Taking Notes Is Creating

"If the essence of being human is to remember, then to remember more is to become more HUMAN" - Edward Cooke

My grandmother is the person who showed me so many simple, lovely things. When I talked with her, she never once ran out of ways to astonish me, with the things she remembered and with words that were pure.

Because of her, I began to look further into the brain and to read about memory champions. I admire Yanjaa Wintersoul and Joshua Foer; but the one I love most is probably Nelson Dellis.

Nelson Dellis is one of the most enduring competitors and champions in the history of the memory championships in America. From his books and videos I learned a great many things about the art of remembering that can be used in study and in everyday life. One of them I began putting into practice in 2023, after watching Nelson introduce the memoir "I remember" by Joe Brainard.

For writing about personal memories, the "I remember" format really is perfect. But what about the good ideas I pick up each day, or the raw material I want to use for a piece of writing, or to keep for a long time — what system should I use? I found one very good template on Notion by Sarah Schlueter, and I would like to share it with you:

https://www.notion.com/templates/daily-notes

Speaking of keeping hold of interesting things, I want to thank Tiểu Kim Ngư — Alvin — the founder of the writing community "The village of creative ideas" (靈感日日村), for what he shared. He shared his writing habits and ideas with enormous generosity in an interview on 瓦基’s book channel 下一本讀什麼 (What to read next).

One of the things that struck me most was when Alvin talked about his favourite line, from Gary Vaynerchuk: taking notes is creating (紀錄就是創作) — or, "Do not create; record life as truthfully as you can."

That line really was a turning point for my note-taking habit on Notion, and I believe it will help you a great deal too!

And here is the video of Alvin talking with 瓦基:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPF-XeYcxKw&t=1673s