2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The April Prompts

2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The April Prompts

Reader Comments (20)

  1. Love these ideas. I do bullet journal but I am like you were, preferring different notebooks for different things. I struggle with having them all in one. I do want to add blogging stuff into mine though so I’ll try your first challenge and write it in my journal, thanks!

    • Honestly it’s such a relief not picking through the stacks of notebooks to find the right thing. πŸ™‚

      I do have separate journals for visual work (sketching, painting), because I need different paper. But if it’s words, it’s in one place.

  2. I love this challenge. My friends often complain because things they’ve said in conversation end up blog posts (don’t worry, I give credit). I watch what goes down, store up ideas or clever ways to see the world and then mix it with my brain juice. BAM, the end. I love paper, but my phone is always with me so it ends up being the tool of choice. Thanks for the encouragement, now I have a semi-rational reason to own more notebooks than items of food in my fridge.

  3. I’ve been keeping a sort-of bullet journal for work for several years, and last month decided to start one for my personal life. I bring the personal one to work so if something comes up I can put it in there. I also have a notebook for my side business (I keep the to-do for that in my personal book, I’m not crazy enough to have 3 to-do lists!). I hadn’t thought of making the personal one a full-on journal, it was more of a to-do/remember list, but I’m going to try it.

    • There are sometimes some good reasons to split notebooks up, and I can see the value of having an “office” journal and then one that’s more personal for your life & side hustle that might stay in your bag. That one would probably trend more toward that “messy and private” side.

  4. I use Google planner to keep a check on my day. Also i have turned off my facebook News feed and i must say since then my productivity is increased upto 30%.
    I love to challenge myself so that i can grow and help others to grow.
    Thanks for the amazing post!

  5. This is something I will definitely try out. I am an inveterate note gatherer, but my scraps of paper invariably get out of control and end up in a messy pile on my teeny-tiny workspace. Eventually, they end up in either the bin or a basket that gathers dust! Thank you for the challenge.

  6. I love this blog, really! I spend here already 20 min and I am full of motivation and positive thinking. The road to success is always under construction.. we all should have challenges like this. πŸ™‚

  7. I am forever scratching around my desk trying to find a particular note! I will definitely keep some kind of journal, probably a bullet version, after reading this. Challenge accepted.

    Great job Sonia, I really enjoyed the read – as usual!

  8. I keep different journals for different projects, personal vs. work, etc. because I’m always afraid I won’t be able to find what I need if its all together. Except I can never find the right journal when I need something, and I’ve got notebooks all over the place. Sonia, thank you for sharing your experience – I can see now that having everything in one place is a much better solution. πŸ™‚

    • Sometimes there are great reasons to keep several notebooks going, but for me, when I start having questions about which notebook that thing was in, I need to consolidate. πŸ™‚

  9. I kept notebooks all my life (born in 1950) until I had a debilitating stroke in 2005. One of the several results of it are that I have no muscle control in my right arm and therefore can’t write with my right hand AND I’m right handed.

    The way I deal with this is I have a tiny Sony recorder that I record my thoughts on. The files can be transferred as mp3s to my computer. It’s not the same but it works for me!

    • Sometimes we just need to make accommodations! Jon Morrow has written some great content about how he uses voice recognition, since he cannot move his arms at all.

  10. I love these prompts. Just one issue with the journal: recording brainstorms helps me remember them, but I never take time to go back and look at what I’ve written! Any ideas on how to approach that?

    • If it were me, I’d probably put a big label at the top of a brainstorm page (the topic, or “brainstorm,” or whatever). I’d have something like a highlighter and a colored pencil handy, and I’d circle or mark ideas that seemed like they needed follow-through, and try to get those onto some kind of a to-do or next-action list.

      Then, since it seems like mainly your purpose in the brainstorm is to have/remember the ideas, I probably wouldn’t stress. If they’re there in your journal, and easy to find because you put a big label at the top of the page, you can always go back to them if you feel moved, or if you’re looking for idea seeds.

  11. I’m just about to start writing content for my website, and this would be a great way for me to get going on my first articles. Thanks for the challenge and inspiration!

  12. I LOVE my bullet journal, but it is definitely not full of pretty drawings and fancy lettering. However, it has been the solution for my journaling needs. Everything in one place!

  13. I keep a TON of text files. I have many dozens for ideas and concepts, one for a dream journal, some for work, and more. I write notes on index cards, then transfer the notes into my text files. To find things in those files, I include search keywords (e.g., [name]). It’s a weird system, but it works. But this is a fun challenge, and you’re so right, Sonia, about paper. I would love to be better at keeping up a paper journal. (And I’m doing the other prompt, too.)

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