Personal Journaling Setup, Part 3: Revisiting Pocket Notebooks

In the early years of this blog, I was a huge pocket notebook enthusiast and carried one with me wherever I went. Honestly, for a couple of years pocket notebooks served as my primary note-taking setup, even at work. But as my responsibilities increased, I needed something a bit more versatile (i.e., that contained more pages) to manage multiple projects and an at-times overwhelming number of tasks, and I gradually fell out of the habit of regular pocket carry.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve spent a lot of time reorganizing my home office setup for what looks like a permanent work-from-home situation, and part of that process has involved going back through stacks of old notebooks, papers, files, etc. and determining what could be thrown away, what needed to be kept or archived, and whether I needed to change anything in my current workflow. As I read through years of old pocket notebooks, what struck me was how easy it was to remember things - even specific days seven or eight years ago - simply by reviewing short to-do lists and other notes I made for myself. Next thing I knew, a couple of hours had passed and I decided that I was going to pick the hobby back up.

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2013-2015 were peak “pocket notebook” years for me. I miss having this informal “daily record,” and plan to pick up the practice once again.

Unlike traditional journaling or commonplacing, my pocket notebooks don’t have any set format, and mostly amount to a collection of short lists, reminders, and random stream-of-consciousness jottings. These notebooks essentially serve the same purpose as scratch paper, only I have all of my random musings gathered together in one place as opposed to scattered around my desk on post-its and the backs of old grocery lists. Here I’ve put together a set of links to various pocket notebooks and pocket notebook accessories I’ve used over the years, including many available for purchase in the TGS Curated Shop. Enjoy!

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1. Field Notes Archival Wooden Box. I finally added a Field Notes Archival Box to my personal collection, which let me get these stacks of filled notebooks off my bookshelf and into some discernible order. The set comes with dividers that you can use to organize your collection (I went with organization by years), as well as a Field Notes “band of rubber.”

2. Field Notes Pocket Notebooks. I carried Field Notes exclusively for years, but as I moved into larger format notebooks, and didn’t use as many, I allowed my subscription to lapse. I’m still working my way through what I’d call a “backlog,” and the unused pocket notebooks pictured in my . That said, if you’re in need of Field Notes, or a new pocket carry enthusiast looking to stock up, I now carry the full line.

3. Write Notepads Copper Anniversary Edition Pocket Notebooks. For fountain pen enthusiasts who don’t want to carry anything else, it can be hard to find a pocket notebook containing paper that will hold up to any pen or ink you can throw at it. These Write Notepads pocket notebooks will do the trick (plus they still fit in the Field Notes Archival Box).

4. Lamy Pico Ballpoint Pen (via Vanness Pens). Lamy makes one of my favorite pocket ballpoints of all time, the extendable Lamy Pico. Not only does it have a great refill, but the pen itself is comfortable to write with for extended periods of time - rare for a ballpoint this compact. Read my review here.

5. Caran D’Ache 849 Ballpoint (via T.G.S. Curated Shop). With Retro 51 supposedly winding down operations later this year, which company will replace Retro as your go-to source for fun, reasonably priced pens that work for most people? Caran D’Ache is certainly trying, having released a steady stream of special editions in their 849 Ballpoint. This pen grows on you, and I personally love the fact that the barrel features a hexagonal shape reminiscent of a woodcase pencil.

6. Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil (via Pen Chalet). For those who prefer a mechanical pencil, if you’re looking for pocket carry I’d recommend going with something that features a retractable tip. The Rotring 800 generally takes the same shape and build as the legendary Rotring 600, only the retractable pipe means that you won’t stab yourself in the leg when you sit down. Read my review here.

7. Retro 51 Tornado Rollerball (via Goldspot). In my experience, liquid ink rollerballs tend to bleed and feather on the same level as fountain pens in pocket notebooks, but if you enjoy quirky limited editions you can’t get much better than the Retro 51 Tornado. The sad news is that Retro 51 is closing up shop by the end of the year. Before then, be sure to check out Goldspot’s exclusive “Pizza” Exclusive Limited Edition!

8. CW&T Pen Type-B. Looking for the ultimate in high-end pocket carry? Consider adding a CW&T Pen Type-B to your rotation. This deliberately “over-engineered”, indestructible masterpiece of industrial design features Pilot’s Hi-Tec-C needlepoint gel refill, and could almost certainly be the last pen you’d ever need. (Not that it would be. We all know how that works.) Read my review here.

9. Pokka Pens. Or perhaps you’d prefer a pen that you don’t have to worry about losing. Designed as an easily replaceable version of the Fisher Space Pen “Bullet” Pen, the Pokka sells in packs of three in a wide range of fun colors. I have these scattered all over my house, in my car, and even one on my keychain (look for these new accessories soon).

10. Schon DSGN “Pocket Six” Fountain Pen (via Schon DSGN). Last but not least, pocket pen impresario Ian Schon has added a fountain pen to his lineup of everyday carry writing instruments. He’s currently offering an “online pen show” of sorts, with the Pocket Six available in a wide range of cool colors. Stay tuned for my review of this epic new addition to my pocket writing arsenal, coming soon.

Personal Journaling Setup Part 2: Revisiting the Commonplace Book

One of the (admittedly few) benefits of the lockdown earlier this year was that all the time at home really jumpstarted my reading. Without a daily commute, I find myself with blocks of unoccupied “extra” hours for the first time in years. I’ve tried to fill most of it with constructive activity like reading, a favorite pastime that I’ve neglected over the years as we’ve all been pushed increasingly online. It’s also given me the opportunity to address an issue that’s concerned me for some time: I feel like I don’t have a good system for organizing and retaining what I read, particularly nonfiction. This, to me, presents a real problem and a serious opportunity to put the pens and paper I love to actual use in real life. The solution is obvious - start a commonplace book - but with so many options out there for tracking and organizing information, both analogue and digital, where do you even begin?

What Is a Commonplace Book?

A commonplace book, in its most basic form, is a type of scrapbook in which you record quotations, passages, aphorisms, notes, and more from your reading. Think of it as your own personalized encyclopedia, curated from the books, articles, or whatever other inputs you process throughout the day. A commonplace book is distinct from a traditional journal in that you record information, as opposed to serving as a place for thoughts and reflections.

Commonplace books have been around since the Renaissance, use by writers and scholars from Isaac Newton to Mark Twain to Virginia Woolf. Originally, of course, commonplace books were actual books. Today, modern practitioners use everything from index cards organized in boxes to digital apps. I don’t plan to address the digital option - part of the reason why I’m drawn to the idea of a commonplace book is because I process and retain information much better when I write it down by hand. That really leaves me with two options: notecards and notebooks. While each has its own advantages in terms of ease of organization and indexing (notecards) and long-term durability (notebooks), it probably won’t surprise most readers to hear that I’m a notebook guy.

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When I read, I typically take notes in the margins or in a pocket notebook, and if it’s a key passage I want to remember (or, going forward, record in my commonplace book), I’ll mark the passage with a Book Dart.

Why a Notebook?

Honestly? Mainly because I’m a creature of habit. I enjoy the act of writing in a notebook, I’ve become accustomed over the years to jotting stuff down on loosely indexed pages, and I’m not doing academic research or organizing large amounts of information for a longer writing project. If you fall into the latter category, you probably really want to consider index cards, or even a digital option, because it will make it much easier to track sources for attribution, etc. My own commonplace book will be for my personal enjoyment and to source material for the occasional blog post, so I can live with the inefficiencies.

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One thing I love about Write Notepads’ new Classic Hardcover is that you can easily maintain a continuous matching set as you fill up notebooks, or separate your notes by subject matter using different colors.

More Importantly, Which Notebook?

The answer to this question is: whatever notebook you will use regularly. Find something that’s relatively portable, contains paper versatile enough to use with the full range of writing instruments you use in a typical day, and finally, isn’t so nice that you’ll be afraid to use it. Most importantly, choose something durable that will hold up over time. Personally, my notebook of choice is a Write Notepads Classic Hardcover Notebook (which, full disclosure, I sell in my shop). Not only does this casebound hardcover notebook contain high quality, versatile paper, but the cover will hold up to repeated perusing over the years, and the notebook stores nicely on a shelf. If you like to organize your reading notes into volumes by subject, as many people do, it’s easy to pick up a matching set of notebooks, and you can even use different colors to signify subject matter. Other great options to consider are the Baron Fig Confidant and the MOO Hardcover Notebook. But use whatever you want - I write here about my own personal preferences, and as I always say on this blog, the key is to find something that works for YOU.

I plan to track my commonplace book project moving forward, either on Instagram or here on the blog. In addition to writing out quotes and passages that I find meaningful to me, I may even incorporate clippings from articles or paper notes. I’ve been following with interest Brad’s visual journal project over at the Pen Addict, and I’ve got the glue sticks and Washi Tape. If only I could find decent pair of scissors….

My 2019 Journaling Setup: Nanami Paper Cafe Note and Midori 5-Years Journal

I was on the Hobonichi Techo bandwagon for a while, using everyone’s favorite A6 Japanese planner as a one-page-a-day journal. I actually have three of them filled up from 2016-2018. Although I liked the Hobonichi, I wanted something slightly less structured, that offered me the flexibility to write more than a page on one day, and sometimes skip a day with less “journaling guilt.” Some days absolutely nothing of note happens, right, much less nothing that justifies wasting a full page of precious Tomoe River!

Enter the Nanami Paper Cafe Note B6. I’ve long enjoyed the Nanami Paper Seven Seas series, both the original “Writer” and the “Crossfield,” but a couple years back they released the “Cafe Note,” which is a smaller Tomoe River notebook measuring roughly 4 x 7 inches in what is referred to as the Japanese “Shinsho” size. You can read more about the background of the notebook on the Nanami Paper website, but what’s notable is that this size book was “created for rail commuters that spend a lot of time standing in trains and hanging out in cafes between trains or after work.” In other words, if you’re looking for a highly portable notebook that’s easy to slip into a bag and write with in a coffee shop, on a train or airplane, or anywhere else space is at a premium, consider the Cafe Note.

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Small grid ruling with lots of boxes for organizing/summarizing notes? Count me in.

This layout works much better for me than the A6 Hobonichi. For starters, I appreciate that the Cafe Note is rather long and narrow, like these hardback Kunisawa “Find” notebooks, since I do much of my writing and note-taking in list or bullet format. Some people dislike the boxes at the top and bottom, but I find it convenient for organizing my notebook entries by date and topic. Finally, the grid/graph ruling is pretty small, but I have small handwriting so it works for me. Nanami Paper makes a lined version if grid isn’t your thing.

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At the end of the day, I did miss having a classic diary or “daily journal” to record the mundane happenings of life. For Christmas my family gave me a Vanness gift card, which I cashed in on a Midori 5-Years Diary. To me, the beauty of this particular journal is how easy it is to use consistently. There’s a page for each day of the month (including February 29 for those years), with each page broken down into five sections containing five lines each. I don’t care how boring the day was, you can always find one thing to record, and I recall that after I had used my old Levenger 5-Year Journal for a few years it was quite enjoyable to write each day’s entry and see exactly what I was doing and/or thinking one or two years earlier. I don’t have a perfect record of daily entries, but I’ve been pretty good so far.

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Noticing a trend here, size-wise?

Takeaways and Where to Buy

This particular setup has worked well for me in 2019, and in all likelihood I will continue it next year. The great thing about the Midori 5-Years Diary is - wait for it - that you only have to purchase it every five years, and the Nanami Paper Cafe Note has so many pages that it will also last you a long time. I do use an annual paper planner, the Jibun Techo 3-in-1 A5 Slim, for tracking tasks and logging things, but I plan to hold the review on that particular tool until the 2020 versions are released in the Fall.

I purchased my Midori 5-Year Diary from Vanness Pens, and it comes with either a red or black cover. At first glance, it’s not inexpensive at $42, but then again you’re only purchasing the Diary once every five years, so that’s $8 annually. The Nanami Paper Cafe Note “Slim B6” can be purchased directly from Nanami Paper, priced at $18, which to me represents an exceptional bargain given that you’re getting 384 pages of Tomoe River Paper. A ruled version is also available. If you’d like to add the Gfeller natural leather cover shown in my pictures, you can purchase it separately for $68.

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates.

Journal Review: Trigg Life Mapper

I’m going to go ahead and call this a “journal review” to dispel any illusion about what I feel is a common misconception about this product: that it’s a “daily planner” intended to be carried around as a calendar replacement. No, the Trigg “Life Mapper” is what the company describes as a “productivity and mindfulness diary that transforms your goals into success,” by bringing “planning, habits, and mindfulness to a full journal format.” In other words, it’s a journal designed to guide your periodic (yearly, monthly, weekly, daily) reflection on your personal and professional goals, not to track your schedule. The Life Mapper has generally been favorably received, winning awards including “Best Diary” at the 2018 UK Calendar awards (which may have contributed towards some misconceptions about the product), and “Best New Product” at the 2017 London Stationery Show.

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Sure, there’s an annual calendar at the front, but as you can see it’s for big-picture stuff only (unless you write really small).

So Who Is The Targeted Audience for the Trigg and How Does This Thing Work?

The Life Mapper has been around for a few years, and was originally a Kickstarter project designed, and since tweaked, with input from the internet productivity community. If you follow productivity blogs and podcasts (which I’ll admit to dabbling in), you will recognize many of the goal-setting and “life mapping” concepts from books like Getting Things Done, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The One Thing, and others. (By the way, another excellent online resource organized around of many of these same ideas is Shawn Blanc’s “The Focus Course,” especially if you’re looking for a more open-ended tool than the fairly rigid, condensed Life Mapper.)

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The front section of the Life Mapper has a section to set annual, big-picture goals in each of four broad categories: self, work, passion, and relationships.

The Life Mapper uses the following process, summarized at a very high level:

• Annual Forecast. At the beginning of each year, you do an “annual forecast” or planning session and set “big picture” goals for what you want to accomplish.

• Goal-Setting and Progress-Tracking. Using the Life Mapper, you put these goals into four categories, which Trigg labels “Self,” “Work,” “Passion,” and “Relationships.” You set annual and weekly sub-goals, using the weekly and daily planning pages to make progress towards the “big picture.”

• Regular Reviews. Periodically take stock of your progress. The Life Mapper includes sections for six-month and year-end self-assessments, though you can do this as often as you want.

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The daily layout in the Trigg Life Mapper, which includes an inspirational quote or productivity tip, a space to organize tasks and goals in order of urgency, a section for “appointments,” and a blank space for open-ended writing/reflection/notes.

I’ve obviously not had time to work my way through the “process” set out in the 2019 Life Mapper, but I’ve used similar productivity techniques in the past and found that they do tend to work for me. The year that this blog really took off was actually the year that I was pretty strict in terms of setting goals and benchmarks for my writing and regularly tracking my progress. If you juggle multiple side hustles, or work in a job where you have to track multiple projects and/or develop new business and manage relationships with multiple long-term clients, you might find the techniques reflected here helpful. Even if you don’t adhere to the somewhat rigid structure set out in the Trigg, any sort of process that forces you to distill and refocus on those tasks and goals that are truly important (as opposed to a lot of the busywork that fills our days) can be quite useful, and even powerful.

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In the middle and at the end of each year, the Trigg Life Mapper contains a section where you can assess your progress in the various categories.

So enough about productivity. How does the Trigg Life Mapper work as a stationery product? For starters, the 90 gsm paper is great. I tested a few fountain pens in the blank pages at the back, including one very wet stub nib, and while the paper is absorbent there was no bleed-through or feathering. The binding also appears durable, and I can see this sturdy book easily lasting a year, even if you lug it around with you day-to-day.

A few additional observations, both pros and cons:

• Each daily page features a productivity tip or motivational quote, something I really enjoyed from my time with the Hobonichi Planner.

• While I like the embossed design on the front, I do wish there were additional color schemes other than the turquoise/yellow.

• While you can interpret the four categories however you want, based on your own personal goals and objective, I would have liked a couple of open categories to add a bit more flexibility, though this is likely impractical given that it would add bulk to an already thick journal.

• The “Appointments” section on the daily page seems a bit incongruous. The Life Mapper clearly isn’t a calendar, and if an appointment is important enough to write down here, I would think that it would fall within the urgent/non-urgent task boxes. The extra space could have been used for more open “journaling” space (though of course you can just ignore the “appointments” section and do this anyway).

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The Trigg Life Mapper is one thick notebook: check it out compared against a Baron Fig Confidant in leather cover!

Takeaways and Where to Buy

I’m the target audience for the Trigg Life Mapper, so I like the product. I may even use it this year, since it dovetails with the type of planning and goal-setting I do already. That said, it’s not for everyone, and if you’re considering making a purchase you should be aware that it’s a very structured product, unlike something like the Hobonichi Techo.

You can purchase the 2019 Trigg Life Mapper directly from Trigg. They have an Etsy Store as well, and The Gentleman Stationer is an Etsy affiliate, so if you’d like to help support the blog one easy way to do it is to purchase via my affiliate links, with no added cost to you. Either way, the price looks to be around $40 US shipped. I would get your order in soon to ensure delivery by January 1, especially if you are outside the UK, where Trigg is located.

Disclaimer: Trigg provided me with the journal featured here for review purposes, free of charge. This post contains affiliate links.

Notebook Review: Central Crafts Handmade Leather Journals

I was recently contacted by Central Crafts, a UK-based retailer of notebooks, journals, and photo albums, as well as other quirky handmade goods from around the world (such as these amazing animal-themed ceramic coffee mugs). Central Crafts is a family run business located in Hertfordshire, and "passionate about finding and making handmade, quality, ethically sourced products for our organically grown customers which now reach across the globe."  

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The company carries a wide range of leather notebooks and journals from Italy, India, and Thailand, and I selected a notebook to review from their Italian Artisan Journals line: the "Cortona" handmade leather bound journal in the "large" (A5-ish) size. The cover is a smooth leather that is very soft to the touch, and feels like the leather on a high-end briefcase or purse. There's a reason for this: the Italian journals sold by Central Crafts are handmade in Florence, Italy under the "Leatherkind" mark by a small family run manufacturer with over 50 years of experience. They apparently use the same "Spazzolato" leather that is usually reserved for high-end designer handbags. More information can be found on the Central Crafts website.  

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What drew me to the Cortona journal was the two-tone color scheme. I love the contrast between the black leather cover and the light brown edging and stitching. I opted to have my initials embossed on the cover, for which there is a slight upcharge.  

The Cortona contains lined ivory paper, which appears to be the only option available for this particular notebook, but it looks like there may be a blank paper option available in the other sizes. I know, many people would prefer a graph or dot grid option, but for a personal journal or commonplace book - which is what I think I'll use this notebook for - lined pages will work just fine. The paper itself handled most inks very well, including liquid-ink rollerballs and fountain pens.  

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I had no serious issues with feathering or bleedthrough on the paper. With one of my extremely wet Montblanc medium nibs, I experienced some minor feathering that you would have to stare pretty hard to see, as well as some pinpoint bleedthrough/show-through on the reverse side of the page. Neither rendered the page unusable, and I'd compare the paper to that used in the Leuchtturm 1917 notebook or early versions of the Baron Fig Confidant.  

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Takeaways/Where to Buy

I've been using my Cortona as a "commonplace book" for reading notes, and I've enjoyed having this item on my desk. The only drawback is that a journal this nice is non-refillable, so once you use it up you have to purchase another one. That said, the price is reasonable (£29) for an item of this quality, and refillable journals are also available if you prefer.

Fans of leather notebooks and journals should definitely check out what Central Crafts has to offer. In addition to the more traditional Italian line, they offer what they refer to as Indian Rustic Journals, as well as a line made in Thailand out of sustainably sourced tree bark. They also carry a range of home goods and other handmade products from around the world.

Many thanks to Alma and the team at Central Crafts for making this review possible! 

Disclaimer: The product featured in this review was sent to me free of charge by Central Crafts for review purposes.