2025-06-24 00:00
I have two Coleto’s, and they are awesome; one with 5 colors and one with 4.
Love having multiple colors available, but also to be able to just jump to the next one if one of them runs out. Plus it’s so much fun to just order a pack of “all the colors” and just pick the first x within reach into a pen.
2025-06-17 00:00
I guess more than 95% of my pen use is fountain pens and gel pens these days, and have been like that for years.
Most of the time it is fountain pens. But I use gel pens a lot on the go or in meetings.
Over the last year or so my go to have been Pilot Coleto’s (0.5), some Pilot G2 (0.7) and some Pilot Hi-Tec-C (0.4).
Id prefer a Zebra Sarasa to the G2, but sometimes I can’t be bothered to order pens when there isn’t anything else on the shopping list.
2025-06-10 00:00
I often get into these phases where I write a lot about a thing.
Currently it is travelers notebooks, because for a long time it has been my main notebooks. Plus some Rhodia Dotpads on the side.
My current setup is one regular sized one, I think the color is Camel and a small one is in some dark greenish color. They are both the second one I own of both sizes.
No idea what happened to the first two.
The pocket sized one is that color because it is all I could find when I needed one. I’d probably get the Camel if it was available.
The passport sized one has become fairly custom over the last few months, I have replaced the bookmarked with a rainbow beading elastic band when it broke off, and I’ll probably do the same with the closing band soon.
Inside it I have two refills most of the time. Currently it is a dot grid and a lined one; usually it is two dot grid. But I found a half used lined I wanted to use up.
The regular sized one isn’t that custom yet, but I’ll probably do it soon ish there too.
Inside it I have a dot grid and a horizontal week calendar refill.
This works really well for me, at least until I have the money to get me a Plotter system.
2025-06-03 00:00
I have written about this in the past, but thought it would be good to revisit this topic.
When I started out buying specific pens I used to get the broadest possible gel ink pens I could find. Then I did the same with fountain pens. When I got into that.
What I loved was the feeling of a super smooth writing experience putting down a thick line of ink as I wrote.
It is still the experience I enjoy the most.
But these days I use everything from extra fine to broad and sub nibs.
What I have found is that more scratchy nibs makes it easier to control what I write.
So it all depends on the situation.
2025-05-27 00:00
One of my favorite notebook accessories are various clips. Either was something to keep notebooks shut. Or to keep them flat on the desk. Or to just stick together all the processed pages I don’t need to think about.
My all time favorite is the way too expensive ones from Travelers. I also have some magnetic ones from Oliblock and some huge ones I got from JetPens.
For a change I have included some links to them.
What I love about all of these, in addition to regular paper clips and binder clips is that they can be a really cheap way to make your notebooks work a lot better for you.
Links:
2025-05-20 00:00
A while back one of the “bookmark” string inside my travelers notebook. Probably used it too much.
So I just cut a couple of elastic bands, from my daughters bracelet crafting supplies. And tied it to the top.
Mostly the same. With way more colors.
Will probably end with me doing a bunch of weird shit with this
2025-05-14 00:00
I was having one of those moments where I just: if I threw out cost and all realities like that — what would the ideal binder be for me?
It would certainly be in a format with a similar paper size to the full size travelers notebook, with a “pocket” version with half the height. With compatible ring sizes so that I could take out two pages of the small and stack them on top of each other in the big one.
The big version would have rings on both edges instead of in the middle. To make it easy to have control of both of the pages I look at.
It would most likely be stupid expensive and loads of practical issues with designing it, like how to make the pages line up without the rings being on top of each other closed and being extra bulky because of it.
2025-05-08 00:00
In the world of notebook & paper systems we have binders, like Plotter and William Hannah; and notebook systems like Travelers Notebooks and a few others.
I always wish this was a bigger product area. Ideally in a way where it isn’t all proprietary. With similar paper sizes
More paper layouts, more covers, more accessories.
2025-04-30 00:00
All the time I find myself splitting pages into sections that are similar to common index card sizes.
Typically close to either 3x5 or 4x6. Depending on the notebook and size.
Based on how little I have used index cards over the years I find the whole thing weird and funny.
But there is something about that size that is perfect for a constrained collection of tasks that works really well for my brain.
For example, at the moment my a double spread in my full sized Travelers Notebook is divided into 8 blocks like this.
One has random captured impulses and thoughts. The other one has the start of a shopping list. And the first one has the tasks I’m currently working on.
Another part of it for me is that by splitting in vertical I use around 50% more of the paper surface compared to if I didn’t.
And of course it limits how much I have to move back and forth between pages.