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.

My “desk setup” is what I call the pen & paper stuff I always have on my desk. These are typically items I either have two of, or bring between home and work.

• Panobook from Studio Neat; or dot pads if I run out or they take forever in shipping to Norway. I’ll usually have one at the office and one at home.
• Dual Pen Tray from Studio neat; this one I bring back and forth, but I’ll probably get more of them soon.
• Midori Brass Ruler; this one I also bring back and forth, and I’m considering getting more of them.
• My Hobonichi notebooks (A5 Cousin Planner, A5 grid notebook for goals etc)

I typically will have the pen tray closes to myself, then the Panobook and then my laptop or keyboard, with the ruler on right side of the keyboard. The ruler is mostly use to quickly divide the Panobook pages in 6 equal ish columns; the last one is a bit wider than the rest.

I’ll usually also have both the Hobonichi notebooks open and visible while working.

Most of the time I use fountain pens with all of it; sometimes gel. That is more a part of my daily / work carry than this.

I’d love to get two more of both the ruler and tray though. So that I can have one tray & ruler at my home desk, work desk and one in my daily carry if I’m working from neither.

I’ve been getting more into the Lamy Safari recently. Used to hate it in the start of my fountain pen journey because of the molded grip. And then as I’ve noticed I actually like some pens like that, like the TWSBI Eco, I bought one last year.

When I saw the Pink Cliff I had to get it.

I really like the pen. And got me into getting a bunch an frankensteining them.

The one disappointment about it is that the ink it came with should have been something more special than a regular Lamy blue.