Writing Stuff Down

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com **
Having a difficult day? As an Entrepreneur you will have many, you will have many nights that you will not be able to sleep, somedays that simply you will question the road you took. Sometimes all that will come at the same time, but you should continue moving forward, this is the reason you want to write your stuff, plans, objectives, and dreams down exactly for these kind of days, the days that the only thing you want to do is hide your head in the ground.
I am a big advocate of writing stuff down, I have lists of lists, shopping lists, writing ideas, affirmations, lists of books I have read and plan to read, delivery places around work and home, shortcut lists, travel list, podcast reference lists, work lists, reference information, lists for The Entrepreneur Notes, dreams, ideas, goals, places to be, my weekly review, quotes and someday-maybe among others.
A lot of people that I know simply trust their memory, no matter if you are a student, an entrepreneur, employee or just a home maker, if you only trust your memory you are going to be limited to the last idea in your mind and condemned to forget stuff, and you are, for sure, going to be a victim on those days that you are hiding, that your negative self talk is having a field day.
I regret that I did not start keeping notes earlier in life, so many opportunity that I have lost, so many that I have missed, and if you will have asked me, I would have told you, I will remembered everything, now I know how much I forget every day, unless I write it down.
I begin seriously taking notes and keeping my notes after I read Getting Things Done from David Allen (http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241398277&sr=8-2). We get an incredible amount of ideas, but a lot of people do not write them down, they “trust” their memory, I cannot recall where I heard the following analogy, but it is the best explanation I have found on this topic. Every time you have an idea, your brain writes it on a post-it on the wall of your brain, some of those are small, some are big, you continue having ideas and all these post-its are accumulating over and over, suddenly they will fall on the floor and be lost for your conscious mind. Of course, your mind does not really forget, but will now remember that you lost all those notes, some will come back and be re-written on another post-it, and many will be gone.
Do you remember that great idea you had at age 17? Yes, the one that was going to change the world? Do you remember the reason you began your enterprise, the goal, the challenges or why you changed direction in the past? Do you remember that you offered your friend that you were going to someday send them that great book you read? Probably, if you have not written it down, there is an incredible chance you are not going to remember, it is somewhere in your memory, somewhere in the unconscious, taking space, and nagging at you.
How should I keep my notes? It doesn’t matter, keep it on a block of paper, a folder, a three ring folder, on your  computer, on your phone, just make sure you can access them.
One of the things I have discovered over the years, is that I like to carry my notes with me, it is not a secret that currently I am using an iPhone, and one of my biggest complaint (since day one) of the notes application of the iPhone is that you can not organize it in categories. Because of this, I use an application called Notebook, currently on Version 1.2 (click to iTunes) from a company called Appigo (http://appigo.com).
The reason I use this application instead of others is simple. One, I can back up my data on Toodledo Notebook on the web, giving me access anywhere. I can create private notes, and I can create as many notebooks as I need. Each notebook works as a category or folder for your notes. At the time of this writing, I have more than  25. (I honestly do not know the limit), can organize alphabetically; create as many notes inside of the notebooks as I need, and allow me to search my notes.
Are you keeping your dreams on paper? Are you writing down the ideas, thoughts, dreams, and reasons to change direction? Can you access them? If you answered no, I wish you can continue trusting on your memory, and not forget the following:
DA Quote

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Augusto Pinaud

Augusto Pinaud es Coach de Tecnología de Productividad Bilingüe, Especialista en Nozbe Teams. Augusto trabaja con dueños y gerentes de pequeñas empresas, ejecutivos y profesionales en productividad, tecnología y mejora de procesos utilizando una variedad de tecnologías de productividad.

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