bookmarks anymore. Within the above I have mentioned that every new approach shall be given a minor amount of exceptions. But in that case I did not follow. I know that when I bookmark one single website it´s likely that more will follow. I was checking my laptop today and I can say that I have successfully managed that. Within the past six months I did not place any bookmark. It´s real freedom. It´s so pleasant just opening my browser without getting slayed of an overwhelming amount of websites which need to be checked. I can simply progress with that idea which I want to turn into action.
Taking a note rather than progressing with that idea or that piece of knowledge which has been written down deviates from putting that idea or that piece of knowledge into action. It´s not a good approach. At least for me.
That´s why I´m afraid of writing down some of my major goals. In common literature it has been stated to write down the major goals. My issue is that I assume that when I write them down then I will forget about them. Past has proven that this has worked excellently. In a negative way. What I wanted to achieve I wrote it down. But then it was out of my mind. Therefore no need or no motivation left to progress on.
Holy words
If I keep my goals in my mind then they will only dissolve when I have achieved them.
Any thoughts on this can be sent privately to send@realthoughts.me or publicly via the comment function below
Martin