#13

I’ve had my eye on those Blackwing notebook/pencil sets for a while, but I’ve yet to buy one because of my annoying tendency to buy a new notebook/sketchbook, use it for a bit, and then abandon it with other unused supplies, only to be embarrassed and discouraged by it years down the line if and when I find it and try to reuse it.

#14

This topic is rather close to my heart. I used to be an assiduous note-taker, which came with the territory, being a writer. With fiction, I took the genre name seriously: unlike many of my colleagues, I like to construct a story that’s, for the most part, indeed a fiction.

I’d generally start off with a vague premise, a thought or a description, and from there I’d carry a notebook around with me everywhere, within reach when ever the odd vagrant idea occurred to me. There was no editing. Anything remotely that struck my fancy, I’d jot down, a rather magical early phase of the process because nothing was wrong at that point, before the story was written. These jottings and ideas more than anything represented untrammeled possibility.

After 7 pages (14 panels), I’d type them up and from out of the murk, a short story usually emerged. Not in perfect order certainly, but mixed in like a puzzle amidst the flotsam and jetsam. Somewhere, in the background, while I was going about the rest of my schedule, my brain must have been assembling it on its own. Or maybe it’s about relaxing and letting the story come to me.

I try not to dissect it too much. It’s been the launchpad, so to speak, for my first book, a collection of short stories. Then, my second book, too, a collection of 3 novellas–really all my fiction.

My recent output has been non-fiction, though, and the pad seems like an old friend during that exercise: somehow not essential to the process, perhaps because I’m not fabricating the piece out of air. Who knows? Pads are simply a great, a chance to record an idea even if it’s not yet a coherent thought.

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#15

Forgive the tangent, but if you enjoy Philosophy of Mind, Clark and Chalmers make a pretty good argument for the idea that, if you are dependent enough on it, a notebook is actually part of your mind. The idea has always fascinated me.

End tangent!

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#16

I have got worse at taking notes in recent years. This makes me feel bad. But anyway:

I have discovered I love living out of Muji B5 Notebooks. I find tiny notebooks too small to write in - I need space for my hand. These are a lovely size, but they are thin, which means if I ever lose one, I’m not losing too much content. I lost a full Moleskine once, and that was disastrous.

Also: they take fountain pens delightfully. (Kaweco Sport, in my case).

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#17

Adding another +1 to the Leuchtturm 1917 Punktkariert, though I favor the hardcover version.

For everywhere carry, I’m a big fan of the muji passport notebooks

They’re cheap, and fit well in a back pocket, so they’re easy to carry around even if you aren’t bringing a bag.

Pens are a different topic to me, but these are a good standard issue

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#19

I hear you—the clamor for note-taking of all kinds feels loud. But @equipoise has been more than respectful and clear in their wishes, and there’s plenty of space on the forum. Please do tell us about your years in the trenches of note-taking!

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#20

Baron Fig Plus size dot grid Confidant notebooks

Pigma Micron 02 Black Pens

#21

I started using these because I saw someone here journaling with one. I think they’re great, but the print on the pen tends to slowly degrade and then flake off somewhat unpleasantly. Has anyone else seen this or do I just emit a chemical that destroys these pens?

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#22

I’ve been using the .005’s for about a decade and the print rubs off on every single one. Such lovely pens though.

#23

Some story here - print rubs off on every single one, but I still love them! Can never decide which size I like best though…

I just wanted to highlight this from the other thread, because for me this is so true. I go through periods where I keep everything in my head - my calendar, my todos, my goals, ideas… and it gets so stressful… it gets marginally better when I start writing things in .txt files, .mds, phone notes, phone to-do lists, but it is so decentralized that I still lose track of things. When I get in the habit of writing in a centralized, indexed notebook though, it is really like a weight is lifted. It also gives me something to look forward to doing in the mornings when I wake up and throughout the day.

Sometimes I fall out of the habit though, and it usually has to do with when I am struggling to meet goals and start feeling bad that I am not meeting targets or seeing a lot of blank checkboxes…

This thread thankfully has gotten me to sit back down and start-up again with my notebooks this morning and start thinking more about how I want to avoid the same mistakes that have led me to stop in the past.

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#24

Thanks @alanza!

There are only 48 pages, after all! :smiley:

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#25

Y’all have soothed my worried heart.

#26

Y’all indexing your notebooks makes me feel like I’m slacking :stuck_out_tongue:

I really like having a notebook as an ephemeral place to collect thoughts and reflect upon them but I find myself doing so sporadically, mostly because I don’t keep them on hand… so as an alternative I’ve hung a whiteboard (large, 2ft x 4ft) in the middle of my apartment and I find myself jotting things down there a lot more frequently. I’ve been starting to transcribe these in my notebooks and use them as a jumping off point for deeper points of reflection.

Also, I have a really hard time writing in a lined notebook. I love blank pages for organizing separate thoughts into a geographical location on the page. Recently been using a graph paper notebook which I really like for more orderly notes / diagrams, but the paper is so thin… maybe it’s time to actually find “my notebook.”

Also also, I really like Micron .05s but I have a bit of a heavy hand and tend to wear the tip out faster than I’d like… any recommendations on pens that have a similar ink flow with a more sturdy tip?

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#27

I found my perfect pencil, but, alas, sold out.

#28

Speaking of paper …

Once you use Tomoe River Paper you will never go back to anything else for use with your fountain pen, because of course you take notes with your fountain pen.

Unless you’re one of those Smythson’s Featherweight Paper junkies. Like me.

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#29

For personal notes, I’ve been using Zequenz notebooks for a few years (I used to have Moleskines before) and I really like them. They’re typically thicker than things like Field Notes, but their main strength is that they can be bent as much as you want without damaging the cover or the binding. They use a custom circular binding method that works really well, I never had any issue with them (and I usually have the notebooks in a bag with me). They also give a nice little magnetic bookmark thing with each notebook that is surprisingly convenient.

I recently bought an A6 sized one (9*14cm), same size as a Field Notes but 256 pages so much thicker. I’d actually prefer 100-128 pages but this one works for me,

[Edit : this one is btw cheaper for me than a set of 3 Field Notes]

At work I use bigger notebooks with “soft rings”, i.e. flexible plastic instead of metal, and they’re really nice to use. I typically need bigger notebooks for work so these work perfectly.

And I used to have nice-ish pens (Rotring, Schaeffer, etc) but I now only use Pilot Frixion pens. I have one in my bag, one on my desk at work and one on my desk at home. They use a special ink that becomes invisible when heated enough, which is what happens when you use the “eraser” tip of the pen on it, so you get erasable notes without any of the problems of actually erasable ink. The 0.5mm are perfect for me.

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#30

I’m a part-time anthropologist and wanted to say I never thought lines would come through with some great advice on organizing my research. bless you all.

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#31

Yes, same here, particularly on the end which has the number that identifies the nib size.

#32

I was 100% computer based for a long time, so writing things down was never something I needed - I might jot down a few notes on a staff if I happened to be offline, but software saved everything else. Now I’m almost 100% off the computer, so writing down patches and presets has become a necessity.

I’ll use anything with Claire Fontaine paper (Rhodia are my favourite). Although I love the idea and execution of Field Notes, they don’t play well with fountain pens, so I can’t use them (I find their paper too dark for pencils).

I used to have a notebook per “theme”, until I discovered bullet journalling and the joys of The Index. Not having to think about which notebook to use is one less hurdle to getting the notebook out and writing. I also used to worry a lot about how things looked and whether I was using the “right” wording. Pah! Don’t worry, just write it down!

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#33

A while back I would, each year, turn over a new leaf in an effort to be a smarter/happier/healthier person. This would often coincide with buying a new notebook - a Leuchtturm, a Moleskine, a Field Notes (expensive in the UK!). I would have the notebook on my desk and would sometimes find myself staring at it for a time, as though hoping that a rich and consequential life would somehow now inevitably burst forth from the page. These notebooks would quickly gather a thick coating of dusty failure.

Anyway, a couple of years back I became disheartened with how many books I had read in the past but about which I could not recall even the slightest detail. I tried for a little while taking notes on a Kindle or iPad whilst reading and this was, as you’d imagine, quite horrible. I had the idea of using a notebook as a bookmark in a (physical) book. The notebooks would have to be thin and cheap. This lead me to discover Rhino Exercise Books. In the UK I can get 10 for about £4. They’re sustainably manufactured and recyclable. I take notes in pencil so I’m not sure how well they take ink. It really has transformed my reading and, most importantly, it’s been sustainable. I’ve churned through these notebooks and I like to transfer my notes to the Bear app once I’ve finished a book. What I like about them is that they’re so thin and unassuming that they they don’t intimidate me like my previous notebooks. They don’t introduce themselves as the companions of Hemingway and Picasso.

That said, I enjoyed how thoughtfully designed the notebooks I used to buy were, and now that I’ve developed a habit I should dig them out and use them for journaling. I really like the indexing stuff mentioned above.

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