Why You Should Always Carry a Notebook — Life Learning — Medium
If you haven’t noticed, ideas don’t always show up according to our schedule. The muse is a fickle mistress who makes appearances at her own convenience…If you’re going to consistently come up with ideas to write about or do something with, you have to be able to capture them regardless of when they show up.
Yep. Agreed so much with this.
(Via Coudal)
My friend Mike Rohde did a brief sketchnote review of the Hobonichi Techo. So much fun and I was so happy to get a mention.
I recently found the need to create an index for my Commonplace notebook but was unsure of the best way to do so for my needs. So, I took a look around the Internet to get some ideas. I was quite surprised to find quite a few interesting methods and thought I’d share the few that stood out:
“A. Put page numbers on the upper-right of each right-hand page but not on the left (e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc.). I do about 30 pages at a time, as needed. B. Whenever you complete a page, put the page number in an index on the inside cover (front or back) and a few words to describe the content. If it’s on the left-hand page, just take the prior page and add “.5” to it. Thus, if you flip over page 10, for example, and write on the back, that second page is “10.5” in the index.”
“Setting up your Index is easy. Simply leave the first couple pages of your notebook blank and give them the topic of “Index.” As you start to use your book, add the topics of your entries and their page numbers to the Index, so you can quickly find your them later.”
“Your own index is something you put in the back of the book (or the front if you prefer). It’s a list of the book’s themes and topics that most resonate with you, and the pages which have the best quotes and ideas around those topics.”
When you set up a new notebook for the first time, reserve the first six pages (or the last six – the choice is yours). Divide each of those pages into four sections. Do this to all six pages and you will have 24 sections in all. You need to assign each to a letter of the alphabet, combining X, Y and Z in the last section. If you want to combine a few more letters (P and Q, or W and V, for instance) you might be able to get the index down to 4 or 5 pages.
In all, there is both value in each one of these methods and in the idea of keeping an index in your notebooks in general.
I should also take this time to mention a service that I use and love on the digital side for a more “big picture” index of my notebooks. It’s called INDXD. It’s an online app that allows one to create a simple, searchable, index/database of topics in all of one’s notebooks. It’s really handy.
What is on Steve Rogers’ list of things to watch?
In the opening scenes of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we get a quick glimpse at a list of things Steve Rogers wants to catch up on since he was frozen. I read that these things were region.
Really neat. Click through to see screenshots of all of the different versions of the list for each region.
(via Andrew Williams)
I get a better feel for my writing, when I read on paper, pen in hand. I sense weaknesses faster as well as strengths. Beyond all else, I see possibilities in plot and characters I don’t see on the screen.
(via Matt Kaspar)
Vintage Pens for People Who Think Vintage Pens Are Scary — The Pen Addict
Here’s the plan. In this post, I will address a few common myths about vintage fountain pens, which I hope will convince you that they are worth trying out. In succeeding posts, I will highlight a few major vintage pen models that are easy to find, affordable, and reliable. On with the myths!
This is a really great post. I own, love, and use a few vintage pens regularly myself. I’m excited for the rest of the series.
National Notebook Day – May 19th, 2016
Mark your calendars because the first ever National Notebook Day is happening on May 19th, 2016. We’re inviting notebook enthusiasts everywhere to celebrate with us! Use #nationalnotebookday to spread the word.
Personally, I celebrate Notebook Day every day. 🙂
Execupundit.com: The “Thank You” Note
Sincere sentiments. Stationery and fountain pen. A nice stamp. The man deserves much more. It is the least I can do.
It’s the least any of us should do.
How To Buy A Paper Notebook That Brings You Joy — Fast Company
“Notebooks,” says Ana Reinert of the office gear site The Well-Appointed Desk, “are very much like cars. My perfect notebook is going to be very different, like my choice in car, from someone else whose needs or line of work requires different parameters.” And notebooks are as varied as our vehicles: They come in different sizes, shapes, materials; different bindings, paper weights, line widths (or squares, or no lines at all), hard cover, soft cover, treated paper, untreated paper—and that’s just on the inside. To recommend a single notebook for everyone would be to recommend a notebook to nobody.
This article then goes on to cover every possible option out there and give some great recommendations. A solid link if only for reference alone.
To put it lightly, Philip Ashforth Coppola loves New York City’s subway stations. For the past 38 years, the New Jersey-based illustrator has been exploring the Big Apple’s underground stations and sketching its mosaics in amazing detail with just a ballpoint pen.
(via Swiss Miss)
