My Personal Workbook part 2

Hello Dear,

Welcome to part 2 of my Personal Workbook thingy-me-bob. Just like last week I am going through some of my older posts and updating what I wrote. Plus it’s interesting to see what I used back in the day and why I don’t use things anymore. Or asking myself if it’s time to dig out the old and use it again. Just because I used to use it doesn’t mean I couldn’t or shouldn’t use it again. Enjoy the read.

If you didn’t get to read part one there is the link to part 1

Why we all can use a Personal workbook

Ok, so today we are going to get into why I think that we all could use this type of workbook.

This book is to record all your adult learnings and thoughts on the information you might gather from reading a book to watching something on YouTube. It’s a book so unique to you that everything that you record is neither right nor wrong. NO ONE will judge you or comment on what you wrote. No teacher will ever grade what you have written or criticise you on what subjects you are learning. Your thoughts are all yours. If you are a student at heart (not talking about the parties here just the learning part) then this is just the kind of book that you will enjoy using. 

Well like I said in part one I had my notes all over the place and had a hard time finding where I had written my ideas. I also had loads of scrap paper filled with notes, taken while watching a webinar or a YouTube video. The biggest problem was that I had different places where I wrote down notes from my mastermind meetings, tasks I wanted to complete, to-dos the group wanted to hold me accountable for and loads more stuff that came into my head that didn’t have a home.

My notes were never really in the same book because I just grabbed what was laying around. So, I needed a place that would hold all this information. I was looking for a way I could cross-reference things that I had learned and wanted to implement, a place I could look back and reflect, relive whatever I had seen or read. But having 3 or more notebooks on your desk, trying to remember which book you took notes in, say like, how to use Canva or the webinar about writing better copy, or my fav. Easy Peasy LOA lessons. Let’s face it I needed some kind of organisation for my notes.

What get’s me is that I teach kids and all my class notes are divided into sections. Why I didn’t do the same for my own personal growth notes, I have no clue, and me an organisation freak. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Setting up my Workbook into different categories.

I had them as followed:

• Business goals
• Business ideas
• Brain dump
• Video & Blogging notes
• Mastermind meetings
• Gratitude
• Book notes
• Blog post ideas

The second-year around they turned into:

• Goals
• Brain dump
• Blog post ideas & Tips Tuesday
• Mastermind meetings
• Projects
• Class notes for webinars, YouTube, books, blog posts
• Youtube ideas

I liked to divide the pages in half to be able to take more notes, you know like you do to learn new vocabulary. On one side I would write down the class notes then on the other my thoughts. Mind you I didn’t always write down what I was thinking at the time because some webinars can be packed full of information and there is no time to write down all your thoughts. So I would fill out both sides with notes taken from the class. I would go back and write thoughts and highlight things I wanted to implement after the lesson or while watching the replay.

 A traveller’s notebook

I wanted to see if a travellers notebook could work the same as the other 2 books I have used in the past. Plus, I’ve always wanted to own a traveller’s notebook and have now found a reason to do so. This is just a cheap one from Amazon not the original. Sometimes you have to justify wanting to buy something new. My reason for wanting one was that I could use up the notebooks that I have already in my collection plus find out what the attraction to owning a traveller’s notebook is.

I like the thought of filling a notebook up with notes and then swapping the full one out for a new one that I can then decorate the cover of.

Here I’ve just stuck a Flow magazine page to the cover and every now and then I colour it in. So it becomes fun to use. I’m not going to lie it did take me a while to get used to writing inside this book. The pages don’t always lay flat and I think that you have to sometimes take out a booklet to write inside. I don’t see the point of doing that right now I’m forcing myself to use it how it is now, or what is the point in having a traveller’s notebook? (Update, it’s way better to take the notebook out to write on. There are many notebooks out there that do lay flat, that’s what you get for using the cheaper stuff. You could also make your own, which is fun.)

The one that I like to carry in my bag with me everywhere is this one.

Carry with me everywhere

This one is a wee bit different than the one that stays at home. It’s small enough to fit into every bag that I own. It has two notebooks that I have already messed up, by spilling water on it, the pages are now wrinkled as you can see above (the brown booklet) but I’m kinda in love with this one.

Update, I do not use this one anymore. I have passed it on to my hubby because it fits into his work trousers, he keeps his notes inside and some business cards and to-dos and time spent on a job.

Sections I had in this one were:

• Brain dump
• To-do
• Blog post / YouTube
• Money/things to buy
• Journal

While I’m sitting outside of the yoga studio I take this out and write down the thoughts that have popped into my head just before class and after class. I know that by the time I’m home I would have forgotten everything. Yep, that’s me forgetful. I sometimes wish I had time to write just after our relaxing meditation right at the beginning of the lesson. I wish Horst our teacher would say, “Right Susan you have 2 minutes to write every idea down that just came” now that would just be the best.

So why did I give up keeping my notes like this?

One reason was that I didn’t have a mastermind group anymore and depression came rolling in and I just didn’t want to learn anything. So there was no need of keeping this way of note-taking. Would I pick it back up again? Yes, I would because looking back at my notes now is very helpful. The goodies of information held there are amazing and can be used today.

If you have any questions whatsoever, please feel free to leave them below.

Happy Planning Dear

 

yours