You've seen the Franklin Planner, here's how Thomas Jefferson kept organized.

I've known Thomas Jefferson kept a journal. Until I read this didn't know he kept little notes in his pocket through out the day, then transferred them to his journal in the evening. For years and years I've kept a journal, write mostly in the early morning, I have boxes of them. I'm going to try Jefferson's method and start keeping index cards in my pocket, then copy in the evening. Might take another try at keeping my journal on the computer, print out later, I'm not sure.

Do you keep a journal?
Did you know this about Jefferson?
Do you use a computer for your journal?
If so, have you learned any tricks I might use?

Morning Preparations

Ivory tabs used by Jefferson to keep notes

After his record-keeping, Jefferson started his own fire and soaked his feet in cold water. He maintained the foot bath for sixty years and attributed his good health in part to this habit.
Jefferson's clothes, according to his granddaughter, were "simple and adapted to his ideas of neatness and comfort . . . and sometimes blending the fashions of several periods." In his pockets, Jefferson carried such a variety of portable instruments for making observations and measurements that he's been dubbed a "traveling calculator." Among his collection of pocket-sized devices were scales, drawing instruments, a thermometer, a surveying compass, a level, and even a globe. To record all these measurements, Jefferson carried a small ivory notebook (pictured) on which he could write in pencil. Back in his Cabinet, or office, he later copied the information into any of seven books in which he kept records about his garden, farms, finances, and other concerns; he then erased the writing in the ivory notebook.

From: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc-- Monticello Website