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

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.

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

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.”

The Write Stuff: How the Humble Pencil Conquered the World — Popular Mechanics

Chemistry was a young scientific field in the 1500s, so the locals couldn’t have known exactly what they found. They did notice one crucial fact about the new material: the graphite made a darker mark on paper than lead, which had been used in styluses since Roman times. So they called it black lead. English people cut graphite into chunks and put it into sticks that could be used to write. They wrapped the sticks in paper or string and sold them on the street. This new tool was called the pencil—a name derived from pencillum, the Latin for a fine brush. Making your mark would never be the same.

An excellent primer on the history of the pencil.

Drawing the Calendar — uxdesign.cc – User Experience Design

Sometime in the fall of last year I began to draw my calendar.
My weeks were packed with a series of interlocking jobs and I couldn’t keep them straight. Tiny calendars on my computer weren’t cutting it. I needed something tangible?—?I needed a calendar-as-artifact.

I love the idea of this.

(via Chris Bowler)

A Note about Notes — CJ Chilvers

Every nerdy note taker has their own philosophy and system for taking notes. I won’t bore you with mine, but I do want to share a basic principle of note taking that is often ignored in even the nerdiest of circles.

Concentrate on streamlining input, not output.

And, hence, why I take notes by hand. I find it the most friction free and possibility rich of any other available option.

Let’s bring women and people of color to the the Blackwing Volumes editions | Woodclinched

We have the 725, modeled after Bob Dylan’s guitar; the 211, a tribute to John Muir; the 1138, a movie reference to a George Lucas film; the 24 for John Steinbeck; and most recently, the beautiful be-Yankeed Volume 56 for Joe DiMaggio.

These are all fantastic tributes, and I love the story behind them. But they represent just one demographic of those who made history. What about a pencil that Blackwing fans who are women, or people of color?

Hmmm… As a person of color myself (African-American) I agree. I think of great writers like Langston Hughes or Ralph Ellison (who is a cousin of mine, by the way) who are equally deserving. I suggested James Audubon to Andy as another good potential pick because a lot of people don’t know that he was of partial African heritage (his Mother was Black). No matter what, I support this effort.