Changes in How We Use Notebooks

At From the Living Room, some musings on “My Notebook“:

It used to be that my notebook was the most important thing in my handbag. It used to be that I would get through a notebook in a matter of months. I have a box full of used notebooks, each with the date they were started on scribbled inside the front cover. My current notebook started in… October 2006. I shocked myself looking that one up.

Up until I started writing online, I kept a journal of sorts in my notebook but it petered out when I started using Live Journal. So it’s not surprising that my notebooks fill up less quickly than they used to. But somehow, the less I use my notebook for every thought I feel, the less I use my notebook for every thought I think. I seem to be paying less attention to my ideas than I used to.

I still write down phrases that catch me unawares, and if I’m waiting somewhere, I nearly always free-write in my notebook. But I don’t have the same relationship with it as I used to. Sometimes I find myself writing ideas down on the back of a receipt when my notebook is sitting in my bag. And sometimes I don’t write my ideas down at all. What has changed?

Have your notebook usage habits changed over the years? What has affected them: electronic devices? Blogging? Other things?

I’ve gone back and forth about what information I keep electronically, and for a while, I only used paper notebooks for sketches and journal entries after switching to keeping all my to-do’s, calendars, and lists in a Palm PDA. But now I’ve gone back to keeping a lot of lists and to-do’s in a notebook. How about you?

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6 Responses to “Changes in How We Use Notebooks”

  1. nrepose, on April 15, 2009 at 3:55 pm, said:

    I do much more notetaking and keep information in a notebook. I still carry a Moleskine address book and planner. Nr

  2. Mimi, on April 15, 2009 at 11:18 pm, said:

    I still carry a small arsenal of Cartesio, moleskine cahier/ruled/Volants and a couple Rhodias in my bag. Yes, I write in them less and less. Still pulls on my psyche though.

  3. Tina, on April 26, 2009 at 6:16 pm, said:

    Thank you for expressing this change so much better than I can to myself. I used to keep a paper planner but have gradually migrated to digital devices and their syncing ability. Although my tasks are well managed, I find them to be cold and bare with no extraneous details. Writing little notes next to the task as I checked it off in the paper planner gave it more life. Even though I can add notes to the digital planner, it’s not the same and there’s no pull for me to go to the note tab and type in the notes — it’s much easier to just tick in that box.

    I write less in my journal now than pre-blogging days. I still jot down quick notes as they occur to me. But I wonder what Twitter will do to that habit?

  4. Jill, on October 28, 2009 at 6:41 am, said:

    You are quite right (I almost wrote “write!). I used to be self-conscious about using a notebook as a diary, then did so, then jotted down notes, poems, ideas etc.

    i use LOTS of notebooks and make my own as well, but also use napkins, scrap paper etc.

    Whatever is around, i guess, including the digital methods. I do love the Moleskins though (which I buy at half-price) and sometimes very teeny notebooks. i find the main thing is to get the idea and corral it in a piece of paper!

    Kudos for this blog, it’s terrifc! :)

  5. armando, on February 09, 2012 at 11:59 pm, said:

    Hi. I’ve just learned about this site and I’d say that my Palm and my notebook have to terms: they are with me most of the time. Finally I found a balance among them: data is digitally stored and more valuable thoughts go to the paper. Is it wise? hard to say but I enjoyed the time this way.

    Only thing I wish is to find a fine notebook brand in my city.

  6. AbbeyCherylHopkins, on May 01, 2012 at 9:02 pm, said:

    Hi! This is the fourth year that I’ve been working on a novel, and at the beginning I would constantly fill up pages of cheap exercise books, as well as write journal entries and do schoolwork in actual books. In my country the government have a system of distributing free laptops for school work to high school students once they reach a certain age, and since I got mine I barely write in notebooks! It’s so sad, almost all of my writings go into a laptop even after always carrying one book with me :( But now I’ve realized that exercise books are better for everything, and started keeping my notes on paper again and am in the time-consuming process of writing everything into books again.
    I love your blog! One day, I aspire to own as many beautiful notebooks as you :)

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