I moved my GTD system back to paper in the fall of 2023 and a few weeks ago I started using very thick A5-sized notebook as an index into all my other paper notebooks and calendars (and there are some references to digital files and folders in there too).
The entire notebook is divided alphabetically, I divided it up before I started writing. Each letter kluster has several pages, for example “Ka–Kd” has 8 pages, 248 rows total. (Some entries fit several to a row, other entries take up multiple rows.) If that space runs out I can put in a pointer to an entry with more room. The idea is that this one thicc book is gonna last for the rest of my life. I went with this (inspired by the paper address books I grew up with in the 80s) instead of a more dynamic “Locke-style commonplace index” because I wanted something more robust and direct for this. I can use locke-indexes in other books (so some notebooks have their own indices in addition to the meta-grimoire) or bujo-type toc-indexes or date-based or whatever fits that book’s own project.
The meta-grimoire isn’t for real info, it’s all pointers to other notebooks and calendar. That’s the meta part. I just write the name of the topic or person and then for example I write 26-38 in a rectangular box which means techō “weeks 2026, week 38”. That might be a phone number or an appointment time or reflections on a movie I saw and loved.
I only backfilled a few entries that I really don’t want to lose (and I might backfill more stuff later). It’s mostly forward-looking.
One of the limits I’m trying to remember when writing in the meta-grimiore is that these are reference notes, not action notes. As in, these are notes I might or mightn’t want to look up later, but the notes are never of the type or urgency that need to pop up and “find” me the way a reminder or calendar item or todo item is designed to do. My list of things I need to do and remember and get to and boxes I need to check, that’s all in in the techō, not in the meta-grimiore.
The secondary benefit is that knowing that I can find things makes me less hesitant to write them. It’s not going to be “lost”, I can find it if I really want to (even though it’s a two-step process of finding the meta-grimoire and looking up what notebook to then really look it up in).
The main benefit is that every Sunday when I update the index I get to look at my past week and think about everything again. The extra friction is a way to make sure I look at all that happened and that is pleasant or motivating or I dunno what. I want to keep doing it because it’s been great these past weeks.
The index doesn’t go in my bag, not normally. It lives on my shelf at home and I update it week. If I need to stay away from home for a few weeks, that’s fine. I’ll just update the index when I get home.
Do I, a lapsed computer nerd, really believe something like this has actual advantages over having a digital index or an app like org-mode or logseq? That’s not what I’m saying. (For example the backup situation is non-existent, and the pointer system makes it more fragile rather than more redundant. Although I’ve lost digital indexes in the past, too.) I didn’t go paper for any real reasons, I did it out of nostalgia and coziness and mood and aesthetic. It’s like when I got the old phone one year ago, I get how when looked at it “rationally” it comes across as just a meaningless and pretentious LARP but then in practice it ends up being something I really enjoy, treasure, and want to keep doing. Come for the aesthetic, stay for the wellbeing. I learn that it was the right decision even though I don’t necessarily understand why or how it was the right decision. Maybe that’s just a benefit of all aesthetics: it sparks joy because it is something chosen or thought-through or something invested in.
For the past three summers I have had a project to reevaluate whether to go back to digital. This summer I decided to really double down on paper and that’s when I created this. The exact format for how I write my next actions and projects and other GTD stuff might still change but I’m really enjoying having gone to paper.