The Shortest Pencil is better than the Longest Memory  

My Notebook and my Heart 

I just read a 600 page long book about note taking. It was called “ANTINET Zettelkasten” by Scott Scheper. What a weird name for a sorta weird book about note taking. Did I mention that it was 600 pages long?

The core of this system of note taking can be described with four words. Analog, Numeric address, Tree, and Index.  This is where the “ANTI” comes from. The “NET” is a jab at digital note taking devices. And “Zettelkasten” is the German word for notebox.

None of that matters.

But the premise of the book really resonates with me. He calls it a second mind. He describes taking notes as a way to organize your thoughts and make connections with things you’re thinking about. I realize that is how my mind works, connecting ideas, thoughts, facts together. I also realize most of the ideas that go through my brain don’t end up in my brain, they might stop by for a while, but eventually they wander off. They don’t connect to anything.

That happened when my brain was healthy. Now, when my memory is damaged, they might stop for a moment, or a half a moment, and then they speed off. That is why I read a 600 page book about note taking. I’m trying to find some ways to stop those ideas from bolting and to allow them to connect together. I guess I need to rev‘ up my note taking ability.

The analog aspect of this note taking system is intriguing as well. Here is the dictionary definition of analog: “relating to or denoting an activity, process, etc., that is not online or computerized but that can also exist or happen with the help of such technology: She prefers analog dating, meeting and getting to know someone first in a real-life setting before deciding whether to pursue a personal relationship.” In common use, the definition of analog generally means old school, or more real, as opposed to digital, where everything is turned to ones and zeroes. In this sense, it is about writing notes in longhand.

The ease of digital note taking has replaced writing notes by hand. Keywords and search engines make light work of connecting the ideas together. Maybe too easy?  When you’re actually writing notes, you need to think about how to organize the ideas concisely before you start writing something down. And writing something down helps you remember what you wrote. Research shows the act of writing something down reinforces your mind’s neural pathways. Along with that, it causes you to slow down.  For those reasons, as I’m learning to take better notes, and I’m analog all the way. When I’m actually writing, not so much, the tools that come with digital word processing have become essential. 

The first thing I wrote while thinking about this post was the title, “My notebook and my heart. The second thing I wrote was this: The shortest pencil is better than the longest memory. The third thing I did was to check to see if it is actually a saying. Geez, me, sayings, and my brain.

Well, Google confirmed it was a saying. And a couple lines down in the search results I read this;  “the shortest pencil is better than the longest memory. That’s why I keep a prayer journal. Next to my Bible, nothing is more sacred to me than my journal.”  A quote from an author I like, Mark Batterson (The CircleMaker).  That’s what I was planning to write about, how important my notebook has become, and how it helps me connect with God. I realize I’m not working on note taking to improve my intellect, but to improve my “heart.” 

The first time, post stroke, I thought about note taking was when I realized that everything I had memorized was gone. As I was pondering what happened I thought of a verse. A verse I had memorized. I couldn’t remember the words, I couldn’t remember the meaning, but somehow I  sensed it was important. That verse was written on a notecard that was taped to my computer monitor. “Was taped”, ”was” being the operative word. It wasn’t taped there anymore. I tried to retrieve the memory but I couldn’t, I tried to visualize the note, like I was looking at it instead of reading it, and it sort of worked. I could “see” one word. The word “Proverbs”. 

One of my favorite books in the bible is Proverbs. Along with writing notes, I underline things.  I had probably underlined a hundred verses in proverbs. And I wondered if the verse in proverbs was underlined. And it was.  

 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.  Proverbs 4:23 

Your heart, everything you do starts there. I’m trying to guard my heart. I guess that is why I read a book about note taking. Did I mention it was 600 pages long? 

Another thing I’ve started to do when I do my devotions is to reread the last note I wrote in my notebook, maybe from the day before, maybe from the week before, but I reread what I had written. It floors me how often I can’t remember the words I have recently written. But, on the other hand, by rereading them, they can become new again. And eventually the neural pathways will connect and a memory will form.  

God is always softly speaking. He doesn’t yell, well, he doesn’t yell at me anyways. In his words of encouragement, in his words of reprimand, there is so much gentleness in his words. If only I could hear them.

I’m trying to listen to God. And when it happens I want to write it down, I have to write it down. I mean, right now. I need to stop what I’m doing and write it down. Sometimes when a profound thought comes, I might think, how cool is that, and I will go back to do what I was doing, forgetting the thought. 

Hmm, a short pencil is better than a long memory and it is way better than a short memory. 

Thankfully, I don’t have to remember the words that God spoke in my heart, because some of them are recorded in my notebook. Well some of them, anyways. When I write them down in my notebook, it gives me the opportunity to “hear” those words over and over again. That is why I read a book about note taking. I cannot recall how long it was. Let me check…..oh yeah, it was 600 pages long.