Analog Office – Office Toy: the Date Stamp

My master calendar and task tracking apps are digital, but I use a paper notebook for my daily plan and work log. What makes it MORE likely that I will a) record the date, and b) be able to read it later (my handwriting’s not the greatest) is using a date stamp.

Kerchunk!

My Notebook System – ratfactor

This year (2022) is going to see my journal/log’s 10th anniversary and 100th notebook. After manyattempts to write this up, I’m just going to disgorge it all.

Incredibly long and detailed but if you are one of those nerds who enjoy gleaning ideas from other people’s systems then this one is for you.

Highlighting in notebooks – Jack Baty

For a couple of months now I’ve been going back through my notes periodically and highlighting key words and phrases. I’ve found that if I emphasize the most relevant bit of each note, I can find most things fairly quickly.

Intersting idea.

My Life in 3×5 – Rhoneisms

I run my entire life off of a single 3×5 card using my Dash/Plus system. I wrote a post about it several years ago but it could use some updating.

Yesterday, over on my main blog, I posted about how I manage my tasks using a single 3×5 card (with support from my Journal and Daily Log).

Some outside of the normal box ideas for journaling.

I have completely filled 6 journals in my life. I love journaling, but a lot of people think that they aren’t capable of doing it. So here’s my hot tips so that you too can say that you’ve filled out a blank journal completely and are a certified Journal Keeper.

I found many of these to be fresh ideas that may work better for some folks than the traditional “write daily” ones. Worth considering, regardless.

Fore-edge painting and indexing – Austin Kleon

The outside edge of a book’s pages opposite of the spine is called the “fore-edge.” Like many things that are neglected or overlooked, it’s a place of great creative potential.

A Return to Analog — The Focus Course

For me, one of the signs of health in emotional margin is how much I’m writing in my notebook each week. If pages begin to stack up without any notes, ideation, or doodling, it’s a sign that I’m not slowing down enough to think on paper.

Analog Office – Make Your Paper Notebooks Useful: How to Set Up a Table of Contents or an Index

Let’s nerd out about the difference between a table of contents and an index; and how we can use these in personal paper notebooks.

Some useful ideas here.

handwritten.blog

Yes, a blog written by hand. The author describes the process in nice detail.

Journaling for People Who Don’t Like Journaling | Chris Brogan on LinkedIn

I’m so twitchy about sharing this. It’s really not very good and isn’t something fancy like what Mike Vardy or the Bullet Journal people do. But listen: let’s both agree. YOU aren’t those people, or else you’d already be like a journal GOD. You’re like me: a schlub who really hasn’t done this journaling thing and we’ll both figure it out.

A good post that’s worth a read (On LinkedIn! Who’da thunk?). Like Chris, my best and most consistent journaling has been the Daily Log I’ve kept for years now.

My wife got me a nifty new-to-me typewriter for my Birthday. As usual, brought it in to Vale today for a tune up. I feel so lucky to have such a shop within easy driving distance. Can’t wait to get it back.

Analog Office – A Life in Pocket Notebooks

I had only met him in passing; but his paper notebooks held a kind of self-portrait, touchable records of what was on his mind.

A lovely little story. This is the why. This is what we believe in.

Yep. They do. Take it from Matthew McConaughey.

(via Mike Vardy)

Today, December 9th, is a day I’ve designated as Journal Day. The idea came up many years ago in discussions with my friend Garrick van Buren. The idea was a day for celebrating journaling, preparing ours for the coming year, and committing once again to the daily practice.

I celebrate the day by opening up past year’s journals, logs, and notes and tease out any ideas that may have gotten lost in the shuffle and see what I might want to put into action the coming year. It is also a good way to tease out old memories and reminisce.

I’ve unwrapped my 2023 Hobonichi Techo and started to prep it for the coming year. Filling out my contact info on the page provided and starting to note special events and mark important dates.

But, that’s just my way to mark the day. You might decide to do something else. Need some help? Here are some ideas I’ve mentioned in the past…

• This might be the day to take out previous journals and reflect on where you were then versus where you are today.
• You might let someone you trust read one you have kept and get to know the “real” you.
• Perhaps gift a journal to another person in your life who practices or you feel could benefit from doing so.
• Or, maybe, be so bold as to spend a year keeping a journal for someone else in your life whom you love and spend your days with — write down their day as you saw it or the things you were thinking about them at that time. How wonderful a gift would it be to allow someone close to you to “see” themselves and their year through your eyes?
• Like the above, start a journal for your kids that are too young to keep their own. We forget so much of those early years. This is a way to remember those special times. This is the sort of thing that would make a meaning high-school graduation gift when they get older.

These are just a few of the ways you can celebrate. If you come up with others, I would love to hear about them. Shoot me a message on Twitter and I’ll try to add them here. Happy Journalling!

Analog Office – Bookshelf

Thanks to @manton for creating such wonderful bookshelves! The Analog Office is now sharing a bookshelf with some favorite resources about working, and thinking, and playing with paper … organizing information stored on paper … how paper and tech shape us … and of course, old school office tools.

A great list of books.

Projects and Methods – The Homebound Symphony

After fumbling around for a while to figure out how I could organize my thoughts in for this project, I realized that once again, the good old multicolored index cards were my best friends.

I always love getting a peek into how someone organizes their work.

Black Owned Planner and Stationery Companies – The Well-Appointed Desk

Just before the new year I stumbled on a great Twitter thread compiling black owned planner and stationery companies. I browsed a number of them, and bought from a few. But I thought I’d share a few on the list today with you!

There was no way I was not going to link to this.

How I use my Hobonichi – Stationery

This planner works really well for my to kind of have a high level overview of things both at a yearly, monthly, weekly and daily level. And makes it really easy to plan.

As a Hobonichi Techo (A6) user myself, I’m always fascinated to see how other folks are theirs.

Recently, reader Rahul Gaitonde alerted me to this with the following thoughts:

“Hi, Patrick. I thought this tweet might be interesting to The Cramped. It’s a photo of a page from the user’s grandfather’s diary where he recorded (in Tamil) the movies he’d seen in the 1960s. Including movies from the West the user didn’t think his granddad had had a chance to see. Lists from the past have always been fascinating to me. This one particularly so, maintained in a language other than English, from over fifty years ago, of movies both local and from half a world away.”

Long long ago, my grandfather has created his own version of Letterboxd to keep record of the movies he had watched. I’m awestruck by the fact that he’s watched Hitchcock and James Bond films in theatres. pic.twitter.com/uiVhk7RqOY

— A K (@iamakshy_06) February 25, 2023

I agree. Very cool stuff.