Notebooks

For years I’ve tried to have a digital-only note system, but it’s difficult. It’s easy to have an organized archive for quick-reference in digital form, but for daily on-the-go notes nothing beats the availability of pen and paper.

Paper is inconvenient. For the system to be reliable, you need to carry a notebook and a pen everywhere you go, and we all know pens are always trying to get lost. The simplicity of note-taking apps is deceptive, though: the path to get to actual note taking is full of distractions, because it lives in a device designed for distractions.

I really want to stress that I don’t share the romanticism towards pen and paper, and yet here I am, carrying a couple of notebooks and a handful of pens everywhere.

How I use notebooks

Most of the time I have two pocket notebooks with me. I like pocket notebooks because they fit everywhere and take close to no space.

The first one is my personal journal, and this is the only “precious” one, because I need this one to last. I use a hard-cover pocket notebook and I try to empty my thoughts into it 3-4 times a week.

The second one is a catch-all for the day-to-day. Everything goes there, from insightful thoughts to shopping lists. Offloading your memory to a notebook frees brain space for processing, and that’s the most valuable purpose of that notebook. Also, as a (very) anxious person, having the reassurance that I won’t forget anything gives me so much peace of mind. For this one I either choose a cheap notebook from Temu or AliExpress (they come in packs of 50), or a hand-made one.

Once the catch-all is full, and important notes are migrated to my digital file, they’re discarded. They’ve served their purpose.

My hand-made notebooks

As I don’t need anything fancy, a few years ago I started making my own disposable notebooks. A few copy paper sheets, a somewhat sturdy cover, a stapler and a utility knife are all you need.

My journal at the left, my hand-made notebooks at the right

These aren’t pretty notebooks, but they don’t need to be. It is also easier to ruin them, which is a very important thing to do in order to make a notebook really useful.

Ruin your notebooks

If you’re like me (and I’ve found a lot of people are like me on this), when you get a new notebook, especially a nice one, you put it away and wait for something “worthy” of it. Or maybe you’re already using it but you’re being overly careful not to make mistakes so you don’t ruin your nice and pretty notebook. That’s bullshit.

The solution: ruining it early. Remove the shrink wrap and scribble all over the first page. Write a sloppy title on the cover with a Sharpie. Put a sticker on, purposely crooked and off-center. Whatever you need to consider it “ruined”. Then you’ll be free to use it as you please.

I read this idea years ago from Frank Chimero and it made a lot of sense.

In my case, the more I treasure a tool, the less likely I am to use it. I always scribble all over the first page because there's no way I can make anything worse than that. So, we're off to the races. — Frank Chimero

Anyway, that’s it. Maybe some other time I’ll write about my digital file, but as a spoiler, it is a very distilled version of Forever Notes by Matthias Hilse.

Thanks for reading, and happy note-taking.