Editing The Pen Addict 340/transcript (section)

== Planners and Paper Discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I say all that, and we hadn't even talked about planners or paper. And I'm going to try to expand on that as well, too. So I think I'm going to do, you know, my pocket notebook system's been going okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was going to ask if that stuck to the new year.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So far, yes. But it was very lightly used in December. Like, December, I didn't use it as much. Number one, you know, I was doing so many other things, you know, with family and just getting around. Even though I might carry it with me, there wasn't the opportunities to where I was going to use it as much. And then I kind of sliced my finger open, which we'll talk about later. So I didn't really write much for a while. So I had like a week and a half, two weeks, just randomly, that I didn't really use the notebook. So, but it's still something I want to use. But it's also not enough. Like, I need more, you know, just daily or weekly space to use my paper. So, you know, I need things. I need areas to plan more. I need areas to journal more. So I'm keeping my A5 Elemental Notebooks Oxygen Notebook. That's my visual journal. I've been using that. I just did a post with that the other day. I'm trying out this thin A5 weekly planner. It's called the, I'm going to butcher this name. It's called the Sumkin. Sumkin? Sumkin? It's a French notebook that I got from JetPens. And it's laid out like, my favorite calendar layout is the seven-day week on the left side and the blank page on the right side. So Midori's Travelers does this very well. But this is in an A5 size. And what it allows me to do, and the thing I've always wanted to do with the A5 seed notebook is use it like a traveler's notebook, right? Because with the seed, you don't just need a singular A5 hardbound notebook. I'm going to use three softcover A5 notebooks. And it's like a Midori Traveler setup where you have individual notebooks in there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you not think that's maybe going a bit much?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No. No, because I'll have the, so I'll have, so I have my visual journal. That's separate. That lives at my desk. That doesn't go with me anywhere or do anything. So then I have my pocket notebook, which goes everywhere with me. And then I'll have the one seed case with a weekly planner and then like a blank notebook if I need something bigger. That's it. I mean, that's a lot. I mean, that's a lot. Don't get me wrong.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I want to try, the one thing I've always wanted to do last year and the year before, and I've never really committed to it, is to have like a publishing calendar, like style, like setup, right? I don't have a publishing calendar. I don't have a travel calendar. I don't have a NotCo release calendar. You know, that's what I want to use this weekly agenda for. Like my day-to-day tasks are digital. Like I keep those in Todoist. Like I don't need anything for, you know, recurring weekly, daily, monthly tasks, right? I don't use paper for that. But I use it for planning, ideas, some scheduling, you know, random notes, things like that. So we're going to try. I, you know, who knows? Like I don't know whether it's going to work. I know the pocket notebook is going to work because I just carry that with me as much as humanly possible. So, you know, that's kind of what I'm going into 2019. One, experiment more and two, kind of get my planning, my long-term planning into a better situation. You know, I've never had a publishing schedule for the blog. It's in my head. I know what I need. I know what it needs to get done and I just do it. It's, I've been doing it for years. So I know on, you know, Thursday morning, X happens like every Thursday. But I don't know sometime. I know that X happens, but I don't necessarily know what X is. You know, is X a fountain pen review? Is it a pencil review? You know, I want those specifics in. And then, you know, I just want to have like the travel calendar and those types of things. Some forward looking planning as opposed to any type of journal or task or to-do system. So we'll see. That's kind of where I'm at. So again, it's the experiment that is going to be the most fun. And I've got other new things planned for the blog, new content I want to put on the blog. And different things like that. So, you know, there's going to be a lot of experimentation for me this year in 2019. And that's what I'm looking for the most. Get outside of my comfort zone a little bit. Work a little bit harder on just trying to try different things and see what I think about them. Maybe I don't like them. That's cool too. That's just as a post about something that didn't work for me is just as good as a post about something that does work for me, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I know you've been pretty consistent about your journal. Are you going to keep it on with that? How is that working out for you?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I used it for the majority of last year. Basically, every work day is when I journal. And I have a new Hobonichi Techo. I got it in English this time because I was paying attention. And yeah, I'm going to be using it every day. I have some refinements that I want to make, but like I'm still nailing those down. But the majority of what I'm going to be doing is basically the same as what I did for last year. Like I'm not looking to change anything up, but there's some stuff that I might just tweak a little bit. But I plan on doing this again every day this year. And I want to maybe, you know, maybe the thing that I do is like looking at the way that I augment the journal. You know, this could be like complimentary products or like maybe making some additions like you have where it expands out to something a little bit bigger. I'm not basic, but the idea is my general practice of journaling every day is remaining the same. So just as a refresher, because I'm pretty sure people will ask.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We've actually, I will stop you now. We had an Ask TPA that I don't think made it to the list that said, Myke, can you go over the areas that you use for your journal? That was Joe. Joe Lebo. That was Joe. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I sent him links to some Cortex episodes, which is where I like detailed in quite deep, in like a lot of detail the why I'm doing the journal as well as what it was. But like I did, we did talk about it here too. But I will, again, for the, just for reference, I'll mention it now. So my journal consists of five elements. So the first element is writing at the top of the page, the two pens that I'm using to do the journal that day. I then with one pen, write the following headings, good, bad, think, looking forward. So this is on like my daily journal page. And then with my second pen, probably later in the day, I will write something potentially under every heading, but I don't fix myself to that. Every day must have a looking forward. So one thing that I'm looking forward to, and it cannot be the same thing as the day previous. That also goes for the two pens as well. I cannot use two pens, the two of the same pens day after day. I have to change pens for each day. Nice. And then I'll write something good that happened, something bad that happened, and something I'm thinking about. They're the other things. That's kind of what it will be. So it's something good, something bad. And if I'm thinking about anything specific, I'll write it down there. And then I have a list of like kind of questions that I ask myself every single day and track my progress on them. This is like on a separate part. This is on like a calendar page. As it stands right now, those seven questions are be creative, advance new ideas, generate revenue for my company, make my colleagues feel valued, do good for Adina, engage with my audience, and improve my health. So I give myself a mark every day of have I done something to advance those seven things. I like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't think I've heard that part yet, which I think that's pretty cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I think that came along after I set up the journal. I read a book for Cortex called Triggers, and this was one of the things in Triggers. And then I have since adapted it for my own purposes, and I'm going to talk about that more later in the year because I'm still kind of like fiddling with that a little bit to kind of make that work for me the way that I want. So because I've been scoring myself out of five, and I think I'm going to stop doing the scoring. Gotcha. Because the scoring is so esoteric at this point. Like what is different between a three and a four? Right. It's just all my mind. So I'm thinking about doing like a three, like a binary state of like binary is not three, but it'll either be like zero, like I have done something like one. A zero, I've done nothing. One, I have done something. Two, I have really succeeded in that today. Gotcha. So like the difference, like I'll give you an example. So let's say generate revenue, right? So this is like working with sponsors or whatever. If I have done nothing on that in a day, I'll be like zero. If I have maybe like contacted some people or worked on some paperwork, it might be a one. But if I have done an actual deal or signed deal on that day, then that would be a two. Right. Gotcha.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That makes complete sense. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I'm kind of just working out how to visually represent that. Maybe the way that I want to do that. I'm still working on that. That's like a work in progress, but that's something that I'm going to be changing up. But the basics, the bones of the journal remained the same since I began it in, I started doing this in April. And I, so for like nine months of the year, I was doing this every single day and it stuck. Good. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm, I'm really proud of you for sticking to this. Cause like, this is, yeah, it's not a complex system, but it's a specific system to you that you worked on, which is important. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It's my own thing. Right. Like I, I kind of built something for myself, which I'm pleased about. Cause there are a million journaling systems and ton of them are great. But like, even mine I feel is very open. And, and, and it's easy for me to complete it every day, but I'm pleased that I was able to just keep it up. Like that I actually did it. Like I wanted to do it for the rest of the year. And I did that. And that's a, I feel that's an achievement for me because there's been many things that I've dropped off of, of this ilk in the past. Like I remember when I was going to start bullet journaling and I never did it once. Speaking of which though, Adina is going to. Nice. Yeah. She read the whole thing. She's ordered the book and she's listened to our previous episodes of writer. She's, she's all in. She, she loves to do, make lists. Um, and she wants to like a system around the lists. So I think she's going to go for it. I'll, I'll let you know how that progresses. Maybe if it works for her, we could actually have her on the show to talk about it. Cause that'd be great. She's very not into the visual side.