On notebooks

Notebooks have been a huge part of my personal and working life for as long as I can remember. Almost everything I do, whether it’s writing, designing, planning, or thinking, begins on paper in some way or another. I find the immediacy and freedom of pencil and paper to be something that’s completely intertwined with the way that I think and see things.

A little while ago I posted an Instagram post of my current stack of notebooks which you can also see in the image above. I have four running notebooks right now and whilst my setup changes from time to time I’ve been really happy with this arrangement for a while and I don’t have any real plans to change things at the moment. What I spent time really thinking about was what kinds of note taking, writing, or creative activity I was wanting to do, and when and where I was wanting to do it. These four notebooks solve those questions for me right now.

Daily Diary

I only started keeping a daily diary at the start of this year, after my wife bought me this one for Christmas, but it’s definitely a practice that I will be carrying on into the new year. This particular one is a Moleskine day-to-age softcover diary and it’s perfect for my needs.

The day to page means that I always have a space waiting to be used each day and the slight pressure of filling every page helps keep me motivated to write every day. Some days there’s only a line or two, other days I wish I had a little more space - but on balance, this works really well.

Most of what I’m writing is just a record of what happened on that day, but it helps me to remember the days a little better, and it can also be a space to process or reflect as well if I need to.

Notebooks

These two notebooks are my every day notebooks which I use for work as well as my personal life. The black one I picked up in Sao Paulo on our trip to Brazil a few months back and is a softcover A5 notebook which is probably my favourite style of notebook. This one is lined although I usually prefer plain ruled but it has amazing quality paper and I like the slightly thicker than normal cover and the general feel of the notebook - it looks pretty basic and beat-up in the photo but it’s got a real sense of quality about it.

This notebook is for meeting notes, ideas, plans, designs, or anything else I’m working on that needs a bit of time, some thought, and pencil and paper. It usually lives on my desk, unless I’m travelling for work or working from somewhere else for the day and is pretty much work exclusive in terms of what goes in there. The A5 size is a good balance between portability and space for laying out ideas, though I do sometimes shift to an A4 or A3 sketchpad if I really need to stretch out.

The yellow notebook is a hardcover Moleskine pocket notebook which is the 9cm x 14cm size. This is probably my most important notebook in some ways, though also the most disposable because this is the notebook that goes in my bag, my pocket, or my coat whenever I’m leaving the house. It usually has a Fisher space pen stuck to the top, or a pencil jammed into its pages and it’s with me almost wherever I go.

I’ve written before about how much of my thinking happens when I’m doing other things - walking the dog, out and about in town, travelling somewhere, and this notebook is what helps me stop all that thinking from evaporating into nothing. It’s also filled with short notes, quick lists, to-do’s and everything else. It’s really a catch-all and it’s super important for me. This is also a notebook that is totally agnostic about what goes in it - it’s work stuff, personal stuff, dumb ideas, little thoughts, quick notes. Anything and everything.

Art Journal

This last notebook is sort of an art journal/notebook/creative space type thing. I’ve really note settled on a label for it.

What I really wanted was a tangible, physical space in which I could noodle about, draw a little, sketch a little, paint a little, make a little, write a little and generally let some creative, free-form type thinking and expressing happen.

This one is a Fabriano Classic Artists’ Journal which I chose because it was sold at the stationery shop near my house, it felt nice in the hand, and I like that it alternates blocks of white pages and ivory/beige pages.

I’ve not used it a great deal so far as I’ve not had it long but I do like having a space where I can fiddle about and try creative exercises, experiment a little, and just enjoy myself really.

This is one of Austin Kleon’s blackout poetry exercises mixed with a little bit of Lynda Barry collage. I think it’s good to have a space where the stakes are low, where play and creativity can roam a little, and where we can connect our head and our hands.