A client recently asked me for advice on how to take notes and do some “real” writing while she travels in support of a memoir that’s been blooming in her. When I take notes I grab any piece of paper or electronic device that’s handy. I take notes on credit card receipts and direct mail fliers, in one of the fifteen notebooks on my desk or in my purse, or in one of the three note apps on my iPhone. I stash the scraps of paper here and there, the way Emily Dickinson stashed her poems in boxes and drawers, and I pile the notebooks on top of my phone, which hides out under the weight of them and which I fail to find until I call myself and the phone vibrates and wails that little blues riff I like so much.

To answer my client’s question about note taking and “real” writing, I clearly needed to do a little research. Here are some highlights of the advice I found online:

• Take notes while doing research and while writing.
• Consider note taking part of the drafting and writing process.
• Take photos.
• Focus on senses and emotions and details that are important to you.
• Date your notes and journal entries.
• Work with a research question in mind.
• While writing about life experiences, focus on meaning.

Most of this advice I’ve practiced over years of writing. Still it was fun to take an online tour and learn what other writers had to say about note taking. Here are some of the sources I found:

• a brief article on the power of note-taking and how it helps us remember and, from the same author, a short piece about note-taking methods
• great ideas from many different writers about how to take notes while doing interviews
• a post about the Cornell Method of note taking
• a post that describes writing from senses and emotions and tracking details
• a practical tip (write on every other line to leave room to add more details and edits later)
• lots of good ideas on taking notes for historical research

The one piece of advice I did not find was how to organize the notes, notebooks, pens, postcards, books, paperclips, business cards, and other sundries on my desk. Last year I tried out the concept of keeping one notebook, which worked for a few weeks until I slid back into that old habit of dashing off notes on whatever scrap of paper or electronic device I have in hand. Right now, as I finish writing this post and think about my recent trip home, where I took lots of photos and notes, I don’t have time to clean up my desk. That’s a task for another day. I want to review my photos and notes, so I need to find my phone. For the life of me, I’m not sure where I put it.

Read my other posts on work habits.

What are your favorite methods of taking notes? How do you integrate note taking and writing? How do you keep your notes organized?