It never stops to fascinate me how huge the difference it is in how long I can use the same pen with a finer nib versus a broader nib.

Yeah, we all know it intellectually.

But when you have the same pen with a broad and EF nib inked up in front of you it lands very differently.

I have always had a notebook on my desk for capturing things for as long as I can remember.

At some point I felt that my ADHD (before I got diagnosed and all of that) started to become so much worse that I needed a way to focus more.

Where I looked in my task manager, wrote down what was the most important to do right now. And also wrote down on it everything that popped up in my brain. That included everything from ideas, to impulses to feelings. Plus that I mix in things I want to do like responding to Snaps and chat messages in between. So it is typically like doing 3-5 real tasks, then looking and some messages etc. Pomodoro ish.

When the a page filled up I just flipped over to the next and carried over everything that was undone.

For most of the time I have used notebooks for this that let me tear pages out. Rhodia DotPads ring bound or regular is without a doubt what I have used the most.

For the longest time I just used them regular. But at some point I started to put a line in the middle because I noticed that I could waste less paper by treating it as a double page. Then later I tried with 4 boxes for different purposes but wasn’t that good for me.

Then at some point I flipped it over to the side, and started to split the page into small columns, to waste even less paper, and limit how often I have to transfer to a new page.

These days I do the same with my Panobook when I have them.

The layout I have used for the last year or so, probably longer, is to have 8 dots or 4 cm / 40mm between each line. It makes the A5 pads have 4 columns and the Panobook have 6.

Most of the time I just use the columns without have any for particular purposes. Other times I start doing Capture in the last column.

The formatting of the lists are stiff very based on Dash plus. And I will scribble over the parts where everything has been completed to make it obvious where I’m at.

This is one of the core pillars of my system that always works. If it goes more than two minutes where I’m lost, overwhelmed, I just find a notebook and start writing everything down, and then start dealing with it.

Digital could have worked for this I guess. But I’d want a separate app for this stuff, since none of the apps makes it that easy to select some stuff and only showing me this for now. Without going into some serous complexity.

One of the reasons I’m always into pen trays and holders and such is that I hate it when pens roll off my desk. And because how I most of the time use pens constantly there is usually two pens uncapped in use at the same time always when I work.

I typically will write with a finer ribbed pen and use a broader one to make divider lines and scratch out lines or sections. And I greatly prefer it when the pens isn’t designed so that it will roll off, because then I don’t have to think about it and can just leave it on the pad.

I often say that I think on paper, and then store it in digital. And that is still true.

For me it is always easy to kind of have a calendar on paper or an empty sheet of paper and just look at that and figure things out, rather than looking on a screen and all of that.

The empty sheet is particular useful for me for anything related to my ADHD, where I always try to deconstruct anything into as small units of work as possible to limit procrastination and all of that.

And visualizing a week makes planning a lot easier for me. Paper is also a lot quicker than digital.

But I always prefer to have it on digital after I’m done putting it together because of convenience.

I’ve been slowly looking into binders and disc bound systems since I dipped my toes in it last summer.

Back then, I didn’t really get into it because I wasn’t to fund of the binder I tried.

It is just a question of time before I try again with something higher quality.

But I know it would require some coordination for when I decide to try it again.

There are a bunch of things that I would have to get before I do it

• A good hole puncher that can do a bunch of pages without it being fuzzy
• Copier / Printer
• Paper that I’d both be happy with the quality of that also works in a printer
• Accessories like tabbed dividers etc

When I do this I know I’ll end up making my own planner inserts in some way. Plus A bunch of other stuff. Something that in reality means that I’m stopping carrying most of my notebooks and just having what I need for the next week in a binder instead of large A5 notebooks plus six months of planner pages etc.

At the moment I’m slowly trying to figure out what to try next. Because I know that anything cheap won’t work. Since that was where it broke down the last time.

Usually when I get new inks and they are available in multiple colors I go with a small bottle.

Sometimes that leads to me buying a big bottle once it runs out. Most of the time I don’t.

It seems like the ink colors I currently test out the most is blue and pink. For all of the blues and pinks I’ve had, there are two blues (Iroshizuku Kon-Peki and Iroshizuku Shin-Kai) and one pink (Iroshizuku Tsutsuji) that I either have bought more than once, or would buy more than once.

For me, what makes me buy another bottle, and a big bottle of an ink instead of just finding another one to try is that feeling of “fuuuck that is a great color” when I write with it.

I recently bought this, outside of the VAC700R I got last year, this is the first TWSBI pen that isn’t an Eco I’ve bought in a very long time.

I like it a lot. Feels like a much nicer version of the an Eco.

When I compare this to my impressions of one earlier version of this pen that I had back in 2015, it is a lot nicer and I feel like there is a bigger difference in built quality etc than back in the day.

Will probably end up with more of them when I see colors that I like.

My daily carry changes very little at this point. This is my carry when I don’t bring a real bag.

• Travelers Passport sized notebook with lined and grid refill and a pen holder
• A 4 color Hi-Tec C gel pen
• Sometimes a Kaweco Sports as well

For non stationery stuff, I’ll typically also bring my iPhone, wallet, keys and AirPods as well.

This is the current carry of things I always have with me wherever I happen to be working

• Studio Neat dual pen tray
• Brass Travelers ruler
• Hobonichi A5 planner
• Hobonichi A5 grid notebook
• My regular sized Travelers Notebook
• If I have any I use the Studio Neat Panobook or Rhodia DotPads in A5 if not.
• Pluss all the stuff in my Daily Carry.
• I also usually have a few fountain pens. It is usually 2-3 to a lot more of whatever I currently have inked.