5 Analog Tools I Can’t Live Without (and Why) — George Williams
This is an old article, but I just came across it. It’s a great list. I especially love the inclusion of a coffee press—it’s a nice reminder that analog has benefits in all areas of life, not just pen and paper. (I use a Chemex to make my coffee, and while it drips I tend to do some morning journaling and to-do list planning.)
Want to be more productive? Don’t go paperless. — Todoist Blog
Paper doesn’t require booting time, passwords, or fingerprint scanning. Pens and pencils don’t require charging. Field Notes don’t crash. Bic pens are ready to write at a moment’s notice, whether you have 4G connectivity or not. Cheap spiral notebooks don’t need a lightning cable or a power brick.
With paper, there’s no system to learn; no hot keys to memorize. Formatting is decided by the user and can be changed in an instant.
3 Ways You Can Create An Effective Journaling Habit — Mike Vardy
Numbers two and three are pretty standard, but I’ve never seen number one before. It sounds like an effective idea for jumpstarting a journal entry.
Where Fountain Pens Are Saved and Sold — The New York Times
The Fountain Pen Hospital represents a bygone idea in an age of instant communication, but it still draws people from across New York City to its storefront at 10 Warren Street. Terry and Steve Wiederlight, who are brothers and the current owners, have watched the business established by their grandfather and father in 1946 ebb and flow through the industry’s sea changes.
I’m definitely visiting next time I’m in New York.
How and Why to Keep a “Commonplace Book” — Ryan Holiday
I started keeping a commonplace book about a year ago. I affectionately call mine by the Italian name, “Zibaldone,” which means “a heap of things.” This primer by Ryan Holiday is always worth revisiting.
Howdy! My name is Shawn Mihalik.
Some of you may know that Patrick is currently on a year-long sabbatical, during which he’s refraining from publishing to the web (if that isn’t analog, I don’t know what is). I’m very excited about what Patrick is going to produce during this period, but as someone who finds a lot of value in The Cramped, I didn’t want to see the site sit stagnant for a year. So I volunteered to take over editing duties while Patrick is doing his thing. He was generous enough to accept my offer.
Here are a few relevant and fun facts about me:
I’m looking forward to sharing plenty of links, posts, and essays here in the coming months. I hope to add as much value to this site as it has added to me.
The Pacific and West Large RefillableNotebook.
I’ve long been a fan and user of disc-bound notebooks. Going back to my first Levenger Circa purchase almost 20 years ago. Such notebook systems are great for those cases where you need to be able to easily rearrange the pages. So, when Pacific and West reached out to me to ask if I wanted to check out their take on the concept I accepted the opportunity.
The quality is decent and it looks attractive. The disks are a solid brass which pairs nicely with the walnut wood cover. The cover was unexpected in that it is a very thin veneer that is sturdy yet very flexible. One can almost roll it completely up without feeling the wood is going to crack and it pops right back into shape when released.
In the model I received, the paper is blank and the paper quality is okay. Only okay, though. Fountain pen and gel inks feather a fair bit. Ballpoints, pencil, and non-gel rollerballs will fair much better. As a fountain pen user and paper nerd this is the most major knock against it. One other minor knock, that is some what related, are the dimensions. The large I received is 5.75”x7.7“. If it was, say, a more standard 5.5” x 8.5’, one could replace the paper easily with that from another manufacturer or easily cut their own.
Price wise, while it may seem high at first glance, it is actually on par with similar quality offerings from the other major players who make disk-bound notebooks.
In all, it’s an attractive initial offering. If the paper quality could match that of the other materials I’d be able to recommend it more highly.
Weekly plan bars – Matthew Lang
I’ve been having a successful run with the bullet journal and implementing Mike Rhode’s daily plan bar but as a weekly view rather than a single day’s view.
For the Bullet Journal nerds. Matthew plans a larger write-up in the near future.
11 Things To Write in your new Moleskine Notebook — Nicholas Bate
Some good outside the norm suggestions that apply to any notebook.
Just before the start of a new school year, my father used to pull out all the class work and home work notebooks I used in the previous year and tear out all the left over pages from them. He would then cut all the pages to the same measurement and take them down to a binder to get it sewn and bound. This book would have on an average 300 pages, some of which were single rule, some broad rule, some double rule and some plain. This book then would be my ‘rough book’ for the new school year. A book in which I could do all math calculations, doodle, or write notes (when I forgot the main notebooks). It used to be the book I could fall back on.
I love this opening idea. Sai goes on to tell his story about how he moved away from using a “rough book” and what has led him back to using one now. Some good general notebook tips as well.