Gogol once said: "A writer should be like a painter, always carrying pencils and paper with him. If a painter wastes a day and fails to complete a drawing, that is very bad. A It is also very bad if a writer wastes a day without writing down a single thought or characteristic."

This is exactly what Gogol did. He has the habit of taking notes. He writes down the rumors, interesting stories, aphorisms, proverbs and reading experiences he sees and hears in his notebook at any time. He liked to go for a walk before lunch and would often turn back home because he saw or remembered interesting things and jot them down in his notebook.

Once, Gogol invited a friend to a restaurant for dinner. Suddenly, a menu caught his interest, so he took out his pen and copied the menu into his notebook. When the food was served, he was still busy copying it. Seeing his indifference, his friend felt very unhappy and said impatiently: "Are you inviting me to dinner, or are you inviting me to accompany you to copy the menu?" After that, he left the restaurant angrily. Gogol completely forgot that he was dining with a friend, and kept copying without raising his head. He didn't even notice that his friend had left, and he kept praising: "It's great! It's so useful!" Later, Gogol used this menu when writing a novel.

This great writer had a notebook of nearly 500 pages, which contained a large amount of material. He happily called it the "Wanbao Encyclopedia".

The most precious thing for a person is life, and no day should be wasted.