9 Tips to Organise a Notebook

In my last post I discussed about the various benefits that come with keeping a notebook to jot down thoughts, ideas, or anything else of use to you. You can read that post here: The Benefits of Writing a Notebook.

This post is going to be about how to organise a notebook so it is easily readable or at least manageable to gather information from. Lots of people who have there own notebook(s) don't keep it organised or tidy, making it hard for them to find or re-read things they have recorded. There are many different ways to keep your notebook organised, so if a method you use doesn't appear here, feel free to comment about it at the bottom.

1. Divide by sections

One of the most common ways of organising a notebook is using the dividing method. This is where you split your notebook up into designated sections for a category of your choice. For example: You may have four sections; one for quotes, one for thoughts and ideas, one for writing or poetry, and one for another topic of interest. Whatever these sections are, there will normally be a set amount of space for each of these categories.

I personally don't get along with this method, not because it doesn't work because it does for many people, but because It doesn't suit my personality. In my notebook, I travel from one random topic to the next very frequently and am not a fan of setting a sort of 'quarantined zone' for a set category. It's just not my style. 

2. Divide by lines

This is the method that I use. As I said above I am someone who will go from subject to subject in a very short time and then continue to revisit these subjects furthering them in development. Because of this, each of my notebook pages will hold a variety of information. So to do my best at organising it, I separate them by lines, and then index them. For example: if I was to write about physics, I would make sure I finish what I was wanting to write and then put a line underneath that segment allowing me to carry on to something else and have the ability to distinguish between topics. It's not the most effective way to organise a notebook but it works for me, and I also implement point #3 as-well.

3. Index

Another popular way of organising a notebook would be to include a index. The index would need to be organised in itself for it to work effectively, for example; alphabetically. This is something that I include in my notebook so finding information is easier. In fact, whatever method you use to organise your notebook, an index never hurts.

4. Include page numbers

This point is really just a simple tip that you should do anyway if you're wanting to organise a notebook. It's easy to jot down an idea and not know where you had placed it, so to include page numbers will help you locate things - of course this ties in with point #3 (index).

5. Contents

If you're the kind of person who is going to fill up many notebooks and want to know what the general contents of the book is - it would be wise to include a contents. Whilst an index will tell you what specific points and information is included in your notebook, a contents will give you the general layout of the book (main titles, categories, and major sub-categories) - meaning you will know sooner if what you're looking for is there or not. If it is, then you could go onto using the index.

6. Write and present neatly

If you just have one notebook that you casually put ideas down into, like if you're out somewhere, then you will probably know how messy and chaotic it can get. Try though, if you can, to write neater and at least present the information in a more readable way, maybe put a limit to the amount of writing that you can put on one page or make sure that you write straight all the time. This is such a simple thing that can go a long way when trying to retrieve previous notes. For me, I know that it would be hard to do this, so I have a better notebook at home in which I write everything up in neat.

7. Categorise whole notebooks

Some people don't like to include multiple topics in one notebook as they feel it can get too overwhelming or can be too much hassle to keep up with. Instead, they have multiple notebooks which they assign a category to. For example; one entire notebook may be for writing, another maybe for maths, another for poetry, another for cookery, another for music etc.

This is another method that allows you to locate information easier. For example; I recently did some work on 'sonata form', therefore I know that this will be in the music notebook. You could then have implemented further organisational techniques into the actual notebook to help you even more.

8. Page tabs

Page tabs are another useful method of organising a notebook. What you label these tabs as is up to you. Some people write the main category titles on them, others put subtitles, and others use them for identification for useful or commonly referenced pages. Whatever you use them for, it will make accessing parts of your notebook so much quicker.

9. Include dates

Another very simple and very quick thing to do. When organising something like a notebook it is always good to include dates. They can be used a bit like page numbers, as long as each page is a successor to the page before it date-wise, and make finding things that bit easier. It also gives an impression of organisation. :)

[Had family over this last week coupled with work, meaning I haven't been able to spend really any time on Smart Blog. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the rhythm of it].