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.
Habit and mood tracking in my Hobonichi Techo – cygnoir.net
The “three lines” method described in the video impressed me with its simplicity and its forgiveness. The pattern looks prettiest when I’ve done all my habits for the day, but even if I haven’t, the result is still pleasing to the eye and encourages me to try again tomorrow.
This is a seriously beautiful way to do habit tracking. Could also work for other purposes with imagination.
There are some really great ideas and suggestions within but I absolutely love this:
The magic is in the fact that writing is a transit system, which transports little electrical sparks in your synapses into things that affect shared reality.
This is truly magical, and amazing, and a continuing source of awe to me: that we are alive, that we can create things, that we can use our thoughts to help ourselves grow, and to better the lives of others. A tremendous gift and power!
This! So much this! This is why we do it. This is what we believe in.
I just bought the only physical encyclopedia still in print, and I regret nothing | Ars Technica
At a time when it’s hard to know what information to trust, I felt delight when I recently learned that World Book still prints an up-to-date book encyclopedia in 2023. Although the term “encyclopedia” is now almost synonymous with Wikipedia, it’s refreshing to see such a sizable reference printed on paper. So I bought one, and I’ll tell you why.
My Grandmother was a college professor and one thing she made sure of was always having up-to-date sets of all of the major encyclopedias in the house. Among them, World Book was always my favorite. As a child, I was a voracious reader. I would spend hours and hours paging through them and reading them whenever I was at her house. I’m fairly sure I’ve read the entire set cover-to-cover at least once. This article has me pondering doing so again.
The Bankers Box has remained the same shape and size for a lifetime and won’t change for at least the rest of your life. You can know exactly how much space you’ll need now, and how much space you might have available in the future when taking on more stuff from relatives.
This is an excellent post on all the ways the humble Bankers Box rules.
What Is Killing Cursive? Ballpoints. Probably. | Hackaday
I get it — you hate writing by hand. But have you ever considered why that is? Is it because typing is easier, faster, and more convenient here in 2023? Maybe so. All of those notwithstanding, I honestly think there’s an older reason: it’s because of the rise of ballpoint pens. And I’m not alone.
A cut too far: The people who can’t give up paper – BBC Future
For decades, computers, smartphones and tablets have provided an alternative. Their illuminated displays can be virtually written upon or erased with the press of a few buttons or taps of a screen.
But the crisp flex of an off-white sheet held in the hand, or the way freshly-deposited ink from a favourite pen soaks into the fibrous surface – there is arguably nothing quite like paper.
Yep.
(via Aaron Alfano)
Dessa Can’t Do Without Her Pilot Razor Point
Pen snobs suck: the loud talking about fine lines and ink flow, the zipper cases, the theater-kid pledges of absolute devotion to a singular make and model. And yet here we are. For me, it’s Pilot Razor Point, write or die.
Dessa is a brilliant recording artist and poet. If you never engaged with her work, I highly recommend it.
A Short History of the Daily Planner – by Jillian Hess
For this New Year post, I decided to look at how people have used daily planners in the past. What I found was a fascinating origin story of tracking time in notebooks.
Fascinating. Essentially, the beginning was basically using it as a Daily Log, something I’ve been doing for over 20 years now.
How I Pocket Notebook | cygnoir.net
Much has been written by smarter minds about the pocket notebook and its myriad uses. For this post, I’ll be focusing on my particular setup and sharing how I use it in the hopes you might also find it useful.
The hack with the magnetic clips blew my mind. It’s genius!
Shunned in computer age, cursive makes a comeback in California | Reuters
Starting this year, California grade school students are required to learn cursive handwriting, after the skill had fallen out of fashion in the computer age… Experts say learning cursive improves cognitive development, reading comprehension and fine motor skills, among other benefits. Some educators also find value in teaching children to read historic documents and family letters from generations past.
Yep. My daughter went to a Montessori preschool where cursive is taught exclusively and it still benefits her to this day.
Eminem’s Boxes of Notes – by Jillian Hess – Noted
Anyone who thinks notes ought to be neat and tidy should look at Eminem’s lyric sheets.
Always fun to see an artist’s creative process. Even more fun when it is a crazy handwritten explosion of ideas out of which nuggets of pop/rap gold flow. Via Austin Kleon’s always excellent newsletter.
Long-lost Gershwin musical found by University of Michigan researcher – mlive.com
Because even in this digital age, if you want to to last long enough to be discovered later, you’ll choose paper.
What using ten years of Field Notes look like.
The Tools of Excellence v4, 1: The Notebook & Pencil – Nicholas Bate
1: The Notebook & Pencil Paper and pencil. There it is: no power needed, discrete, ultimately flexible. Portable. Breezes through security. On a plane, on the beach, back-backing in the Western Isles. The tool which allows you to plan, record, create, schedule, sketch, brainstorm and write a love note. Never be without the pair.
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