When I was studying engineering, I wrote thousands of pages out on A4 pad's. Thousands of messy scribbles. Thousands of diagrams. Thousands of equations. Because I was writing in bulk, and on cheap unlimited supply paper - I did not care about what I was writing down. Apart from having to peek for the exam - I certainly would never cherish that ugly mess.
Only write on expensive paper. I only write on expensive notepads now - in particular Moleskine. Why? because it makes me think about what I am writing. I want the result to be a beautiful read - I want to enjoy reading back my notes I write. I write in bullet points about the books I've read, the successes I've had, the meetings I've had, or the tasks I have to complete. Whenever I hear of a great idea, I write that down too. Whenever I have an idea - I write that down with a big star beside it.
Read back your notebook - traditionally on flights. I love having that hour time-out, when my electronics/comms are off, to just sit with a bad coffee and my great notebook and re-read it. The other great place is at the end of an epic day - go for a pint by yourself, and reflect on the last few weeks. I have one particular page where I have listed characteristics I want to achieve - and sometimes I'll bullet point a progress report on how I'm doing on them.
Summary: The more expensive your note book is, the more love, and care, and thought, and time you'll put into it. Every word has to be "worth it".
He chooses a MBP over a PC because it's expensive.. it's shiny.. it's well designed... and it *challenges* him, every time he turns it on, to produce something worthy of such a high-end stylish machine.
Or Oscar Wilde, famously, on why America is/was such a violent society - "because you have such ugly wallpaper". Surround yourself with crap and there's often not much incentive to produce excellence.
So "+1" for the expensive notebook idea. I've had lots of notebooks in my time.. the one's I hang onto and go back to read-through from time-to-time are almost exclusively Moleskine.
http://daveganly.posterous.com/fwd-4433
And the award for worst camera phone photo goes too...
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