Jeremy C Kester

Notebooks are pervasive in my life. However, as much as I love them and use them, most of the time they sit untouched. Filled with fragments of thoughts, they often remain idle. And yet I love them; I crave to write in them all the time. But they remain unused too often to count.

On the heels of my last blog of where my habits have remained generally unchanged, except that I spend more of my focused time on actually writing rather than on other things, I began to look at the various activities I do from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. What I find is that there is a lot of opportunity to take in, particularly with some of the tools I have to build on my skills as a writer. One of them: using my notebooks.

Where am I going wrong? What possesses us as individuals to ignore tools meant to help us? And I wonder: does everyone have this problem?

One solution I need to try is to have a notebook open and in front of my at (almost) all times. But I am certain that even that practice will have its pratfalls. There will be times I will think of ideas and then hold onto them without pen being taken to paper. I do that often already as I carry small notepads everywhere I go.

I shouldn’t focus on what is wrong. I should acknowledge the things that are wrong, or my behaviors that are wrong and then move forward. Work towards change. Improve. Because ultimately, that is the goal.

Having these things handy yet not using them is a habit I do need to change. It’s like staring at a nail and wondering why it hasn’t been driven into the wood. All the while, there’s a hammer right there, sitting right next to it! I need to see that hammer and use it.

Given all this, writing in my notebooks and keeping them on hand is indeed the first habit I will be working on keeping up with and improving. If nothing else, it will help me unload my brain when I begin to struggle with my capacity for thought. Writing things down helps with that after all.