One Notebook or Many? Part 1: The case for one notebook

One book is cooler. A volume covering all of ones life, being read by descendants long after my death, like the journals of Leonardo da Vinci, makes a nice day dream.

It’s fun to read through a diverse journal with sketches and notes on all kinds of things. Paging through an old journal and coming across doodles my daughter made is a treat. Sketches of things I was planning to build or of other things reminds me of the diversity of my life, which is often handy when I’ve become too focused on one narrow aspect….

One Notebook or Many? Part 2: The case for many notebooks.

A single subject notebook increases focus. When I’m writing in a single subject notebook, I feel a discipline to focus on that subject. It’s a reminder of what I’m doing, and there’s no risk that while I’m paging through old entries I’ll end up on some trip down memory lane. Instead, paging through the book reminds me of other aspects of the subject, helps the focus, and can even help with writer’s block…

One Notebook or Many? Part 3: The case for loose sheets

Blank sheets are versatile and adaptable. Since it’s not part of a book, it doesn’t have a dedicated purpose. The paper can be used for anything – I can write a letter, leave a note, give it to my daughters to draw on, or fold it into an airplane. This is especially useful when traveling, because it means I carry less…

One Notebook or Many? Part 4: What’s been working for me

Separate book vs. in the journal. I’ve found that unless the new book has a very strong purpose (like the NumberQuotes notebook) or has a specific place in my life and routine (weekly planner), it’s at risk of being abandoned. The food journal hasn’t quite become a reliable partner yet, but the birds book has. The weekly planner has become very important, and I record some things there that could be in my journal. Despite many attempts to find an electronic replacement for my weight records, pen and paper have proven to be the best and most reliable.

If the work has a lot of structure, and clear boundaries, a separate book seems to work best. If the work is somewhat amorphous, a separate book just doesn’t feel right. For example, I just used the large Leuchtturm1917 Jottbook I received to start a web-focused notebook, only ideas and thoughts related to my various websites that don’t have books of their own, or for ideas (like selling ad space) that are common to all sites. That lasted a short while before the book become refocused on this blog. So far, it’s been earning its keep.

So many things in these posts resonated for me. I’ve tried various approaches, and like Steve have ended up with a hybrid solution: one main notebook for most things, plus a few satellite notebooks for specific topics or uses that require a different format. But the other solution that I was surprised Steve didn’t mention was to use a Filofax or similar binder– you can incorporate different page formats, devote a few pages in a section to different topics, and carry over pages you want to keep for reference while filing away others. I used small looseleaf notebooks for years and loved them… but then electronic devices replaced the calendar and address book sections of those notebooks… and for what was left, a stack of bound journals did just seem cooler than a box full of rubber-banded looseleaf pages. But I keep feeling like I should give it a try again.

How about you? One or many? Join in the discussion here or at Recording Thoughts.

I also loved this quote:

Why do I insist on keeping a notebook? To quote Dwight Schrute, “I keep secrets from my computer.”

Actually there’s just something about a blank page that inspires creativity and thought. For as digital as my life gets I still love paper and pen….

Read more at gtd hack – /tacanderson.

This blogger loves Moleskines but has a couple of problems with them: he finds the paper too thin, and feels they are sometimes “too nice” to be used. But he’s fighting against that:

Notebooks should be used, that’s what they are there for. This is plain paper, put something on it and turn the page. It doesn’t matter if it is “Buy milk” or the solution to all the problems in the world, just put some ink on the pages. Otherwise they will cry, feel left out, and then that will seep on over to you in the form of the curse of the blank page, starring you and your inability to actually produce anything of value.

Don’t care for your Moleskine notebook, don’t value it too high. Value what’s in it instead, by which I mean to say that you actually need to fill the book’s pages to make it worth anything. Even if it is just your shopping list.

Read more at The problem with Moleskine notebooks.

She points out:

Note that this bookcase is nearly 6 feet tall. Also notice most shelves are two rows deep.

Man, that’s a lot of notebooks and planners! One of those shelves is actually sagging!
Read more at Plannerisms: My collection, where Laurie shows close-up photos of each shelf, and provides details on the various brands.

Thanks for sharing your collection, Laurie!

The first part of my system begins with my weekly tasks page. This is the big rocks I have to get done this week.

The two pages are each divided in half, creating four section: Work, Work Misc., Personal and Misc. Work is client work, Work Misc. is usually internal projects or other work related activities. Personal and Misc. are pretty self explanatory.

They’re not in any chronological order, I just copy over any tasks from the previous week that carry over and as the week progresses I write any tasks that develop back over into the appropriate section.

This provides me with a week at a glance view of everything I have going on and everything I need to do for the week.

More photos and details at My New and Improved GTD Moleskine Hack | @NewCommBiz.

In the long list of tools one could use for visual thinking, sketchnotes are one of the most exciting. Simply put, sketchnotes are visual notes that are drawn in real time. Through the use of images, text, and diagrams, these notes take advantage of the “visual thinker” mind’s penchant for make sense of—and understanding—information with pictures. Often these notes come out of lectures or conferences, and have gained a lot of attention and interest in the past few years when people post scans of their sketchbooks from events like SXSW or various design conferences for the whole internet to see….
Instead of recording what’s being said verbatim, good sketchnotes capture the meaningful bits as text and drawings. Better sketchnotes use composition and hierarchy to give structure the content, and bring clarity to the overall narrative of the lecture. The best sketchnotes express a unique personal style and add editorial comments on the content—entertaining and informing all at once.

I see notes like these and I can’t help wondering how they could create them in real time while following a presentation. When I’m at a conference, I’m scribbling away trying to capture major points and even then I sometimes can’t keep up. I have small handwriting which gets a little messy as I write fast. I sometimes incorporate little bullets and arrows and underlining, or even a rough graph or chart now and then, but my notes never seem very pretty or well-designed to me– they’re just functional. Nevertheless, at the last conference I attended, I was sitting next to someone who told me my notes were “beautiful.” I looked at hers, which were in much nicer penmanship and much less cramped, and I thought they looked just as good, if not better. I can only imagine what she would have thought of all these sketchnotes!

Read more about sketchnoting at Sketchnotes 101: Visual Thinking – Core77.

What I’m advocating is having a small notebook (and a mini-pen — those things don’t break when you sit on them, and can fit in a front jeans pocket) ready with you so you can be ready to write rather than NOT write, which is infinitely easier. Whipping out your pen and notebook is much faster than rifling through your laptop or mini-laptop case and waiting for the computer to cycle on. In many of the instances I described above, firing up a computer would be impractical enough that you’d probably leave the writing for later.

I rediscovered notebooks while my family and I were wandering around the art museum bookstore in Cincinnati and I saw a display selling 3.75 by 5.5 notebooks. They were lined, the pages were sewn into place so they’d be less likely to fall out, and the covers were slim but durable. They were small enough to slide into my back pocket, where us American men-folk often keep our wallet. It was a spur-of-the-moment purchase of something I didn’t think I needed, and I actually felt a little guilty spending the money. I haven’t felt guilty about the purchase since. I swiftly learned that I had found an ideal writing tool.

It’s obviously working for him: Howard Andrew Jones is the managing editor of Black Gate, a blog and print magazine about fantasy literature, and he’s published a lot of books!

Read more at Black Gate » Blog Archive » Writing Tools: Notebooks, the Kind with Paper.

Why do I love this notebook so much? First of all, if I’d been able to buy this notebook brand new, it would be perfect. It’s just the right size (about 3 1/2 x 5 1/4″, shown below next to a pocket Moleskine for comparison), with a nice leather cover. No pockets, no frills, no bells & whistles, just a minimalist black looseleaf. I probably have a dozen small black looseleaf notebooks that are similar to this in many respects, but none of them were quite right. This is what I wanted them to be– or to become. Because, of course, this notebook is not brand new– it’s wonderfully broken-in and well-loved. It’s in surprisingly good condition given that it must be at least 60-75 years old, maybe even older. And then there are the contents– lovely paper with red edges and a red top line. Some of the pages are beautifully hand-written in pencil or fountain pen, but some are TYPE-WRITTEN! And there are a few little sketches and floor plans.

On the inside back cover, there’s a stamp for the manufacturer, A. Pomerantz & Co. of Philadelphia. The company actually still exists, but they’ve changed a lot: it must have started out as an office supply and stationery company, but they now specialize in workspace design– not just office furniture, but moving and storage, flooring and wall coverings, repair, lighting, asset management, and more.

One odd thing I noticed about the notebook was that there is no lever to open the rings– usually, there’s something you push at one end of the metal spine to pop the rings open. I figured you must just have to pull these open by carefully grabbing the rings themselves– I was terrified I’d break the mechanism, but I finally tried it and they worked– but they open separately in two groups. If you pull one of the top 3 rings apart, those top 3 rings all come open and the bottom 3 stay closed. I’ve never seen any other looseleaf that operated this way.

The notebook was once the property of an interior decorator– at least, I’m assuming he must have been a decorator based on the contents of the notebook. He seems to have catalogued all sorts of furniture from various stores in New York City, with detailed data on measurements and fabric yards needed for upholstered pieces. There’s a list of store addresses, and in a few pages, he sketched the furniture or a floorplan of a room, and on one page, he stapled in a clipping of a lamp. He also had a timetable for trains into New York, noting the fare. I would imagine that he made periodic buying or research trips into the city so he’d know all the latest furniture styles available for his clients, and kept notes on the rooms he was working on. There don’t seem to be any notes on other aspects of decor such as paint or wallpaper or carpets, so perhaps he was a specialist in furniture who worked for a larger company. Regardless of his exact job, I love how organized he was! He obviously had a system and his notebook was a big part of it.

I would guess that he used this notebook at some point between the 1920s and the 1940s– I found two listings for this man’s name in old census records, obviously a father and son, and also the obituary for the son. The obituary mentioned a career that had nothing to do with decorating, so it must have been the father born in the 1880s who used this notebook. Another clue is that the train line mentioned hasn’t existed since the early 1960s, and I know at least some of the stores listed went out of business years ago. When the son died, a junk dealer probably bought whatever his family didn’t keep and this little notebook made its way onto eBay and into my adoring hands.

I have to confess that I’m obscuring some identifying details because I’d be heartbroken if someone in the family happened to Google their way to this site and think “Gee, that old notebook was pretty cool! We should ask her to give it back to us!” I guess the odds of that happening are pretty slim– it’s hard for me to believe sometimes, but I have to remind myself that a lot of people would just think this was some cruddy old notebook full of obsolete information! But it’s found a loving home with me, and I’d like to think the original owner would be happy to know someone appreciated his notebook and the way he used it.

A Morning Pages Journal
Created by writing and creativity coach, Julia Cameron, Morning Pages are three hand-written stream-of-consciousness pages you write first thing when you wake up in the morning, before you do anything else. Cameron specializes in creative unblocking and recovery, and Morning Pages are the primary tool she recommends….

A Writer’s Notebook
This is the notebook you use for your writing. You can do writing prompts in it. You can keep little bits of conversations you hear throughout the day. You can record all your story ideas in one place…

A Pocket Notebook
Since your Writer’s Notebook will likely be a larger notebook, like a Moleskine or spiral-bound journal, it may be difficult to carry it around with you all the time. But as a writer, you will want to keep a notebook on you at all times, because you never know when you’ll want to write something down.

Also, when you keep a notebook with you all the time, you’re showing the Universe that you’re open to ideas, and that in itself will attract more ideas to you.

Read more at Better Writing Habits.