# I look at my new notebooks with, perhaps, a little trepidation.
I am determined to write more by hand, to slow down and spend time with my thoughts. But I want to do them justice.
I have seen if said that it is better to buy cheap - that way you're not afraid to make a mess of it. Or less afraid.
Getting away from this mindset as soon as possible is key. Making a mark on the pristine paper, anything at all, will break the spell.
After all, I'm not a medieval monk transcribing manuscripts with a need for exactitude; I'm just a regular guy scribbling down his thoughts.
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# I don't like making New Year's resolutions.
I don't like doing something simply because you're supposed to. It invariably ends badly. If I decide to do something it's at a time of my own choosing and because I want to do it rather than out of any sense of obligation.
A couple of days ago I decided to clean up and diversify my RSS subscriptions.
I was already on the lookout for more personal blogs but also wanted my river to not be so polluted. As such, I unsubscribed from the last of the trashier "news" sites I had been following: The Verge and Boy Genius Report.
I had removed Mashable from my feed reader some time ago as it badly lost its credibility along with its focus. Other sites like The Verge and BGR went the same route - moving beyond tech in an attempt to be more financially viable.
With the increase in breadth comes a lack of depth; stories are churned out purely for page views and ad impressions providing little actual value to the reader.
Just pulp.
Now I am seeking more interesting and thought provoking reading material across a wider spectrum, especially the humanities - moving beyond tech in an attempt to be more fulfilling.
I'm always open to suggestions.
@colinwalker I've taken new notebooks and drawn a big sloppy "X" across the first few pages and said, "There, now I can begin." Every filled page does a notebook justice, IMO.
@colinwalker I still try to find a magic spell for my "expensive" notebooks while I use the cheap ones so much. My handicap is that I come from a printers family with a tendency to book fetishism ... But as long as I have enough of the cheap ones I can keep on searching :)
@jack Funnily enough, I was going to write “And so it begins...” at the start ?
I've had this challenge as well. You have to throw out that mindset immediately. I now use my notebook for everything from meeting notes, UI mockups, bullet journal, and everything in between. The more I use the notebook the better. Paper isn't sacred.
@kulturnation I have a number of cheap ones but they’re all small and I feel cramped. So, regardless of cost, I’m hoping these afford me greater creative freedom.
@colinwalker I found some Picadilly in A5 for about 5 EUR, and there are A4 books with awesome paper for 5 EUR at a present shop (Nanu Nana) that took away the fear of using them. And even the Leuchtturm Bullet Journals are fine to use. But the nice looking Moo or the Grids&Guides, and the ExtraLarge Leuchtturm ask to be used for great ideas & notes. And having more than 100 pages I am afraid of the white desert :) @jack
@colinwalker And I tricked myself by dedicating some notebooks: „You are for reading notes“, „You will stay next to my bed" @jack
@kulturnation I tend not to distinguish in that way. Everything lives together in a hope it will cross-pollinate.
@colinwalker „cross-polinate“ is a good concept :) For me, it is helpful to have dedicated books for reading excerpts (the last book I read gave me 85 A6 pages of notes, written with an EF nib). But I have two EDC notebooks, and the bed book is there just to make sure I have one whenever an idea strikes me :)
@kulturnation 85 pages? Wow! That’s dedication.
@colinwalker The book was an autobiography, sharing a lot of ideas and impressions about the years that were and still are important for my life - so a lot of brain food :) I found out that taking notes let me remind the books much better.
@jack @colinwalker I believe @merlin writes “The first page is profound.” when beginning a new notebook.
@schuth @jack @colinwalker @kulturnation Good thread. I start my notebooks by writing "Ripped out pages tell stories too" and "Process, not product."
@colinwalker @kulturnation @schuth This thread got me thinking, so I've jotted down some 2018 notebook intentions to help formalize a plan: jack.baty.net/2017/pape...
@jack @schuth @kulturnation Good to have a plan Jack - far too organised for me ;) And @tonybloggs I like that about ripped out pages.
@tonybloggs Ripped out pages - good point. Just looks ugly or strange :) @schuth @jack @colinwalker
@kulturnation @tonybloggs Ah, but there is also the mystery as to what they contained - the possibilities and potential they held…
@kulturnation @colinwalker learning to embrace the ugliness is part of the process. for me it's about getting the pen on paper, not what happens after. I've destroyed whole notebooks after fillling them up... no matter.
I'm so used to digital that paper seems precious and not to be sullied with my terrible scrawl but the more I do it the more natural it becomes (again) and the better my scrawl looks.
@tonybloggs I was just making some notes on a blog post about that very point!
@tonybloggs About two years ago I bought Keri Smith’s „Wreck This Journal“ as a chance to heal my paper&book fetishism. Guess what happened to the book since then? („Dust, anybody?“) @colinwalker