Oct 01 2008
Managing a digital life with analog tools – Moleskines, pens, and productivity
I have been an avid notebook and pen collector (i.e. accumulator) for many years now, much to the chagrin of my loving wife. The dilemma I always face is a two part one. First, in my ongoing quest for the perfect writing instrument I often settle one for a period of time only to have it lose its luster after a few months. Second, I have many (the exact number doesn’t 
matter) notebooks of varying sizes and states of use. I will settle on one for a while only to lose time with it changing from pen to pen to get the perfect feel in the notebook.
It finally occurred to me my issue was not with a pen or a notebook, but rather the pursuit of the perfect combination. Differences in binding, paper type, 
thickness and weight, and rule method all join to create a singular writing experience. This is tempered or enhanced by the selection of the correct pen for the notebook.
Does it truly make a difference in productivity? Not in the least. It is a mental game I play that distracts me from the task at hand. Why not stop? That’s the best question of all. I have no idea. As long as progress is being made on tasks I don’t see the harm in having my notes written in three different types of pen all on the same page. So where to from here? I hope by sharing here the steps and actions I take as I refine my system I can get better inside into my own needs and possibly help you along with yours.
Recently I have made a shift from the recommended single-notebook model to a dual model…one for the workplace and one to carry with me.
The workplace notebook is a standard Composition book in a Mead Cambridge cover. I like the Composition books for work because:
- They are a very manageable size.
- They are well bound and provide a good archive for notes.
- I can use more than one should a particular project or activity require it.
- My note taking and writing allows me to keep a notebook for about two months before filling it.
I begin the day with a list of the tasks that need to be accomplished (in many cases carried over from previous days) as well as a list of the meetings and calls for the day. Many of my co-workers carry Blackberries but I’m finding the flexibility of the notebook to work better for me.
My personal notebook currently is a 3×5 Miquelrius notebook. Similar in design to a Moleskine but much thicker and without the elastic strap, bookmark, and expanding folder in the back (ok, nothing like it at all except it is black) it has twice as many pages as a standard Moleskine. The binding method makes it awkward to write in at times, but the size, heft, and sheer number of pages make it a good companion. I’ve gotten around the lack of the expanding folder in the back by trimming the last book page at a 45 degree angle and supergluing it to the back of the book on three sides, thereby creating a small sleeve for anything I need to carry.
All the methods and ideas I include from now on should work for any blank (no pre-printed forms) book planner, but for simplicity’s sake I’ll be using the Moleskine name as a common reference. (That and it’s easier to spell than Miquelrius.)
One of the first challenges with my notebook was how to find information once it was entered. I have tried the multi-tab approach in the past. Unfortunately I’ve found it to be distracting to the clean lines of the planner and impractical in highly mobile environments. There is only one tab in my book…and that is on the table of contents. Eight pages in from the back cover I have flagged a page using a Post-It Note flag and this is where I enter the table of contents for the notebook. You may wonder, why eight? A little math revealed that was the number of pages necessary to have one line per page for the entire notebook available within the table. By capturing the start of a topic (School Websites Tasks – pg 32, for example) I am able to jump to the section without having dozens of little marker flags hanging out of the book.
I capture everything I can in this little book while I attempt to follow the GTD “mind like water” approach to time management. It does feel better when I’ve written something down knowing I don’t have to worry if it gets bumped out of my head by something more pressing. It does raise some interesting issues though:
- Calendar management in a blank book
- Tracking passwords and accounts
- Retrieval and indexing of information
- Archiving and transfer between old and new notebooks
I will try to address all these and more in the coming posts. Make a note to check back soon.
Part 3 – Calendar management in your Moleskine
Part 4 – Tracking passwords and accounts in your Moleskine (coming later)
Part 5 – Retrieval and indexing in your Moleskine (coming later)
Part 6 – Archiving and transfer between Moleskines (coming later)
Part 7 – Working online and off – integrating Evernote (coming later)
No guarantees as to whether or not this will work, but it’s worth a shot.
Far too many of us have bought into the new chestnut of “digital natives vs. digital immigrants” as educators and administrators. It does follow well with our habit of searching out a label for each face in a classroom; making them something we can count, measure, graph, and put on a PowerPoint slide. Unfortunately this sets up some drastic misunderstandings of the individuals within these groups. I challenge you as educators and administrators to look deeper, gazing into the infinite variety that exists between 0 and 1 on this person-based number line.