Take Notes Like Leonardo da Vinci, Richard Branson, and Francis Ford Coppola

Here are 3 examples of prolific people who took notes and 6 benefits I’ve found from the practice of note taking.

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Codex Leicester,” a manuscript that dates back to the 16th century bought by Bill Gates for $30.8m

It is useful, to constantly observe, note, and consider.

… said Leonardo DaVinci, apparently, and I agree. As you can see above, and read more about here, he practiced this too.

So does Richard Branson who said in a 2006 interview:

It may sound ridiculous, but my most important is to always carry a little notebook in your back pocket. I think the number one thing that I take with me when I’m traveling is the notebook…I could never have built the Virgin Group into the size it is without those few bits of paper.

And also Francis Ford Coppola. His “Godfather Notebook” was instrumental in getting The Godfather movies to the screen and catapulting the young Indie film director from unknown to stardom. This notebook was “a kind of multi-layered road map” he used to direct the film and included his own ideas and reading notes on putting the book the films are based on to the screen. See him talk about it here.

Here in no particular order are some benefits I find for the habit of note taking:

1. As my Dad would say, it shows God you’re paying attention. Or a Michael Hyatt put it: “The real benefit is not what happens after the meeting but during the meeting itself. Taking notes not only keeps us focused, it also triggers critical, constructive thinking.”
2. You surprise yourself constantly. “I wrote that? That’s pretty good.”
3. Your memory improves.
4. You have something to reflect on in your quest to be more self-aware.
5. You get stuff out of your head and into a system where you can retrieve it later.
6. You put two dimensional space to work getting ideas out of your head into their first manifestations in the physical world.

And who knows, maybe your notes will be sold at auction one day for a massive sum.

See also:

• Notebooks, Journals, and Common Place Books and The Trail for more I’ve written on this.
• 15 Secrets Successful People Know about Time Management by Kevin Kruse.
• Recovering the Lost Art of Note Taking by Michael Hyatt
• Buy a copy of Copella’s Godfather Notebook.