Daily Carry Notebooks: July 2020

Wow, it’s been a while since my last “using now” post. I can’t say I have any totally earth-shattering news to report about the daily carry notebooks I’m using but there is one new item that wasn’t even on my radar at that time.

daily carry notebooks from Nolty, Moleskine, Appointed, Pen & Ink, Kikkerland
Notebooks I’m using as of July 2020. Most of them, anyway.

First of all, I suppose the concept of “daily carry” has been a little weird for the past few months due to the COVID-19 lockdown. When you rarely even leave home, the main place you’re carrying your notebooks is just from room to room. And for me, in the first few months of lockdown I barely carried anything with me when I did go out, figuring it was better to travel light and have less to worry about disinfecting. (Though I did think about whether I should be disinfecting my notebooks!)

Nowadays, I’m back to carrying a small bag when I go out on errands. I bring my Nolty Efficiency Notebook Gold and sometimes a squared Moleskine. The Nolty has my shopping list in it, so that is really the only one I need, but the Moleskine is what I’m using for my general scribbles and journal entries and notes so I kind of like having it along.

I continue to always have a Moleskine sketchbook going, but that generally stays home these days, unless I’m going for a hike somewhere and might want to sketch a view, in which case it’s probably the only notebook I’m carrying. I’m also using my Nolty Daily Book for brief notes about my day along with a simple drawing, or maybe a sticker or something pasted in.

When I am home, as I mostly always am these days, I have all four of these notebooks and a pen nearby, carrying them around the house as needed. So I think they truly count as daily carry notebooks. At one point I also started carrying around a Moleskine Watercolor Notebook, but that seemed like overkill so I’ve gone back to generally leaving it on my art table with all my watercolor paints. I have another watercolor sketchbook in process there, an old one from Pen & Ink.

On my desk, I also have an old Kikkerland Writersblok notebook that I use for notes for a French class I’m taking via Zoom, and an Appointed notebook that I had used at my old job where I now occasionally sketch out garden or home project ideas if I need a larger than pocket size page. I am also still using my old A3 size Moleskine sketchbook occasionally for larger drawings– it’s currently propped up on a tabletop easel.

daily carry notebooks nolty moleskine pen & ink appointed kikkerland
Some random inside pages from my notebooks and sketchbooks and diaries.

That pretty much covers all the notebooks I’m using these days! I am definitely feeling like 4 primary daily carry notebooks is a bit much. Since the Nolty Daily Book isn’t going to be produced for 2021, that will get me back down to 3, I guess. I’ll really miss having a daily diary, even though I have often been feeling like the two diaries are overkill. There is some overlap in how I am recording things, and I wish I could streamline my diary/planner/journal method, but there are also very good reasons to have separate notebooks. Maybe by January 2021 I’ll be ready to try a new approach!

5 thoughts on “Daily Carry Notebooks: July 2020”

  1. Nice grouping I was wondering (I am sure you said it somewhere in your posts) but what size are your notebooks? I really need a daily diary to carry and maybe a capture/sketch notebook. I have tons of field notes. But need somewhere to write my daily lists and thoughts. Thank you!

  2. Almost all my notebooks are pocket Moleskine/ Field Notes size, 3.5 x 5.5” or 90 x 140mm. If you like this exact size, the only daily diary I know of is Moleskine since Nolty isn’t continuing their Daily Book for 2021. Bit if you don’t mind something slightly larger, the Hobonichi is nice.

  3. Thank you! I have been using A5 size journals and I would like to try a bit smaller but my really favorite size is about 7″ x 9″ mead lined journals I found. But, the field notes size is so much easier to carry. I am not sure they’re big enough. Thanks again for the interesting post.

  4. I love these so much I buy 2 to 3 a year and I use them at work on the MTA on the subway on the number & and letter trains with the car #, report times, and reports of equipment problems and the best part I keeps my heart close to my Japanese Wife in Japan

  5. Great post! May we suggest to check out Scribble notebooks that are manufactured in Dubai, UAE?

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