Pile of Index Cards

We can descrive a scene by words, by paint, by drawing, etc. The easiest way is, in this age, taking a snapshot with digital camera. When we find something beautiful, interesting, or curuous, we simply take a photo. After that, we can forget about it for a while. And later, we remember it again when we see a photo album.

We find ; take a photo ; forget ; and remember again.

What about idea in our mind? An idea is abstract and invisible : It is impossible to take a photo.

But we have indexcard and fieldnote. We can take a snapshot of our idea with them, like taking snapshot of scene.

ref : @blog, Statistics

According to the statistics of my system, at the beginning this year, it was only 20 cards per month. But in March, it jumps to 400 cards, which records the maximum through this year.

The differences in February and March are,

• hipsterPDA format (portrait) to PoI format (landscape)
• Pigment pen ; black ink to blue ink
• implementation of four card rule
• implementation of Icon and Tag rule
• chronological order in a card box

Most of key features of the PoI system was established in March. Thanks to the chronological order, nothing is stop my writing indexcards. I found the PoI method is really effective and fun for me. It is clear the PoI system/method dramatically improved my output (20 -> 400, 20 times).

It followed by minimum in May (besides February) when my job had been busy. Then it gradually increased until August. In the beginning of July, I introduced Flickr, and in late August, I started start this blog. The number of cards reflects my mental state as well. Main reason of decrease in September was, according to my Record Card, I was mentally depressed. After that, the number gradually recovered.

It seems the number converge and approaches to equilibrium now. The equilibrium point is about 10 cards/day (300 cards/month). If I include cards for “work”, then the number is doubled, 20 cards/day. Perhaps it is comfort number for me.

As a summary of this year, as well as a sample of introducing the PoI system/method ;)

ref. : Divergence, convergence,
a discussion related to indexcard @ Flickr

I call a state of my Dock like this title. I have never think my Dock as gem box. There are gems, but not all. And it’s totally o.k.

See a Pyramid in Egypt. It is constructed by pile of stones. The stones is useless if it is divided one by one. But if a stone is uniform block and well organized, even though single block is useless, it is possible to become such a great construction.

Even group of several stones, it is possible to metamorphose into a gem. As Josh and Jamie wrote before (here and here), we are trying to find pattern between our individual thoughts, events around us. If we could find a pattern from several “stone” cards, the knowledge generate new “gem” card.

Conversely, if my Dock is full bunch of gems, it means I try to write and select only gem all time. It will be stressful. And the system doesn’t succeed to function as capturing “any” idea.

There are tons of stone card, tiny and apparently useless ideas, in my Dock. But I don’t know their true worth at the time I write them. As Steve Jobs said, all we can do is to connect dots (cards) backward. So I don’t trash any single card. Rather, I keep all of them for future use.

ref. : Indexcard Survey @ Shinjyuku
and @ San Francisco

What is surprise for me with quad (short for “quadrille”) card in U.S. is, as Lepard and Gregkise pointed out, the cut is not associated with the grid. As a result, if I see the card’s edge from top, the grid is totally random. This quad card could not be use for the PoI system, especially for “tag”.

Another difference is grid spacing. For Office Depot’s : 6 mm each, and for Correct’s : 5 mm each. Since I have been using 5 mm grid, the Correct’s one looks more tight, tense, and compact for me.

I have never imagine how different the quad card in U.S. and Japan. I realize that how difficult to obtain quad card like the Correct’s. Long time I had thought indexcard like the Correct’s is easy to get even in abroad ; but it’s not.

Summarize various reports from my friends (Leopard, Gregkise, John, Ayalan, and David) and my research, only the Correct achieve this marvelous, state-of-the-art work. And I realized that my method won’t be achieved without the Correct’s products. This is one large key of the PoI system.

As a simple solution for this problem, I decide to provide “Starter Kit” to you in abroad.

Revised 2007.01.02 12:01
Revised 2006.12.22 08:25 : Added photos and description about grid spacing.

I think the PoI system resembles to human life.

0 - 1,000 (0 - teenage) : When I just started using indexcard. I just enjoy writing card day by day. I simply enjoy the Dock is filled by written card. This resembles when I was child. I enjoyed to get new information, knowledge from outside of me. Through family, friend, school, adventure, etc.

1,000 - 2,000 (20- 30 years old) : Keep up writing card. The number of card exceed a thousand. It can be reorganized/reused to find further knowledge. The system starts to function as knowledge database.

1,000 - 5,000 (30 - 40 years old) : Cards in the Dock is full. I added new Dock. Getting more and more difficult handle all cards in the Dock because of huge number. It takes an hour to flip through all cards. Same time, card and card is connected like organ. I find a pattern between card and card; which we call as “wisdom” in our life.

5,000 - (40 - years old) : A complexity of system being maximum. Difficult to handle all cards (ref. : Known issue). Now problem is how to reduce card. I should choose how to write, how not to write. How to keep, how to discard. Perhaps “forgetfulness” is an important feature of human in order to reduce information in a brain. For human, only high quality information survive by forgetting small things. Bunch of wisdom.

What I love with this analog indexcard system is a “sound”. A sound when I drop written card into the Dock.

It makes me feel some kind of accomplishment. It says “Well done! Let’s go to next card” to me, and triggers next card.

I miss this sound when I use computer. Rather, a computer makes sound when I do something wrong (beep). Perhaps this makes big difference to my productivity. In fact, I usually use computer without sound.

The sound of indexcard attracts me to analog world so strongly.

# The only computer beep I love is startup sound of Macintosh

ref. : Writing manual from indexcards

As this blog do, implementing the “analog” PoI system to “digital” blog system is easily done. Feature of the PoI system is,

• Icon and Tag (Record, Discovery, Reference + GTD)
• Title and contents
• Date and Time stamp
• Chronological order
• Link between cards
• Revision Rule (Capability of modification)
• Capability of Reorganization
• Star system

You see first five features are already implemented in the blog system. To implement the PoI system to blog,

1. Reduce Tag to only 3-4 kinds (Record, Discovery, Reference + GTD)
2. Make title exact and short
3. Write the contents piece by piece
4. Allow revision/modification of the contents (revised time should be recorded)
5. Link between card and card, to external world, by using hyperlink
6. the blog should/must be private

You can start the PoI System from a blog just in front of you. It is good if you hesitate to use this system, because of difficulty with getting indexcard and dock physically. Now all you need is some simple attitude above.

# Wish-list and problems-to-be-solved should be discussed. Any idea? :)

ref. : Inertia of writing
ref. : Avalanche writing

Every single morning, I feel difficulty with start writing. Consciously or subconsciously, whatever. I used to spent long time to start writing with thinking “what I should write…”. In terrible case, I couldn’t write even single card.

One day, I found there is a tip to overcome it. The answer is simple : just start writing. Anything is o.k. All I need is just pick up a pen and card, and start.

But same time, if I say “let’s start writing”, I feel a certain resistance. Rather, I say for myself “let’s start from diary“. More precisely, I start from a weather of the day, like “Fine”, “Cloudy” etc. In Japanese, it is just two or three letters (晴れ or くもり). Then record what happen in the morning, say “got up 7:00″ “arrive at office 8:30″, on the same card. It’s not difficult, too. Just describe without thinking. That way, I fill a first card of the day. And it’s enough to start avalanche of writing.

ref. : Strict chronological order

The revision rule of Noguchi filing system sounds quite useful to keep system “alive”. I think there is another way to implement it into the PoI system.

For example, when you pick up an indexcard from the dock, mark the top edge with a color pen, say red, then return to it’s original position the dock. The order is unchanged. When you use the indexcard again, you put one more mark. Like a star for soldiers. Consequently, there are many mark for indexcard that you use frequently. Then you’ll clearly see which card you used before.

We can find chronological management of files and “Law of accessibility” behind the flickr, photo sharing system.

For example, when I upload new photos, they appear in the top-left of the page, where people view first and frequently (that is, V=1, x=t=0 -> A = 1 = maximum). Older photos are pushed down down down to the bottom of the page. This looks like I put indexcards I just write on card stand or box where I can see all time.

For classification, flicker basically doesn’t need classification. Just upload first, and sometime later, classify them for convenience. This makes us free from a load of classification at very first stage of photo sharing process.

# Did you notice that? I hadn’t notice at all!

Revised : 2006.11.26 Title is changed

Ref. : Article, If you want, then start to laugh

I mentioned there are only two kind of job : want to do, and must do. We cannot escape from ‘must do’ kind of job in daily life. Here is a small trick to change your mood.

Just replace ‘must’ to ‘want to’ in your mind, even you don’t want to do it so much. The title of this article means a replacement in ’sed’ command on UNIX. It works as filter like,

• I must go to city hall tomorrow. -> s/must/want to/ ->
  I want to go to city hall tomorrow.
• I must finish this paper work until tomorrow. -> s/must/want to/ ->
  I want to finish this paper work until tomorrow.

Don’t you feel something have changed in your mind?

I have been thinking that my experience about information management can be expressed in a single equation. My experience about information (or a stuff) is,

• If a stuff is far from me, I don’t access (dependency on spacial distance)
• I easily forget about a stuff (dependency on elapsed time)
• Frequency of access drastically decrease with space and time
• If I don’t see a stuff, I forget it (dependency on visibility)

I assume they are represented as following simple equation,

where A is frequency of access (or just “accessibility”), V is visibility (0

In case you see it (V = 1)	In case you don’t see it (V = 0.1)

This equation is visually understand through above two graphs. Assume you are at origin (x=0, t=0). Accessibility is maximum at the origin, and it decrease exponentially with spatial distance and elapsed time. The left graph is for V = 1, that is you see a stuff all time. Something just in front of you. Then the accessibility is the highest. The right graph is for V = 0.1, that is you don’t see a stuff. For example, a stuff in a closed drawer. In this case, the accessibility is almost zero even though the stuff is spatially and temporally close to you.

Give us this day our daily bread. This is quote from the Bible. I hadn’t know true meaning of this quote, perhaps because I am not christian.

Dale Carnegie quoted this words in his book “How to stop worrying and start living (or Japanese version)”. He suggested that we must live in more simple way. Before I read this book, I had had meal just because of hungry. Just as daily custom. There is no special meaning for me.

Now I have been trying to have meal If I could feel satisfaction for my work. I don’t eat while I achieve a certain objective. Sometime it takes long to finish the work, and then I have lunch at 17:00, for example.

If I could finish the work in satisfaction, on the other hand, the meal have special meaning for me : it is given to the achievement. This story may sounds primitive. But it really works good for me.