My Carnet
Published in
6 min readOct 24, 2020
How I Organize My Life
A reader asked me to write an article about my notebook system, so I’m happily obliging her. I call it my carnet (kar-NAY), which means “notebook” in French.
Lots of people keep track of their lives on their phones. That just doesn’t work for me. There’s something about actually writing things down that helps them stick in my head and helps me think better in general. I take my carnet with me everywhere.
What I use it for: my carnet is a combination journal, list keeper, habit tracker, doodling pad, and commonplace book. I write down:
- Regular diary-type entries
- Funny/crazy/interesting things people say
- Quotes I want to use or memorize in future
- Questions I have about scriptures and any answers I find
- Other questions that occur to me
- Notes from other reading/research
- Story ideas and brainstorming notes
- Outlines for talks, essays, and novels
- Drafts of song lyrics I’m writing
- Phone numbers
- Ideas for dinners or other meals, as well as weekly menus
- To do lists
- Shopping lists
- Lists of movies, books…
