Hobonichi Cousin A5

• Weekly pages: I use these to plan out the week and get an overview of how busy I am. This is very high level.
• Daily pages: no details, but the very high level of the most important tasks of the day. Typically the stuff I really need to get done

Travelers Notebook

Lined refill, used as a commonplace journal.

Travelers Notebook Passport size

Dotgrid refill. This is my pocket notebook. Typically used to write down anything I need to remember or do when not near my other notebooks or with my daughter

Rhodia pads

Dotpad

I just use it to write notes or typically very detailed todo lists to manage my adhd

Lined

I draft all blog posts on them

Five Year Journal

This have been a Leuchtturm1917 during the last 2.5 years. I changed it to a Midori one in January

Theme System Journal

Something new I’m trying out. I like it this far as a way to see every day how I’m doing based on my goals. And having a 15 day window and then decide on new goals

The daily journal format is also interesting.

So, I had the same wallet for years upon years. I think I got my Trove in 2015 or 2016 and used it all the way until I bought a Apple MagSafe wallet last year.

It was great, but falling apart.

When I got the MagSafe one, I knew it was kind of just half of a solution for me. Because the MagSafe wallet is a great when I want to carry one thing. Like going to the store or going out for drinks. Basically any situation where I would not disconnect it to use another MagSafe thingy.

And a while back I ordered another wallet. This will most likely be the thing I use most of the time. After looking at various options I went with a yellow Bellroy Card Sleeve.

It is great. It can fit a bunch of cards, I only have three in mine And it has two pockets for easy access to frequently used stuff. Plus a large pocket in the middle for a bunch of cards. Plus a pull thingy to make it easy to get them out of the center pocket.

Long story short: I had a shit load of gel ink pens after a bunch of testing things out, then buying a bunch of what I liked then changing from broader to thinner lines and doing the same all over.

Then I got fed up having an entire pen cup filled with them, and I just started at the widest and just started mostly using gel pens most of the time, and will be doing this until I have thinned out the collection a little.

If fountain pens wasn’t a thing, this would obviously be what I’d be using.

After I published this I reader of the site sent me an e-mail with a tip that it is apparently common to stick pens through both of the pen loops on it to make it stay shut.

It totally works, and that’s awesome. But I’d rather have a band or something to make it stay shut though.

I recently bought a couple of interesting things from Amazon:

• Tote bag
• Armrest organizer

The first one I first saw in a Tools & Toys post a really long time ago. And I’ve had it on my short list for a very long time. But recently I just decided to pull the plug, and then I found the second thing made by the same company and decided to get that too.

The armrest organizer is a really interesting product. it is just a piece of felt with non-slip rubber on the back that you can hang on side of your couch, or on the back of it with some pockets on the front of it. I use mine to have my Apple TV remote, my keys, Kindle, Switch, MagSafe battery, MagSafe Pop socket and a bunch of other things I always misplace.

While the tote bag is like a box with some pockets on the outside. It is kind of the same size as a 13 MacBook. A little bit wider, but kind of the same height. I use it to have my iPad, and all of the notebooks I always use. Plus a power bank, some cables, pens. All kinds of stuff I don’t’ want to be spread all over. Have made my couch a billion times more organized.

I usually go through this 30 minute research loop every six months or so. Where I first wonder why I never buy refills for any of my gel ink pens, and then realizing how weird the whole situation is.

Here are some price example from JetPens on the Signo DX 0.38mm

• Single pen: $2.85
• Single refill: $1.65
• 10 pack of pens: $17.50, $1.75 per pen
• 10 pack of refills: can’t find any

If it actually was cheaper by a meaningful margin to buy refills vs the whole pen I’d obviously do it. But when that entire margin can also be saved by buying 10 pens at a time I don’t really see the point.

There are a lot of environmental reasons for why I’d like for this to not be the case.

Why can’t we have 10 packs of refills with similar savings that we see in single pens vs 10 packs of pens?

Not really stationery, but I kind of include anything bag, carry, desk related as a part of what this blog is about.

I did not have any interest in this product when it came out, but a lot of life changes have occurred between then and now.

My aging Trove have moved from being my main wallet to a collection of all the cards I sometimes use that I keep in my bag.

I had been looking at various options for a new wallet for months when I started to consider this one seriously.

The Apple MagSafe wallet is this minimal wallet that attaches and detaches with magnets on the back of any iPhone that supports MagSafe. It fits three cards.

It is a product that is a really good, if you want to carry some cards together with your phone but really dislike how bulky most “wallet phone cases” are, and can limit yourself to three cards. I usually carry two different VISA cards plus my drivers license / ID in mine. And sometimes I exchange one of the VISA cards for various customer loyalty cards for when I need them. This covers like 99% of what I need. And for the rare time when I need a bunch of different cards I just put the Trove with all of my cards in my bag.

There are two things I don’t love about this wallet. It is a little bit of a pain to get the cards out of it, and it is a little bit of a pain to put my phone in a pocket with tight jeans without it detaching. Other than that a great product if you can work within the 3 card limit.

So I bought another ruler.

It’s a 20 cm aluminum one from Staedler.

I bought it while I was buying some other stuff because the cool one from Travelers Company is like 2-3 cm too short to let me draw lines in my Hobonichi in one go, so I just bought a larger one to use when I’m doing it at home. Which is most of the time.

It is far from as nice or cool as the first one. It kind of feels like the metal version of a plastic ruler. It is fine. Like nothing wrong with it. But it isn’t fun to hold or use. More convenient though.

I’ve been trying to find a good solution to my charging setup for a while now. The short version is that it consist of: two magSafe pucks, one Apple Watch puck, one lightning cable, two micro USB, and one USB-C. Mostly there to cover anything smaller than an MacBook or iPad Pro.

What I wanted to start with was some kind of stand that covered at least the two MagSafe pucks and the Apple Watch puck. Because that is by far the stuff I use the most and would benefit the most from having something that kept it in place to avoid a cable mess.

At some point I saw that Studio Neat had a “Trio” Material Dock in production. So I went on and ordered it.

After I got it and got it assembled I noticed a few things.

First of all, it made the cable mess a lot better over night. From being something I spent some time tidying most days to something I might not have to deal with most weeks.

Second. The upright charing stand for the iPhone is awesome. Because now I can leave my iPhone there and glance up to see if there are anything I need to deal with on the phone without having to get dragged into some app on it. Like I usually do if it is next to me.

I like this so much that I will most likely buy another upright charger stand to have at the office.

And I also like that i have a place where I always put my phone and AirPods when I’m at home.