Mindful Ink

Well, the good news is I have a fancy Mont Blanc pen (for those of you not wanting to follow a link, it’s a 200+ pen.)

Yeah, there’s more to it than that. Essentially, I had heard from a reliable source, that such pens were worth it. I could hardly believe it. I mean, don’t get me wrong - some things are worth a lot more than you would normally think, and if you value it like that, you tend to take better care of it (as opposed to the dozen G2’s I’ve lost this year). That being said, there is no bloody way I’m paying that much for a pen. I hate writing by hand.

But, still, I was curious. I had stumbled upon this a few months back, and it tickled my brain, and I tracked it down. I picked up some Mont Blanc refills, and a G2 Pro pen - did the minor surgery and voila - a 200 dollar pen for 15 bucks.

However, in general, I was not impressed. It’s definately a rollerball, and feels really nice FOR a rollerball, but I am so used to the gelpoint’s on G2’s that it felt rough in comparision. It just didn’t really do anything for me at all. If you’re not a big fan of G2’s, perhaps it’ll be a better experience for you. I leave it in your hands. Personally, I stuck the original ink back in.

I’ve been on a productivity kick lately, fiendishly attempting to cobble together some system to help me deal with the mountain of work I’m dealing with these days. Of course, spending all this time on such things, I’m just further behind. But, I think I’ve gotten it down (finally!).

The big shift is the use of a hipster PDA. Essentially, it’s a stack of index cards with some sort of fastener. Sounds pretty hi-tech, huh? Well, yes. I mean, I’m certainly up on hi-tech - I’ve got my pocketPC phone, my ipod, macbook, etc… and I use them all together quite deftly, but here’s where it falls apart: imputing new info on the run. When I’m at my desk I need no particular elaborate organization, I can check out GradeFix to check out my assignments, iCal for my schedule, and KinklessGTD for my next actions on everything else. And my phone is great for accessing that existing information as well, but it’s not so good when it comes to inputing new info. Adding a phone number, making a note, etc.. not that fast. And while I do not need things to be hi-tech, I do need them to be fast. So, today I put together a HipsterPDA and I’m quite happy with the results. I’m going to make myself use it for the next month and see how it goes.
Now, for the freebies. I find that imputing info onto a computer to be a pain in the butt when reading, and I’m not big on notebooks - I’ve created some index card templates for the express purpose of reading research.

Reading Note Cards
There’s some philosophy specific stuff in there as well, but most of it’s pretty general.

A special pet peeve of mine (besides the term ‘pet peeve’) is running across information I should have known a long time ago, and more importantly, should have been taught. One of those things is “how to read a book.” Now, obviously, I know how to read. I read a lot, and I remember most of it, and it’s been a great asset to me. But no one ever gave me the details, and a little organization goes a long way. Anyway, I got this elusive information from a classic book on the subject, “How to Read a Book”. As I took copious notes, I made a little page to keep around until I internalize the information. You can grab there here as well. The book is quite good - much of it bears skimming if you’re familiar with reading at all, but lots of good nuggets.

Booknotes Page

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