How I use my pocket notebooks

In 2019, I went through about 30 Pocket notebooks. I received a few questions about what it is that I write in my notebooks and I thought I would share with you my process and purpose for keeping a pocket notebook with me most of the time.

A bit of background information. I only started keeping a pocket notebook as something I carried (nearly) everywhere a few years ago as a way of managing my work/life balance and stress levels. I would typically think of something that I needed to do at work and then dwell on it all night so for me it made sense to keep a notebook on me to write it all down so that it was in a system I trusted to not forget about it the next day. It then evolved to include daily journaling items, finance and menu planning and of course, weekly overviews.

A basic walk through of my pocket notebook:

• Migrated to do’s
• An overview of the fortnight (it takes me around 10-14 days to finish a pocket notebook) – this shows when bills are due, any events, etc
• Daily pages are all in the middle pages
• Menu planning
• Shopping lists and other lists I may have
• Work to do’s
• Finances/expenditure

In my daily pages, I list out my schedule for the day to help my plan my time. I take note of anything noteworthy that may have happened in my day (general personal journaling), anything exciting that happened workwise/business wise, but also it provides me with a space to offload anything stressful that may have happened during the day. For me, this helps me to get it off my chest without adding to anyone else’s stress levels, if it’s something that doesn’t need any additional support. Its not a foolproof system and it doesn’t always work – some of the time I still need to talk it out, but the act of writing it down helps me process the problem and think about it.

My systems doesn't require a lot of tools or gadgets. I typically use a pen (and ink) day to day, but I often print out photos from my phone and stick them into the notebook as an extra keepsake. For this I use my iPhone 7 and an LG Pocket Photo printer. 

For me, the most important thing is that my pocket notebook is always there, as a safety net if I ever need to write something down, remember something, or offload something stressful.

Materials used in this post:

- Pebble Stationery Co Pocket Tomoe River Notebook

- Namiki Yukari Pine Needles

- Sailor Manyo Yomogi

- Pilot Namiki Black

- iPhone 7

- LG PD233 Photo Printer