New year, new tools

2021 is a new year! I’ve been slowly ramping up my logging and notebooking routine, and this year I’ve reached new heights of pretension for my analogue note-taking setup:

From bottom to top:

A Leuchtturm 1917 dotted hardcover A5 notebook, in sky blue, for my notebook. This is where I take notes on various projects. I’ve kept a notebook on-and-off from my mid-teens, although I feel like I only got seriously into it around when I started university. Not sure what it is that makes me pick the Leuchtturms over other brands - I think it’s a combination of the size, the layout, the nice colours, and the double bookmarks that do it for me. I ended up creating a lovely collage of stamps on this one - the first time I’ve had a durasealed book since primary school.

A Moleskine softcover page-a-day diary for my logbook. This one is new for me - I’ve started keeping a logbook in my little pocket diary but there’s not quite enough room there. The Moleskine is much bigger. This is a bit of an experiment, and also a bit of a binding promise via sunk-cost fallacy to my future self, to try and get that habit formed.

A Midori Traveler’s notebook (small size) for my general notebook. This is one of the two inputs into my task management framework, so it’s important it be on me all the time (the best ideas tend to come at 3 AM). In the past I’ve used any number of pocket notebooks (the most recent a now-battered and much-repaired softcover notebook my mum got for me from the V&A), so it’s a bit of a change having a fancy schmancy notebook I’ll want to keep for multiple years. I’m super interested in seeing how I can hack the notebook to do what I want - there’s already plenty of pretty involved examples on the internet, and while I don’t aspire to that level of customisation, I’d still like to take advantage of the format.

What I suspect is a Parker Urban ballpoint pen. I received this pen as a gift about eight years ago and it’s still going strong. Its metallic body means it’s survived close to a decade in my back pocket (although the paint is starting to come off in places) and the ink is quick-drying enough that I don’t smudge it - fellow left-handers take note.