Moleskines – Back to basics

‘My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.’  – Ernest Hemingway

Last week I spoke about the importance of having the right tools for the job, and in that particular post I was refering  to simple DIY jobs around the house. This rule can  also applies to your place of work, obviously  if your line of work involves working in a trade, however the same theory can apply to pen pushers like me.

At my place of work I  often get the comment “Hey, that’s a nice looking notebook” and although this may sound weird, I actually get exited. What happens next is that  I  then proceed to inform my colleague the benefit of owning such a historical object of note taking. “ Turn your  back on technology and get back to the basics”, I inform them, but sadly, I don’t have much of a success rate and the usual response is,

” but my iPhone does all this”   err, yeh technically it does, but do you use it?

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not anti technology, but the satisfaction of writing your thoughts down, your creative ides, notes and ticking off your to do list  is so exiting! ( uh oh, I think its getting weird again?)

I  speak from experience,  and you name it I have had/tried it, from those old Sharp electronic organisers,  to the ultimate in PDA, the Palm hand held.  Backing up, syncing, charging, etc,  it all got to much!  Realising, that I needed to get back to the basics, I came across Moleskine notebooks and straight away the  Palm was Ebay.

Heres how my notebooks work for me

• Both my large and small notebooks are plain ruled but “hacked” to my liking. The larger work notebook has a simple line drawn on the top of each page with the month in the left corner, everytime I need to write something down it goes under a suitable heading and date. Later in the year, if need to cross reference or check back on anything, its all there. It has also  saved my arse a couple of times! 
• The smaller Moleskine has been hacked to show a two page week, which also leaves me with about 90 pages to write/draw anything I want. I am a bit of a to do list addict,  and each day I usually write down something simple I want to achieve that day. With the empty note pages that are left, I set it out like the larger moleskine, but as a rule, it won’t contain anything work related, just my own creative thoughts and ideas.

Now, these notebooks are a bit pricier than your average notepad, but what you will find it that your note taking will now count for more. Dont put junk in as you will only get junk out. These are fine notebooks so treat em fine with quality information and they should last you out for a whole year. I am very picky as to what is worthy enough to go in my Moleskine. 

So if you feel a bit overwhelmed by your collection of gadgets, how about you try and leave the phone for making calls, and get back to the basics.

Its very satisfying.

Enjoy

Tagged as: hemingway, moleskine, notebook