If you’re in that camp, you need help
One of my favorite bloggers wrote a while back week that she was using a Midori Traveler’s Notebook for journaling and my reaction surprised me.
It made me cringe.
It’s the same reaction I have when I read about people having one notebook for their personal life and another for their career/work. When I read that blog post I felt disappointed inside, as if she were suddenly an addict who started using again. How could she? (My best guess is that she’s experimenting after years of solo journaling.)
Before I start getting unsubscribes and hate comments (kidding, you are free to disagree with me…I’m used to it…I used to be married), I don’t deny anyone the right to use whatever notebook they choose.
At the same time, it violates something deep within me when I see others using systems that would, without a doubt, create a split-brain syndrome in me if I were to use them.
I recognize, of course, that this is my aberrant pathology and I own it fully.
Where my fervor about this comes from
I used to be a physician and surgeon before I became a professional writer and blogger. Split Brain Syndrome (SBS) is both a medical condition and a computer jargon term loosely based on the medical definition.
In medicine, the corpus callosum is a fibrous connection between the left and right hemispheres of the human brain. When this nexus between the two hemispheres is cut, as is sometimes performed on patients with uncontrollable seizures, the patient is often rendered, at lest temporarily, of two minds with each hemisphere functioning independently.
In computer science, SBS indicates data or availability inconsistencies originating from the maintenance of two separate data sets with overlap in scope; A redundant system that causes errors.
The primacy of a single, continuing Zen-Journal
Having one continuing notebook for my life’s body of work is the single-most palpable reason that I use Zen-Journal. Having anything other than a one-notebook system creates a second data set for me to curate.
However, I’d never split my data into additional notebooks. That isn’t a modification, it’s a second data set and, as we’ve learned from the definitions above, this can lead to errors. For me (and yes I realize there are many more people in the world than just me), multiple notebooks defeat the purpose of using the Zen-Journal system.
Two data sets, as described above, lead to errors and redundant psychological traps.
| ~ “Do I write about this in my personal Zen-Journal or in my Business Zen-Journal? |
| ~ “Where do I record an appointment if it affects both business and my personal life?” |
| ~ “If I have a great insight while writing in one notebook, will the other suffer because of its absence?” |
Redundancy isn’t innovation, it’s duplication
One of the hallmarks of the mindful minimalist movement is to continually evaluate whether or not we are duplicating efforts, functionality, or action. Maintaining more than one notebook, for me, would be trying to live with redundancy and having to defend it.
It would be like living with SBS all the time. It’s how I rate my parents’ system of three wall calendars, all with conflicting information.
It’s #oldschool
Confession- I’m not immune
Even creating a dummy Zen-Journal for illustration purposes feels duplicitous for me. It’s like maintaining a storage unit with stuff you never use and never will.
After I’d completed a few layouts in the test journal, that duplicitous feeling arose and I couldn’t stand it. I had to ask myself if it also was a violation of the primacy of a single Zen-Journal.
I concluded that it was.
The test journal is no more and the test layouts have been migrated into my only Zen-Journal.
#itwasnotfun
Do you agree? Disagree?
Some of my readers use the Midori Traveler’s Notebook approach to Zen-Journal.
Some of them use a single notebook and others have separated their lives into separate notebooks.
If this is you, I’m interested to know how having multiple notebooks makes you feel.
I’d love it if you commented at end of this post an told that I’m nuts or a total genius. 😉
I have been “Bujo-ing” for a quite a while now (on and off), and it has been an organic process that has gone through several permutations (I will even sheepishly admit I bought into the whole washi-tape craze at one point. It served its purpose as a creative outlet at the time, but I am now more content with a more minimalistic approach.).
I have considered going the traveler’s notebook route (midori-style), but with the intent of keeping my actual Bujo (or Zen Journal 🙂 ) as just that, but only one for all of the compartments of my life (there aren’t that many). Because I don’t function as well with keeping reminders and calendars on my smart phone (I’ve tried several), I feel it would work better for me to have these in analog form, but in separate “books” within a traveler’s notebook, one for a monthly calendar spread (to eliminate the need for “future planning”), one for lists (books to read, etc.), and possibly a Commonplace Book.
I haven’t yet thought deeply about whether or not this method would create a split brain (or more of one than I already have), but think it might be worth a try.
So this is my reaction/response to this blog. And I welcome your feedback or comments.
Thanks, Barry!
Dawn
Hi Dawn- My recurring thought on the use of multiple volumes comes down to having to search through multiple notebooks to locate needed information. Because I use my Zen-Journal as a utility (work, creative, avocation) notebook, I put a ton of info into the pages. I’ve been a proponent of backing up my notebooks via photos on a cloud service so I can access any past volumes (rarely) via my smartphone.
If you do go that route, I’d be interested to hear how the experience goes.