The Purple Notebook

I guess I'm not a very modern woman. A modern woman would be keeping track of day to day appointments and happenings on her Iphone. I don't have an Iphone and I'm not sure I'd be able to figure out all the wonderful intricacies of its workings if I did, in order to make the best use of it, so it would probably be wasted on me. I have a large diary for work. You know the kind. A4 pages and one page to a day. They are great because I can write a lot of notes in them but they are useless for upcoming events or 'a couple of weeks off' events unless I am continuously flicking forwards through the pages...which I am not. So I also record important dates and happenings on my calendars. I have two at work and one at home. Then there is the full year wall planner at work. And the emails that I must trawl back through to find things of importance. To be honest it was all driving me a bit batty and I was losing track of things and missing appointments and needed to find a solution. 

I know other people who write notes to themselves on their phones and set alarms and reminders. Well, to begin with I'd need a reminder to take my phone with me so that I'd hear said alarms. I'm a bit useless at this staying connected by having my phone on me all the time. I'm a little bit wary of the microwaves or whatever waves are happening in, around and through it all the time. I don't really want that going on too close to my person so I prefer to have it on a table or a bench or in a bag. So sometimes I forget it. I also tend to put it on vibrate or silent for meetings and forget to switch it back so that I can hear it again if anyone calls. I'm a hard gal to catch! I could do all those things on my little old phone, but I'm just not really inclined and I can't see it working all that well with my phone management inconsistencies. 

Having a lifelong love affair with books and paper has me leaning in another direction. I decided that yes, the diary, the wall planner and the calendar all have their place in my system of organisation, but what I really needed was a book where I could write down all the things I wanted or needed to remember. Not a book with dates or assigned areas for anything particular. Just one where I could write down line after line of things to jog my memory. Once that was decided I had to find just the right book. It had to be smaller than the diary so it was easy to take with me in my handbag or to grab en route to meetings, but not so small that I'd need a watch-maker's precision to put the notes therein. It needed to be big enough for me to scrawl a few notes in with whatever scribing tool I have to hand, pen or pencil and in desperate moments chalk or permanent marker or lipstick. I have so many things to write with both here at home and at work, but you know how it is when you need to write something down right now! They all seem to become chameleons and blend with their surroundings so as to be invisible at that time. Surely I'm not the only one to whom this happens!

Enter the Purple Notebook. I found it at Woolworths. Aye, it has humble beginnings but I know it will be a true and faithful friend who will not let me down with failing batteries or a refusal to do more than buzz when I really need a beep. At a mere six bucks I've got a feeling it's going to be money well spent. Apart from being my PA, it comes with the guaranteed satisfaction of 'crossing off'. Oh, the feeling of crossing something off the 'to do' list. It's an under-rated joy, that. If just feels so good to know I've done something and don't have to think about it again. It's like a bit of mental spring cleaning in a way. And 'crossing off' is like drawing a line in the sand. End of story. Backspacing has never been known to elicit the same level of satisfaction. 

So from here on in, it's me and my Purple Notebook, ready to take on the world. It comes to work with me and most other places too. It carries all sorts of notes and reminders and it takes just a minute to cast my eyes down the page to see what I need to get done in a quiet minute or two when I get them.  Sometimes the lesser technologies are the best. Perhaps I'll change my mind one day, but it'll do me for now. How do you keep track of all the things you're meant to do; keeping them organised and unforgotten? I'd love to know because maybe you've got something that works better than what I'm doing. I'm always open to change! Hope you've enjoyed a cuppa while we've been chatting here! Thanks for reading me. I hope to get more writing done over the coming weeks. With all that's going on in my world and the larger one 'out there', I'm bound to have plenty of inspiration.'Til soon, take care, be happy and look for the good things in life.