I love paper writing, I think it represents one of the very best things of humanity - tool use, abstract thought.
But I really cant disagree with the use of moleskine more. It's paper quality has really gone downhill lately.
So I recommend http://www.leuchtturm1917.com/en - the features are the ones you want (similar to moleskine) and the paper quality is top notch.
Once you have switched to a quality paper, consider using a fountain pen. Aside from the style issues, the pen and writing quality is so awesome. The feel is out of this world, and sends a major signal to other people.
Conversely, I can recommend those generic lab books* with gridded pages. You can find them at any grocery store. They're $3 max, and more durable that recent Moleskines. I also recommend Pilot pens that are <$3 a pop, because they just work, and you'll end up losing it anyway. And they won't leak on you.
I'm not sure what kind of signal it sends to other people, though. I can't find myself to care about that when it comes to what pens and paper I use.
Can a lefty safely use a modern fountain pen? I've always stuck to the higher end "mass-market" pens since I end up wearing/smearing the ink of better pens.
I'm a lefty who uses a lamy safari. I'm pretty darn happy with it and use it every day. Also use noodlers heart of darkness ink which is both a lovely vibrant black, and also adheres to the paper but not my hand!
Try a quick-drying ink from Noodler's, such as Bernake Blue or Bernake Black. I'm a big fan of the Platinum Preppy with an o-ring to seal the whole body allowing you to fill it with ink—it's dirt cheap and writes very well. I recently picked up a Pilot Metropolitan, slightly more money but again, impressive value and it comes with a converter (which is like a cartridge that lets you refill with your own ink).
To add to what the others have said, besides writing overhand (so your hand doesn't drag across what you just wrote), look for smaller nibs, drier inks, as well as more absorbent paper. Anything that will make the ink set faster instead of staying on top of the paper.
I'm not sure what the exact problem is with writing left-handed.
I have been switching between writing right-handed arabic and english all my life with every kind of pen available, it has never been a problem. I never even noticed there's a difference.
I have a carbon fibre and silver Caran D'Arche. It cost me GB£ 500 seven years ago, and I use it daily. It, and my watch (a Breitling Navitimer) are the only things I've ever bought where I was able to perfectly balance utility, quality and aesthetics, and hence didn't care less about the cost.
The point is that what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another.
There are whole networks of fountain pen afficionatos with reviews, writing samples, etc for pens, paper, and inks. It's amazing. However, if you're starting out, I recommend getting a cheap pen and then move up if you feel the need.
The cheap Pilot Varsity disposable ones are a fantastic starter FP, as they cost about $3, a tenth (or less) of the price of a Good Fountain Pen. Ink isn't changeable, but the leaking is minimal. (They aren't waterproof, though.)
The advantage is, if you decide you don't like it, you aren't stuck with it, and if you lose it or loan it out, no big deal. I also like that Staples tends to sell them in a pack of three colors.
I've also used the Bic one [1]. It's also OK, and is partially waterproof, but its cap drives me bonkers. It's been a long time since I used one, though, as the pads at current employer bleed a bit when I used my fountain pens. I liked writing on the sugarcane spiral bound pads from Staples because they were so smooth.
can you go to a stationary store or art supplies that deals in Waterman, Cross, Mont Blanc etc and try a bunch. Mostly they have gold nibs which make the ink flow really nicely, but they all balance and fit your hand differently, and after a while, the nib softens to how you write
I'm not a fan of the lab books — they don't lie flat enough for me — but I do like my gridded notebook (high-quality company swag notebook courtesy of ipHouse). When that notebook fills, I'm not sure what I'll use to replace it.
I also really like Zebra F-301 (and compatible) pens. Inexpensive enough to justify easily buying (and buying again when I lose them), good enough to be worth buying refills for. I keep at least a black one, and often blue, everywhere I am likely to need a pen (home desk, work desk, bag). And the F-301 Compact is often in my pocket when I don't have my bag with me.
I've spent the past 8 years (just finished 6 years at university), trying to convince others to hop on grided paper. Probably the single most important part of my note taking strategy.
I like the Pilot "Precise V5" rollerball pens, and I use them a lot, and they hardly ever leak --- except they do seem to leak with significant probability if I carry them on an airplane. Possibly that's the source of your disagreement about leaks.
If you fill a fountain pen completely before air travel, it shouldn't leak (no air inside to act as a pressure differential). Also keep the pen pointing tip up.
The "major signal" is that you take your writing serious enough to invest in proper tools. Not a big deal in itself, but every subtle signal tells others that you are solid, and down to business. If you are worried about seeming too pretentious, if someone makes a comment about your pen, just casually mention that they are making a comeback, or something about it not being expensive. For example, some of the lower end Parker ones (Jotter, Frontier, Urban) are around the $20 mark.
Other things that send signals, include the way you dress (don't have to wear a tux everywhere you go, but wear clothes that fit, and have a sturdy look to them). Also it is helpful to work on your speaking skills, so that you speak with inflection and purpose. For example, listen to the difference between a radio host, and call in listeners.
To go a bit more meta, the question is, who are you? Who do you want to be? Who do you want people to perceive you as?
Using a fountain pen hits all the highlights to these questions.
Besides, it's just plain old COOL to be using a writing technology that is over 200 years old. The quality pens feel amazing, and encourage additional note taking for me.
Another advantage to paper notes: They arent searchable. Yup you heard me, NOT SEARCHABLE. Oh wait, you say, I want to search my notes... so I put everything in email. Then I get fired. And my boss owns my private notes. Oops.
I dunno, I recently bought a fountain pen and have been using it everywhere. It's just nicer and easier to write with. Short notes, long notes, journals, books, whatever.
Typing and writing long-hand produce different kinds of prose for me. I like to alternate. My typed prose is a bit jerkier, with a higher density of facts or points, while my long-hand prose has a more conversational flow.
And my hands start to ache if I use a ballpoint too long. Ever tried taking 5 hours of notes at a math conference with a crappy ballpoint? And live-texing is fine until you've got more pictures than text...
No, that was just the first premise, the point was "you're better off typing it". They were implying that a fountain pen is a waste because it's only useful in situation you should be avoiding.
I don't like having to hold a notebook open with two hands during a meeting. So I skip the Moleskine that doesn't fold over on itself (though I appreciate the Evernote edition), and go with a Japanese graph paper notebook that has a spiral binding, micro perf pages you can tear out and hand someone, tiny faint graph lines, and exquisite writing feel:
I find these at a local Jerry's Artarama. They carry Maruman paper pads for speciality art media, and don't mind stocking the graph pads as well. By having it a regular stock item, it ends up under $5 a pad.
The Leuchtturm1917 is a very quality book. I switched from Moleskine myself and can't go back. The pre-numbered pages and table of contents is a life-saver. And the paper quality is somewhere in the realm of where Moleskine likely started at (I remember them being quite good at one point).
The way I use note-taking on pen-and-paper is not so much to stay organized as it is to train my thinking. I tend to be a lateral thinker and taking notes is a way of capturing thoughts as they come to me so that I can refine them and learn to organize them. I have found that in the >5-6 years I've been following the practice that I tend to collect my thoughts in streams now compared to when I started when my thoughts were much more sporadic.
The best notebooks I've found yet I stumbled upon in stationary stores in Greece. They are A5, 50 sheets, with flexible covers and small grids. And cost ~1.5 euro each (I bought 10 of them). They are school notebooks, similar to the composition notebooks we have, except a little thiner, with soft covers, and slightly smaller. I don't know where to get them elsewhere (this looks similar, but no guarantee: http://www.kapsis.gr/product.php?products_id=4127), but I wish I could - the size, page count, flexibility (they'll lie flat, can have the covers folded back) is better than anything I've used, and they don't cost $10 each (or $20+ for some of the ridiculous ones). Cheap enough that I use them for everything, but nice enough that numerous people have asked where they can get them. I just wish someone would import them / make a similar product here :)
I was a little unimpressed with Moleskine paper when I bought one of their notebooks a few years ago. Now I use artists' sketch books (Rowney, Daler, Bright White of Brighton in the UK). Paper around 100 g/m^2 is a good balance between taking any form of ink/pencil and getting a reasonable number of pages in a book.
Genuinely curious, what signal do you think it sends? I typically put a lot thought into my physical stuff, but I do not have any connotation, positive or negative, regarding fountain pen usage. If I saw a person using a fountain pen, I would probably think, "That person must like pens. Cool." and that would be about the extent of it.
The bound notebook thing is totally a silly hipster retro fetish. Ringed binders make so much more sense for notes and planning. Insert, remove, and rearrange pages as needed. Bind in irregular bits of paper with those plastic sheet protectors. Add labeled dividers as needed. Add computer printouts!
The only thing to use a bound notebook for is a chronological journal.
This is awesome. Whenever I don't feel like getting things done (i.e. I feel like procrastinating) one of the best ways is to go do research on methods of getting things done ;)
I've been trying to "go backwards" with my note taking and writing in general. I've been using OneNote on my workstation and/or Evernote on my smart phone (HTC One at the moment).
Recently I upgraded my note-taking tools from Moleskine + Sharpie Pen to Midori Traveler's Notebook + Fountain Pen / Blackwing 602 Pencil. I also carry a couple of Field Notes on the go; you just don't know when that next-big-thing-idea will strike you. I make sure to capture it in ink when I catch it!
MarlonPro, if you're ever in the market for a new or replacement fountain pen, check out the Lamy Safari[1]. I have written with very expensive (OMAS, MtBlanc, Caran D'Ache, ...) fountain pens and the Lamy Safari is better than most (and dirt cheap!).
http://www.lamyusa.com/fountain_main_safari.php
>I found out that I am more inspired to write/take notes when I have better writing tools.
Very interesting. I worry that I'd be affected in the opposite way - if my paper is too nice, I wouldn't want to waste it on notes with marginal value, whereas if the paper is crummy copy paper, I have no reservations in scrawling all over it.
Agreed. There's an emotional reward I get from not only writing with my Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen on a nice piece of Rhodia paper, but also from seeing a clean and well-organized task list or set of notes written with good penmanship. That emotional reward really helps reinforce and perpetuate good habits, and it's something that's sorely lacking from working with electronic solutions.
That being said, my phone is much better at automating my repeating reminders.
> not only writing with my Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen on a nice piece of Rhodia paper
> That emotional reward really helps reinforce and perpetuate good habits
Please take note of the fact that a large part of the "emotional reward" is the fact that you use a Brand Name fountain pen on a Brand Name paper.
In my opinion, the "good habit" that rich people like you should reinforce is charity and not generating happiness just from the fact you're able to purchase premium vanity objects.
What a hilariously irrelevant, tangential, presumptuous response. You must be fun at cocktail parties. Do you also tell people about how they shouldn't enjoy their shoes because they were stitched up by some poor sap in a sweatshop? I hear that goes over like gangbusters too.
Also, buying expensive items is not touted as a good habit, but as a mean to perpetuate a good habit.
Charity is a very good habit, and there are other ways to reinforce charity. Having a better personal life because of awesome note-taking could be an enabler.
Do many people's minds really work like that? You are struck by a great idea out of the blue, and then you lose it minutes later?
If I think of something important, I will generally remember it for a long time. It's only things like errands ("What did I need again...? Oh yes, butter") that I tend to forget.
I think you would be amazed at the sheer quantity of stuff that you forget. Looking back at old journals is always surprising and fascinating, even the stuff that back then seemed mundane. Writing is a way of augmenting one's working memory. Things that would otherwise flow off like water on a duck get another chance.
> Do many people's minds really work like that? You are struck by a great idea out of the blue, and then you lose it minutes later?
I've found that as I've gotten older (and more busy) it's really important to keep notes. In my younger years I was more mentally agile and also more single-focused, and I got away with being not-very-rigorous with note taking (either digital or analog).
I would say not great ideas, but small ones. One's I'd like to revisit in 6 months' time and mull over, connect the dots, etc.
I've been keeping a "sparks" log (can't remember where I read this, somewhere on HN) where I just jot down small ideas for side projects, etc. when I have them.
Then when I have some free time, I pick an idea off the list and try working on it.
This is not at all about taking notes? It is about managing todos and events on paper?
Does anybody have a good system for taking notes during a meeting on paper? I prefer digital tools, but recently I've been doing many presentations with screen-sharing, where I cannot type at my computer.
I use a system similar to the Bullet Journal for notes during meetings. I label the top of the page with the meeting name and the date. Then, I take notes with check boxes next to every line that requires me to do something (even if that means reminding someone else to do something). If you want to incorporate it into your digital note taking, just check off each line as you transfer it (or use arrows or something similar).
Or if you are left-handed. I like the looks I get, but writing left-handed just isn't fun. Everything, from the way English is written to how notebooks are constructed, is designed around writing right-handed.
Play around with some different pens until you find one you enjoy writing with. Play around with some different notebooks/papers until you find one of those you enjoy too. It can be harder for us lefties to have fun, but it's only impossible if you've given up my friend.
I'm not left handed, and have never tried this, but you might take notes in mirrored writing, like Da Vinci did, and then flip the image when you scan it. Learning shorthand might also help.
I'm left handed. I've tried mirror writing and I was amazed at how easily and quickly I picked it up. The problem is that _reading_ mirrored writing is a lot harder, especially cursive writing. It's difficult to stop interpreting the shapes from left to right, it's hard to see where a letter starts and ends. You have to completely relearn whole-word reading, from the level of a 5 year old, it feels like.
One benefit of the mirror writing is that my regular writing looks better. I'm paying more attention to the shapes I make while writing (as a sort of low-priority, automatic background task).
Notebooks rarely need to be this organized. If I switched to the Bullet Journal system, I'd spend more time setting up pages and copying notes than I did getting actual work done.
For time-related tasks and events, I have used Day-Planners, Franklin-Covey planners, and PlannerPads. I pick one with enough space for the notes I usually make each day. This saves me the trouble of creating the month index pages.
For general notes, I have used regular blank notebooks, with an index page in the front. When I refer to some notes I took more than once or twice, I add a line to the index page, with some title and the page number. That makes it easy to find it again.
I solve the "people think I'm doing email" problem by telling people: "I'm taking notes, not checking email" :-) Especially at interviews, so they know I'm really paying attention.
I could duplicate this system in Microsoft Word and save tremendous time typing. If I'm emailing in your meeting, then most likely the meeting or my full attention is not needed.
I have found that for me, Workflowy provides an excellent platform for taking notes and is great for organization. Its simplicity is actually a key feature. I find I miss having certain features sometimes such as being able to link between different lists but really, it starts to get complicated once you include these features.
If you're looking for a notebook that's made specifically for this kind of thing, I'd check out the Action Method series from Creative's Outfitter. They all use high-quality materials, and many of them have task lists built in:
My only big hangup with paper notes is that they aren't digitally backed up. I always end up re-copying everything into EverNote and throwing the paper notes away.
Any suggestions on how to easily backup handwritten notes online?
Mailing means a dark period when when you no longer have your notes with you but still can't see them online.
IMHO that would have been acceptable when you needed a scanner but is hard to justify now compared to the immediacy of taking photos with a phone.
Still, there may be a place for mailing old notes in bulk, ones you barely touch but can't make yourself just throw out.
"Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine: Fill this book with ideas and sketches, then let the Evernote mobile app bring them to your computer, phone and tablet with a simple snapshot."
I've used the EchoPen, and really love it. It records synced audio along with your written notes, and digitizes both of them. You can back them up on your computer or with Evernote etc.
This isn't really note taking, it's task scheduling. I was hoping for a guide to taking better notes so I can go back to an event quickly and remember what was said.
I find it astounding that someone went to the effort of making that video. Of the people who do use paper, who doesn't work like this, or do something very similar?
I don't. I love working with paper, but I have zero organization. So I end up with stacks of uneven paper pieces with notes all over the place.
For me this post has been really helpful. I am going to try this system out!
p.s. I have always found funny the sort of passive disdain organized people have for those that are not organized. As though organization is something that should be innate in everybody.
I am deeply disorganised myself. Without keeping track of things I'd be all over the place. I find the tactility of paper beats computer-based organisation solutions hands down.
But once you have a notepad in front of you I can't really see any other way of doing it, especially for someone with a technical type of brain. You need date headings, you need bullet points for items, you need tasks to check off, you need a way of representing ticked-off-ness and a way to carry tasks forward. The problem kind of defines the solution automatically.
I went through a couple moleskines, cahiers too. Tried the Lamy Safari, the TWSBI, the Signo Bit, the Sliccis, etc. There's something to be admired there but I've moved on. Bic ballpoints on 32lb printer paper on a clipboard is simplest way for me to write. No ink reservoirs, no scratchy nibs, no bleed-through. I never run out of room. It's simple and it works.
Out of curiosity, my company is "green" and getting them to buy non-recycled notebooks is like getting them to give me six months of vacation. Anybody know of high quality recycled notebooks, all the ones I've used are very "meh".
I love writing on the "Sustainable Earth" notebooks from Staples [1]. The only thing I dislike is that the pages are perforated so they tear more easily than I'd prefer in a long-term notebook.
At only a few dollars, I don't feel bad scribbling on one or two pages, and then tearing them out and re-writing them more neatly afterwards. The paper is made mainly of recycled sugar cane, and is an absolute joy to write on. They also sell printer paper of the same.
That's why I originally bought it -- and discovered that it was amazing. The form factor of the notebooks (hard covers, spiralbound) are great as well- my only wish is that I could buy ones that were not perforated for easy tearing, or ones with a grid.
Org-mode is great, but I think there's validity to his point that taking notes on a laptop during meetings (especially with external people) can come across as rude.
Running emacs on a tablet might alleviate this a bit (if you've got it flat on the table in front of you, at least people can see you're taking notes and not emailing / chatting). However, getting emacs / org-mode on my Android tablet has proven a bit challenging.
But I really cant disagree with the use of moleskine more. It's paper quality has really gone downhill lately.
So I recommend http://www.leuchtturm1917.com/en - the features are the ones you want (similar to moleskine) and the paper quality is top notch.
Once you have switched to a quality paper, consider using a fountain pen. Aside from the style issues, the pen and writing quality is so awesome. The feel is out of this world, and sends a major signal to other people.