Usually, conventional lined notebooks don’t work very well for critical and creative thinkers, especially those who love to diagram, doodle, and mind map. Of course, that's aside from recording ideas in notes and words. That’s why we think you will find lots of things to love about this particular notebook made for the modern day multitasker who uses the Action Method.
In essence, Action Method is the process of taking a project and breaking it down into three primary categories: action steps, references, and things on the back burner. Action steps are for specific tasks, references are for your links, research, sketches, and notes, and the things that are on the back burner are those that are for a later time, but are still worth keeping.
It’s a creative organizational and procedural system designed to navigate brainstorm sessions into several executable tasks. It’s the equivalent of taking charge of an ant swarm that's in chaos and turning it into one focused line.
The system was created in 2008 and developed by Behance, a creative network. It was a success as it was not just shared online but also in print. The Action Method was once an online tool before being shuttered just recently. Regardless, the system lives on in pen-to-paper format using Action Pads which are pre-printed to organize a brainstorming session.
An Action Book will motivate a user to:
Relentlessly capture action steps - During a meeting, brainstorming session, or even on the go, there are ideas that will pop into your head. Unless you capture them into action steps, they will just get lost in the wind.
Tend to the back burner - A back burner will help you keep ideas that will become actions someday. Whether they are ideas for the near future or just small errands that you want to be reminded of, you can put them in the back burner. Once they are listed, you can forget about them.
Think beyond the lines and boxes - There’s a dot matrix on all pages which will serve as your guide for any sketches and notations.
Prepare and list focus items - The system will let you put down your plan for a meeting beforehand. Once you are in the meeting, you can just look at your notebook and check the focus items that need to be addressed.
Behance found itself a creative partner in Ghostly, an art and record label company. Both added an apparition and refreshed version of the Action Method, which is the Reduced Action Book. It’s a branding-free, monochromatic take on the more colorful Action Book.
According to Sam Valenti, the founder of Ghostly, Action Method notebooks have been the staple in creative work for almost a decade already. They wanted to see how the function and form could be refined even more while reducing the design but maintaining the materials and the intention.
If you want better ideas, less noise, and more organization, you'll definitely benefit from Ghostly's all-new Reduced Action Book. You can get it for $16 a piece at actionmethod.com.
