How many notebooks do you use at once? Notebook Strategy.

[como]

1. Agenda - Leuchtturm

2. Personal journal - Tomoe River dotted 52gsm

3. Calligraphy practice - Moleskine Cahier lined

4. Random stuff - cheap supermarket notebook

5. Various artisanal paper to write something nice

6. Tomoe River blank cream color 52gsm loose sheets to write letters.

[tde44x]

Retired - I keep 5 notebooks (plus some scrap paper near the computer to jot things down).

 

All of my notebooks are disc bound so I can easily add/remove pages.

 

I have a letter size (8.5"x11" pages) notebook to keep track of my notes for writing: ideas, plots, character sheets, etc. - started to write fiction last year. This is filled with HP32 paper.

 

A second one in the same format is used to hold drafts of my writing for editing. This is on HP24 from the computer's printer.

 

I have a junior (5.5"x8.5" pages) for my daily journal/planner (HP32)), another for my medical history/RX info/etc (HP24); and a third for my ink samples which I write in with a dip pen and (as filled) regular FP's. this one has 3 pages for each ink: TR52, HP24, and HP32.

[ParramattaPaul]

  On 7/4/2021 at 6:10 PM, Paul-in-SF said:

Since I'm retired and don't need a planner

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I'm retired as well, and I still use the same Filofax planner I used when I was working.  I use it to keep track of  medical and various meeting appointments amongst other things.  Perhaps i am simply continuing a well-ingrained professional habit needlessly.

[JonDC]

This is a great discussion.

 

Several months ago, I decided to come up with a notebook strategy for work because I was constantly jumping between notepads, notebooks, planners, etc., and it was killing my productivity. As I worked at home during the pandemic, I noticed that the paper was really piling up, but I couldn't find things, as I would take notes in one thing in my home office, but then use another pad in the living room and so on. So I really thought about how I worked and what would best suit my needs and my work style. The strategy I came up with was this two-notebook plan:

• Circa notebook (Jr. size) to manage my to-do list, contacts, stuff I need to log (like expenses or time), a subject index for the other notebook, and blank pages for quick notes. I can also punch scratch paper and drop it in here if I need to save something.
• Leuchtturm A5 notebook for meeting notes -- which are a big part of my job -- and any research notes I need to keep. I work on multiple issues in multiple places, so I log the subject and the page number in my Circa for future reference. And once the Leuchtturm notebook is full, I can move to on to volume II and put volume I on the shelf for easy reference.

I like the ability to swap out pages in the Circa, especially for things that need frequent updating or can be tossed after a short time, like my to-do lists and expense logs. However, I thought trying to keep everything in the Circa would be unwieldy. I sometimes have to go back months to reference meeting notes or research, so removing these pages regularly to keep the Circa small would present the same problems that I had from notebook jumping. This way, I have the notes in one place and can find them easily. I chose the Leuchtturm because it is hardbound, is page-numbered, and has fountain pen friendly paper, and choosing the A5 and Jr Circa make them easy to carry.

 

So far it has worked out well. I have made a few tweaks in organizing the Circa, but I have stuck to the overall plan for a couple months now, and it seems to have organized me. We'll see if that keeps up as I return to the office.

[ParramattaPaul]

  On 7/6/2021 at 8:13 PM, JonDC said:

...I like the ability to swap out pages in the Circa, especially for things that need frequent updating...

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That is one of the reasons I still use my 30+ year old personal size Filofax, and have added an A5 William Hannah to what I use daily as well.   I use a Leuchtturm A5 just for online study course notes (still learning at 73!).

[XYZZY]

TLDR:  I use only one notebook at a time.

 

I don't have a solution that works so well that I ever think "Nailed it!".  This is something that works well for me.

 

The idea of having different notebooks for different kinds of things is appealing, but I'm not going to carry around half a dozen notebooks.  Or even two notebooks.

 

Putting everything into a single notebook certainly makes it harder to find things.  But I have realized that I rarely go back to try and find things.  If do try and find something I already have a good idea of the date, so I find the one notebook that contains that date, and flip around a bit.

 

As an exception:  occasionally there will be a continuing-ed class for work, or some professional conference, at which I take copious notes.  I'll have a separate notebook for that.  But again, it's just one linear stream of notes, and there's only multiple notebooks if I fill the first one up.

[LizEF]

  On 7/8/2021 at 7:56 PM, XYZZY said:

Nailed it!

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[Frank C]

  On 7/8/2021 at 8:02 PM, LizEF said:

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I do find this topic interesting. I have several ongoing notebooks:

 

My Fountain Pen Journal contains entries from each time I fill a pen with ink. If it is a new pen, I include the price and source of the pen. I also make a few notes about its writing behavior. If I have a similar pen or ink, I may add a note to compare the two. I enjoy looking through this book. I get an idea of how notes appear after ink dries. I also tend to forget how much I paid for a given pen. This book reminds me.

 

I started another journal years ago to catalog my inks. It is entitled, My InkVentory. It does lists all the inks I had a certain time, but I haven't kept up with it. Almost every time I encounter an attractive new ink, I want to try it. But then another one comes along and I want to get to know it, too. 

 

One of my Covid-19 pandemic lockdown projects has been to improve my cursive writing. I try to write one or two pages per day. I use a spiral-bound Clairefontaine notebook for this. By the way, with just a little practice, my handwriting improved considerably. 

 

My sense of organization breaks down quickly after this. I have piles of scratch pads, meeting notes, To Do Lists, etc., spread all over my desk. I guess that one of my future projects is to sort them out. I'll put it on my To Do List, as soon as I find it. 

[XYZZY]

  On 7/9/2021 at 3:21 PM, Frank C said:

My Fountain Pen Journal contains entries from each time I fill a pen with ink. If it is a new pen, I include the price and source of the pen. I also make a few notes about its writing behavior. If I have a similar pen or ink, I may add a note to compare the two. I enjoy looking through this book. I get an idea of how notes appear after ink dries. I also tend to forget how much I paid for a given pen. This book reminds me.

 

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Doh!  I didn't think about that one.  I do have a notebook that I use for recording inks.  It's a Bond Travel Gear Notebook (68gsm TR paper), and at the current rate will be good for at least a decade.  I'll call it a "notebook" because physically that's what it is.  I don't think of it as a journal, though.  My ink logging is mostly in Google Sheets, this notebook is just a visual counterpart, and mostly stays on a bookshelf.

[XYZZY]

  On 7/8/2021 at 8:02 PM, LizEF said:

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You nailed it 🙂

[LizEF]

  On 7/9/2021 at 4:19 PM, XYZZY said:

You nailed it 🙂

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[brokenclay]

  On 6/29/2021 at 4:00 AM, arcfide said:

I really want to get a single standardized system with a single standard of paper, notebook configuration, style, and organizational principle.

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This is what works for me. I discovered Rhodia A5 side stapled notebooks early in my fountain pen obsession, and with very few exceptions have not strayed from them, and when I have it's with other A5 side stapled notebooks. If I want variety, I'll get the black one instead of the orange one, or the grid style rather than the linked style.

 

I flirted with Bullet Journal style indexing in an effort to maintain only one notebook at a time, but that just hasn't worked out for me. So I have the following notebooks in a Lochby Field Journal cover:

 

1. Untitled: this is the main journal in which I jot down what happened or some thoughts most days. When full I title it with the dates it covers and put it away.

2. Pens & Inks: first page contains an index, BuJo-style. From the front, each pen gets a page with a description of the pen, where I bought it, and what I paid for. Every time I ink the pen, I make a note with the date on that pen's page. From the back I have pages for ink colors and just write a line or two in the appropriate ink color page when I ink a pen.

3. Reading: Every time I finish a book, I make a note, usually just the date/title/author, sometimes a comment on the book. I started a separate reading notebook because it's a personal improvement goal to get back to more long form reading.

4. Workouts/Nutrition: From the front, I use one page for each month and note down each day what workout I did. I keep much more detailed workout info in an app, but this way I can look at a given month and get a quick overview of what I've done, or how many days I didn't work out. From the back, I log what I ate each day.

5. The job: I work part time, and use this notebook to record hours worked and any other notes I need to make while working.

 

 

[arcfide]

  On 7/9/2021 at 8:31 PM, brokenclay said:

 

This is what works for me. I discovered Rhodia A5 side stapled notebooks early in my fountain pen obsession, and with very few exceptions have not strayed from them, and when I have it's with other A5 side stapled notebooks.

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I think my biggest issue is that I can't quite commit myself yet to a single type of paper. If I could find the paper for which I was willing to abandon all other papers in notebooks and as a letter writing medium then I think I'd be set, but I haven't found that yet. I'd even maybe be willing to use a separate letter writing paper and a notebook paper, but I'm still trying to get even to that point. 

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I don't know how many as I type this.  Let's count.

 

1. My main diary/journal.  Right now it's a blank paper A5 journal with Tomoe River paper.
2. A "travel" journal that I use if spending one or more nights away from home.  This one right now is a lined paper Clairefontaine, a bit smaller than A5.
3. A log book used mostly to keep track of certain things.  This is even smaller, and lined Kokuyo paper.
4. A shirt pocket memo book, about the smallest size made by Rhodia.
5. A somewhat larger memo book for when I have larger pockets available.  Tomoe River dots paper.
6. A little "Banditapple" notebook that I got in a notebook sampler assortment.  The paper is usable but nothing special, so I use it to record what ink is in what pen.
7. A Moleskine notebook with alphabet tabs for the pages.  I use this as a personal glossary for new words that I learn.  Although I quickly learned that Moleskine isn't the best for fountain pens, this one is acceptable if you use a fine or fine-ish medium nib.
8. An A5 notebook with only, I think, 48 pages/24 sheets that I use to record recipes.  Haven't put a new one in there in a while.  Apica CD11.
9. A spiral bound steno book, provided  by my employer, that I keep at work and use for work notes only.
10. Another spiral bound notebook provided by my employer to take notes for a specific training class.  I used about the first two pages for those notes, and have been using the rest for miscellaneous jottings, including the rare occasions when I post a picture of something hand written on line.
11. Some loose 1½ x 3½ inch blank index cards that I always carry in my wallet.  I dislike tearing pages out of notebooks, even ones that are designed for it, so if I need to hand someone a short note, I use these.
12. By my count, I have seven sketchbooks of varying sizes going at present.  I draw mostly in pencil, but also charcoal and ink.  Probably doesn't need to be that many.

I really didn't know how many it was when I began this post.  These things do add up.  And I just thought of another one that I'm planning to start next week, again for a specific purpose.

[brokenclay]

  On 7/10/2021 at 3:55 AM, arcfide said:

 

I think my biggest issue is that I can't quite commit myself yet to a single type of paper. If I could find the paper for which I was willing to abandon all other papers in notebooks and as a letter writing medium then I think I'd be set, but I haven't found that yet. I'd even maybe be willing to use a separate letter writing paper and a notebook paper, but I'm still trying to get even to that point. 

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I'm actually quite proud of myself for choosing not to go down the paper rabbit hole.

[arcfide]

  On 7/10/2021 at 5:02 PM, brokenclay said:

 

I'm actually quite proud of myself for choosing not to go down the paper rabbit hole.

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🙂 I'd say that's an accomplishment. I lost that battle years ago. 

[ethernautrix]

When I realized I was filling between six and ten Moleskine-type (A5) notebooks per year -- and with such drivel -- I had to change my habits.

 

I started a common place notebook for quotations and excerpts, news and such and tried to limit more journally details to a pocket-size day-per-page planner (initially Moleskine, now Hobonichi). So far, so good.

 

I still write plenty of drivel, but in a variety of notebooks (paper not so important so long as it's pleasant to use and cheapish), the pages of which get shredded.

[Ergative]

  On 7/11/2021 at 12:02 AM, arcfide said:

 

🙂 I'd say that's an accomplishment. I lost that battle years ago. 

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I'm teetering on the edge right now.

[flatline]

I use pencils more than ink, so I mostly ignore paper when I purchase new journals. If it doesn't work with ink, it will usually be fine for pencils and vice versa.

 

I usually look for appropriate ruling and acceptable binding. I gave up on spiral bound notebooks years ago because the wire binding invariably gets crushed or ruined somehow.

[flatline]

  On 7/11/2021 at 8:34 AM, ethernautrix said:

When I realized I was filling between six and ten Moleskine-type (A5) notebooks per year -- and with such drivel -- I had to change my habits.

 

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Unless it's work or project related, it's all drivel for me. But that's fine. It's the act of writing that I'm interested in rather than the result. I started this journaling habit several years ago when I realized that writing is something that must be practiced in order to prevent it from becoming illegible. At this point, my handwriting isn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but it is consistent and readable which is as high as I'm willing to set the bar.