If you ever come across the EDC part of YouTube, you have probably seen the Traveler’s Notebook and it’s smaller sibling in passport size. A lot of people seem to treat it as a background for collages, an art project for Instagram or a gloried sticker album.
To me, these notebooks replace more traditional notebooks and planners. The advantage of Traveler’s refill system is that you can easily swap out parts of the notebook and add refills when needed, making it a more or less infinite binder system. Thanks to the various categories of inserts, I can easily add pouches to store keys or cards, small binders for documents and various types of paper.
I feel that it is important to have a completely analogue medium. I carry my passport-sized notebook with me whenever I leave the house, which gives me a quick notepad if I ever need to jot something down quickly – be it dates, prices, names or whatnot.
Smartphones are cumbersome to use and usually fail you due to poor network quality or a dying charge. Ink on paper is much less trouble and my handwriting easily outpaces my ability to tap away on my phone. My beloved Zebra F-701 snuggly hides away in the notebook, so I never have to worry about whether I have a pen on me or not.
When it comes to my work, I prefer the regular sized notebook. It allows me to quickly draft my ideas, so they are easier to bring into a clean form (i.e. when formulating requirements). The regular sized notebook clips two Lamy Safari fountain pens, each with Fine nibs and different colour inks. This helps me highlight, draw and correct information. I use dotted paper and clip it down, so I can work with both pages of a fold at once to award me more space.
I can only caution you to have an analogue medium as a workbook. Despite being a huge fan of computers for roughly 30 years now, I feel that there is no replacement for a good old sheet of paper and some imperfect scribbles.
A word of advise: Do not lose yourself in the perfection of formatting or trying to be smart about your layout. Instead, focus on what really counts: Information.
Jot down stuff. As soon as it is done, cross it out or mark it as done. Do not make your notebook your art project, make it something you actively use instead.
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