13 Comments
Dec 5, 2023Liked by Sarah Shotts (they/them)

I love taking notes, as well. I gave up on a centralized system a long time ago. I have different ways of keeping different kinds of notes and that mostly works for me. I never thought of note taking as collecting before, but that really resonates with me. My notes are more valuable to me than almost all of my other possessions.

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That works too! What kind of things do you like to take notes about? Do you have different notebooks or are some of them digital?

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Dec 6, 2023Liked by Sarah Shotts (they/them)

I have a daily planner, but I don't really use it as a planner. I use it as a log. Every morning, I take notes on what I did the previous day. I have notecards for ideas or quotes I like. I put the most important ones on corkboard in front of my desk. I have notebooks for longer things, like notes from webinars or feedback from my critique group. I keep notes in my Kindle by highlighting or commenting on things I've read. Of course, I also keep notes in Evernote, for digital things that don't really have place anywhere else, but sometimes I also email myself notes, too.

I also keep journals, which aren't notes, exactly, but I have multiple for various things. I have free writing journals (one digital, one on paper), a dream journal (digital), a tarot journal (paper), and a "Letters from Love" journal (paper), which is a practice from Elizabeth Gilbert's Substack, but it's something I've been doing for years.

Yeah, so, I guess like to write things down. I'm glad to meet someone else who has the same affinity.

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Thank you for sharing that! Those are all definitely treasures. ✨

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Dec 5, 2023Liked by Sarah Shotts (they/them)

you've tried so many things! I hadn't thought of making a private blog on my website that already exists - I've tried making my "blog" into an archive like this, but it feels quite vulnerable to share unfinished work and research publicly.

I also enjoy written note-taking! but I've been back and forth about this for a bit, since our basement flooded years ago and I lost all my journals to water damage... there's something really interesting about the ways we can lose both written work (over time and through physical damage of the materials) and digital (depending on who it's owned by and the future of the digital world - not to mention, the worries about information tracking).

lots to think about ♥️

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I have! Notion was really close to working for me, but it's much more text based than visual. And as much as I love words I'm also an artist so I love a visual record. I keep playing around with the microblog. You can definitely make it private - either unlisted or password protected even. I've popped mine into my navigation for now as Chronofile. But I don't expect people to keep up with it.

I expect to use it kind of like Austin Kleon does his Tumblr and just point to it occasionally from my newsletter. It's primarily a tool for myself, but if I want to mention a book or a podcast or a quote it makes it really easy to share. Microblogging feels fun and lighthearted. Like a digital scrapbook? I was posting something almost everyday for a while until we got sick in November. The idea of just recording snippets rather than waiting to tie everything up into a nice neat package is something I haven't done in a long time.

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I feel this soooo deeply! Thank you for sharing 💗

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Thank you for reading! Every time I share a bit of my experience and read a comment like this it helps to feel less alone. 💫

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I agree!!! Although I have stayed engaged on Substack by reading and commenting on others’ writing , I haven’t written on my own page since getting in touch more deeply with my neurodiversity. I think I’ve been ashamed…seeing you share yourself transparently gives me courage. I like you, and I enjoy what you share 💗

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Thank you Laurie. It took me several years of processing and sharing with close friends before I started posting about these things publicly, but the more I do so the easier it is. Seeing my beautiful 3 year old son diagnosed also helped. It was so clear to me from that moment that neurodivergent traits are differences and not deficits. But it is hard work to apply that to ourselves when our whole lives we’ve been told otherwise. Thanks so much for your comments. It means a lot. 🥰

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You’re welcome! Yes, my 5 yo grandson is autistic (PDA), and the more I have learned to support him and my daughter the more I am learning about myself. I understand myself and my struggles better and have more self compassion. It’s a journey and a process, and accepting that is transformational 💗

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Dec 8, 2023Liked by Sarah Shotts (they/them)

Thank you for letting us peak behind the curtain, I’m fascinated by the different ways we find to support our nd brains. Possibly because I’m always looking for ‘the system’ that will stand in for my executive (days)function. (Notion keeps coming up so I’m tempted to try it)

I find I have to hand write things if I want them to stick in my brain, but I rarely go back to them so I have countless notebooks and planners I keep just in case.

Last year I got a remarkable tablet which has helped limit the notebooks and paper, but still lets me handwrite, and that’s been helpful.

I think you’re right, our spiked profiles often need spikey and flexible systems to support them, I’m glad you’ve found one that works (for now)

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Yes! I relate to that handwrite and forget it thing. It does encode things into your memory in a different way.

I think Notion is definitely a good tool for a searchable word or link based archive. I’m still using mine. It’s just become a satellite instead of the main event.

And yes, I think for years I wanted to be one part of myself and lean into that. Accepting and embracing those spikes has been really transformational to my creative process and also to my life. 💫

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