Every once in a while I get the idea to try to do sketchnoting. I have probably tried it like 10-15 times since 2013.

It never works out.

I just don’t think like that.

I had the idea to try it out again in 2020, right before COVID hit. And I got a LT sketchbook for it.

These are really nice books if you need thicker paper for whatever reason. Not something I need or want really. So I’ll probably wont’ buy moe of them before I once again get the idea to sketchnote. But it is really great if you like the Leuchtturm1917 notebooks but want thicker paper .

Field Notes or similar formatted notebooks is what I use when I need a very portable notebook. I usually use them in my Belroy cover. I have a trick where I connect them together with paper clips if I need more than one.

At the moment my only use for it is for capture on the go when I don’t feel like using my phone. For not so long ago I kept a paper log in one and in another I did some habit tracking. So I varies and changes a lot.

Field Notes is not a great notebook from a paper perspective. And I wish I could find something locally available with a similar format with good paper. So far I have not.

I used this system for a couple of months while I was putting together a more permanent solution for it. In my system there was two kinds of habits: stuff I did or did not do and habits where I rated them 1-3.

This is how I did it. I started by writing the date: - 2022-01-01, underlined it. Then I prefixed all the rates with * and the habits I did with -. All the habits was summarized as ideally one work but no more than three. It usually looked something like this

2022-01-01:

• Diet 2
  
• Exercise 3
  
• Money 1
  
• Brush teeth morning
  
• Guitar
  
• Run
  
• Rowing
  
• Walk
  
• Yoga

It worked really well as a paper solution to it. And I will without a doubt move back to it if I want to do it on paper again.

For the longest time I used to keep all the notebooks I’ve ever used.

At some point after moving it all for the millionth time I sat down and went through it all and threw out 90% of it.

And at a later point, right before moving here I threw out the rest.

The reason I don’t keep them is that I never look at any of it ever. So when I have filled a notebook and have transcribed the content I want I just throw it all out.

I think this is one of those subjects where a lot of people will disagree with me.

I think all of the limited editions are annoying as fuck. At least at the current amount of it.

There are kind of two different categories of limited edition products: pure redesigns and limited products. The former is basically just new shit different wrapping. A different colour or design but otherwise the same product. And then you have the kind where the product are actually different, this is kind of what Blackwing used to do when their firmest core was only in a few limited edition pencils or how Field Notes refuse to make a regular edition with dotgrid… 🖕

Other times they go as far as making radically different products.

I’m fine with either up to a point. But I also think that limited products should become a regular product if the reception is good.

I have zero interest in investing time and money into adopting something into my workflow if it will be a hassle to replace it when or if I need to. And I think it is really annoying to read all this news about “New Lami Safari color”, “New TWSBI Eco color”, “New Sailor Pro Gear color” and all of that noice. Or new Field Notes designs and all of this junk.

I think it is fine with some of it. But there are so much of it these days that I just fuck this shit.

What I miss is more focus on making new products instead of new paint jobs.

How good a paper is for use with fountain pens depends. It is usually about how much ink it can take and how it dries. As in will it be obsorbed by the paper or kind of dry on top.

All of this is about aestethics and not always that practical. I usually aren’t into the “best” papers, because they are not practical for me to use because of how long my ink and pen combos of choice takes to dry on it.

If you don’t care too much about how your ink looks on the page. You can just go for really thick paper. It will dry fast and take most ink and nib combos. But purists will hate it for the “feathering”. Feathering is when the ink dries kind of like a feather. It is a sign of the paper soaking up the ink. This used to be my strategy for a long time.

These days I have moved to better papers. But I didn’t really enjoy that experience until my technique made it practical. But the more extreme everything dries on top like Tomoe River is still not something I enjoy.

Rhodia dotpads have been my go to “working notebook” or “Bullet Journal”. It is more the former at the moment. In the past I have used LT1917 dotgrid notebooks, but I recently moved to dotpads partly because they’re much cheaper. And also the ability to rip out pages as I’m done with them is great.

What I use it for is to write lists for stuff I’m doing right now, to write drafts for lists of tasks I’m going to add to my to do system and capturing things.

Very useful to avoid context switching, if you have a messed up brain like mine. And I also use it a lot to plan stuff I later add to my task manager.

I decided to do something I almost never do where on Stationery 🍕, posting something right after I wrote it. My process on this site is a month long process from idea to paper draft to digital draft to a post scheduled in my CMS. I typically schedule posts 1-3 months before they are published.

What made me do this is because today’s Pen Addict Podcast episode talked about I care a lot about, and that is the problem with Noodlers Ink.

I have been boycotting them for years at this point. I’m not 100% sure for how long, but most likely since somewhere between 2015 and 2016. Just listen to the episode. But the short version is that Noodlers Ink continue to put out all kinds of hateful crap on their ink labels; all of it dumb; a lot of it ignorant and hateful.

Use your money to support good companies doing great stuff instead of hateful ones.

Field Notes has this wooden box that is perfect for storing Field Notes.

I’ve had one for years. For the longest time I used it to store every single Field Notes I’ve ever used. Until I filled it up, and then I threw it all out and started to store other stuff in it. These days I use it for various unused notebooks and pencils.

If you need something to store Field Notes or notebooks of the same size, I think it is awesome. Probably over priced. But still. It is a cool box.

If I had any interest in a Field Notes collection, this is what I’d use to store them.