6mo ago

What are you using your notebooks for?

I am always interested in what people are using their notebooks for. I often find that many people are using multiples for different topics.

I have a Traveller's Notebook Standard size that has three inserts. I use two of the inserts as bullet journals for work / daily life logging and my future log. The third insert is a standard long-form journal that I write in mostly daily.

I have a Passport size Traveller's Notebook with two inserts that I use as a wallet. The inserts are my gaming log where I take notes while playing whatever video games I am currently playing, and the other is just for catch-all like meeting notes, a bullet journal log for on the go, lists, thoughts etc.

I have a Hobonichi that I put just a daily log in of what I did on a particular day, and I will collect business cards or stickers from places I go an tape them in on the appropriate days. I am not a scrapbooker, but I find that this creates a fun little look through my life as I occasionally go back through old journals.

I supplement all of this with digital notes and a ToDoist account. I am a producer in the video games industry and have a lot of moving parts, so going all paper just won't work for me. But I love having this hybrid setup as I tend to remember a lot more when I write things down.

How are you using your notebooks?

5 comments

I currently have a single Midori MD A6 blank notebook as my everything book. I'll take my meeting notes in there, maintain my bullet journaling, routine tracking, the occasional impassioned words on paper while I try to process my thoughts and emotions, some ideas and learnings I got from books I've read and musings I came up with, etc, etc.
I'm tempted to split it up into multiple notebooks to organize it all better, but I know if I do, none of them put together would've gotten filled nearly as much as the one book that I would take with me everywhere. Just a few short months ago, I had tried starting a "Done" List for motivational purposes. But like every other time I had tried, it had failed completely to neglect within the first few pages, and then I would give up completely on it.
So one notebook, and one only. That's my current plan for the foreseeable future. I just make sure I've got a crazy amount of ribbons to know where to return to in all that mess.
I use them for:
Sketching. Royal Talens ArtCreation sktechbooks in A5 size. Plain paper
Journaling (I'm the admin of !journaling@sh.itjust.works) in the same sketchbook I just mentioned (they're great with fountain pens). Plain paper.
Quick note-taking on the go, in a pocket notebook (Clairefontaine).
I almost entirely quit digital note-taking (I do have a blog, though). I take all my notes on good old index cards that I store in my own version of the Zettelkasten.
- I have always wanted to try Clairefontaine. They are not super popular in Aus (where I am from) and I have never seen them here in Japan, but I hear that they are really nice to write in.
  
  They are quite nice indeed—not Tomoe River Paper nice but is there anything that is?—but still great. Paper is smooth and will hold fine with most fountain pen save the wettest Medium or broader.
  They are not super popular in Aus (where I am from) and I have never seen them here in Japan
  You may want to check if you can find the Rhodia brand instead (somehow, they're the same-ish company). They're often available in office supply stores.
I got into notebooks by way of a fountain pen addiction. I'm currently using a Rhodia Guidebook that I use as a long-form Bujo, an Artist's Loft dot grid as a commonplace book, and a Midori 5 Year Diary as a record of the descent of America into chaos as despotism.