Take Notes: The Benefits of Writing Things Down

So it seems writing it down helps.  I mean, if you see me writing things down at a meeting, it is because I am trying to focus on what is being said and remembering the points covered.  I may never do anything with my notes, but it certainly helps me to focus on what is being said, but writing it down.  And because I am writing it down as things are being discussed or presented, I can remain focused on what is being said.  It keeps me from drifting off and thinking about the way the speaker combed his hair or the manner in which the questioner always flicks her hair back when she ends the question.

Writing it down does help me to remember what I went to the grocery store for.  It helps even when I leave the list at home it seems.  The act of writing actually creates some sort of mind-body connection so that when I see what I wrote on the list before leaving home, something clicks and I know that is what I intended to get.  It doesn't help me not do impulse buying.  I will always succumb to the lure of ice cream or chips if I am hungry or feeling deprived.  That can only be mitigated by being sure I am not hungry before going to the store or psyching myself up to know that you cannot buy happiness on the snack aisle.

When I am setting out to go somewhere I have never been, it is important for me to write the directions down.  Again, the mind-body connection somehow stays with me even when I leave the house and get to the corner and realize I left the directions sitting on the kitchen counter (again).  Somehow in the reptilian part of my brain the act of writing the directions out sufficed to help me find my way.  Note:  I do find it also works to a certain degree to print out the directions from Google maps or Mapquest and read them.  Like written directions, I almost always leave them home, but generally recognize the prompts to turn left or right on my way.  If not, I always enjoy going into strange places I've never seen before.

Finally, every morning I do something called Morning Pages.  It was an exercise I learned in the workshop I attended last year called The Artist's Way.  Upon rising if the dogs will wait for breakfast, you grab your secret journal and do three pages of mind dumping.  All your little monkey-mind is chattering about is spilled onto the page.  Your "to do's" and "should-do's" and "reasons you can't or don't want to-do's" are to just be written down.  No censors.  You write what your critics (Mom, teachers, former lovers, cranky-pants neighbors, government officials) have said to you that you hear in your head when you set out to do something.  Just letting it all flow onto the page is what it is all about. This clears the channels for your creativity and lets the critics have their say and then retreat.  It works.  It really does.

So maybe that is why I enjoy this blog thing.  Just about every day I write a blog about something that amuses me, causes me to think or in just something I have observed.  Writing is engaging your active side.  It is not passive like watching TV or sleeping.  It is overcoming the inertia that sometimes keeps you from doing what you really want to do with your time and ultimately your life.

"The longest journey starts with a single step."  -- Lao-tzu

For me, picking up the pen or tapping on the keyboard is just what I need to start the flow.  I didn't like Dr. Laura much in her latter years, but there was something she always said at the end of her show that I think we need to train our inner voices to say.  If it can come from someone we know and respect (even if just in our minds) it would go a long way toward making the day a success.  Dr Laura always said, "Now, go take on the day!"  Imagine if your hero said that to you every morning!  Well, I may not be your hero, but you can say it to yourself and I to myself right now: "Hey, you can do it!  Now, go take on the day!"  Maybe we can be our own hero!