What’s Important To You? – Nicholas Bate
It’s what pages 1-3 of a brand new moleskine notebook is for; the implications of that process will fill the rest.
Short smart advice as only Nick Bate can deliver it.
How Pencils Are Made : NPR Ed : NPR
How Pencils Are Made : NPR Ed : NPR
The classroom writing implement has roots in exploding stars, the French Revolution, the British crown jewels and Walden Pond.
Good overview of how the humble pencil came to be.
Slice Planner: First Notebook Connected to Digital Calendars by Evopaper — Kickstarter
Slice Planner: First Notebook Connected to Digital Calendars
Anyone who has followed my work for a while knows my feelings about crowd funded projects. I receive a lot of requests to post about unreleased, yet close to fruition, products. Especially those on Kickstarter. And, while I have linked to a few here and there in the past, I almost never do so anymore. The main reason being that I prefer to focus on products and apps that are available to solve a problem or fill a need for my readers right now — today. The second being that many of the products I have linked to in the past have either shipped half baked or not come to market at all, which then puts my recommendations in question. So, the fact that I’m linking to — and full heartedly recommending — The Slice Planner should carry tremendous weight.
The folks who make the Slice Planner were kind enough to send me one and I have been using it daily since I received it last week. It’s really well made with a ton of nice touches and I quickly integrated it into my daily planning. I absolutely adore the layout. I’ve long been enamored with the chronograph-style time blocking method they employ having first used it in the Muji Chronotebook (of which, I still have a few unused). But, having some space at the bottom of the page for my daily tasks and a full dot gridded facing page for notes allows me to have it as a single notebook for facing the day ahead.
Quality wise, it’s pretty close to the Baron Fig Confidant. Good paper, sewn binding, cloth cover, and two cloth ribbons. The paper is not great with fountain pens but not terrible either. But, gel and ballpoint pens work fine. There’s also some other handy pages in the front for “Goals and Ideas of the Month” and “Highlights of the Month” so one can record a higher level view of the days ahead. But, my favorite touch is the single page at the end of the book encouraging one to write and essay about the past few months.
So, if one were to only get in on the Kickstarter for the notebook alone it would be worth the price. But, as is pointed out, the planner is part of a “hybrid” system that includes and iOS/Android app that can read your evens and notes and merge them into a digital calendar or otherwise share your notes via email, etc. The truth of the matter is that the app is in the very early stages and I had some issues with installing the beta so I’ve not had a good opportunity to try these features. That said, I can see it’s on the right track and it will be quite impressive once it’s delivered.
For me, I’ve been very happy just using the planner stand-alone and have backed the project happily. I encourage you to give it a serious look.
Archer • Baron Fig
My friends at Baron Fig released a new pencil today. Looks lovely. I haven’t tried on yet but it looks to be a perfect companion to their stellar notebooks.
Why Is the Basic Marble Notebook Made by So Many Brands Still So Popular? | Adweek
Why Is the Basic Marble Notebook Made by So Many Brands Still So Popular? | Adweek
Since no copyright applies to these books, a slew of brands make them: Roaring Spring, Top Flight, Swinton, Norcom, iScholar—the list goes on. And what differentiates these brands? Nothing, and that’s the beauty of it: the marble composition book, a simple, understandable product that costs a few bucks and delivers what it promises.
Nice bit on the classic notebook I’m sure most if not all of us have used at some point in our life. I, too, have a great nostalgia and fondness for these. I have a stack of them in my collection of journals from when I was a teenager.
(via Austin Kleon’s wonderful weekly newsletter which frequently contains links to awesome handwriting/analog articles and posts).
Jennifer Egan — The Writer’s Almanac for September 7, 2016
“There came a point when I realized my fiction written on a computer was inferior to what I was writing by hand — the choices I made on a screen were always wrong, and I would have to fix them by hand. It wasn’t a timesaving measure but a time-wasting measure because it required another step.”
How to Keep a Zibaldone, the 14th Century’s Answer to Tumblr | Atlas Obscura
How to Keep a Zibaldone, the 14th Century’s Answer to Tumblr | Atlas Obscura
As the merchants traveled Europe, so did this invention—which, like most good ideas, fused with others that had arisen elsewhere. In Ancient Greece, Aristotle had suggested his students keep scrolls of notes from their studies, organized by subject, so that they could return at will to any topic’s “place.” Renaissance-era teachers resurfaced this idea, and by the 17th century, students at Oxford were required to keep “commonplace books,” organized notebooks stuffed with useful texts from elsewhere.
Interesting history of the practice. I keep a commonplace book of my own and highly recommend it.
Notebooks designed to get you organized — Original Content Books
Notebooks designed to get you organized — Original Content Books
If you are looking for a notebook to help get you get things done, there is no shortage of great tools available. You don’t even need to spend a lot of money as you’ll see with the bullet journal system you can use any $1.50 notebook. Below are ten notebooks we have selected around the A5 size (5.8 x 8.3inches) and if you are looking for a larger or smaller option, most of the links have more sizes available.
I’ve actually been working on a post just like this one. It is a overview of many of what I’ve come to call “No Brainer” purpose formatted journals and planners that are out there. These typically have built in prompts and systems to better help one reach their goals. I actually have looked at many of these and they can vary greatly in quality of materials but all seem very earnest in their mission.
This post is well worth a read if for none other than to see some things that you might otherwise have never heard of.
WSJ Flash Interactive – WSJ
Ten Bullets for WSJ by Tom Sachs
Really great and thought provoking handwritten spread by Tom Sachs.
(via Austin Kleon)
Well-Read Life™: The Google Guys Use Paper
Well-Read Life™: The Google Guys Use Paper
Google Ventures’ Jake Knapp created the sprint process that provides the title of the book, which he co-authored with Google Ventures’ John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz. The sprint is a method, as the book’s subtitle promises, to help “solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days.”
To do that, a small group of a company’s key players devotes one full work week to prototyping and testing a new idea. But how do you get these busy people to focus on solutions for just one issue? And for five days?
Ban all electronic devices from the work sessions.
And, as Knapp said in a recent interview, “Start on paper.”