Among the numerous insights in Chris Croft’s excellent Happiness canon is this one – write everything down…
In my constant reinventions, modernisations and innovations I’d stopped doing this; at least with pen and paper. I gave up my A4 pad at work in the mid-2000s and gave up paper altogether a couple of years ago. But at what cost? According to Chris, a valuable contribution to productivity and achievement from my subconscious…
Although I’m not short of digital reminders, they’re somehow less real. Much like the realisation that reading on a Kindle leaves you with no sense of where you are in a book, similarly digital reminders feel more ethereal – they register in a different way than taking a pen and writing an action down.
Perhaps its a generational thing… albeit my Philosophy degree notes fitted comfortably in a co-op plastic bag, at least I’d written them down. I learned by writing. Perhaps I still do.
But the bigger idea is to harness the self-conscious; so the 95% of our brain which does stuff automatically without troubling us for permission, is harnessed to a purpose and to more purposeful action. And it works!
I’ve dug out the little Moleskine black books I used to use when travelling for work, plus a nice pen and I’m writing things down. Productivity up, fear of forgetting down and a reconnection with deeply human artefacts – an ink pen and nice little black book. Lovely.
Achilles & Aristotle 