Recording Thoughts

In his book Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, Tal Ben-Shahar writes:

In research done by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, those who kept a daily gratitude journal — writing down at least five things for which they were grateful — enjoyed higher levels of emotional and physical well-being.

Last year I developed a strong urge to get a Moleskine softcover 18-month planner, mostly because I couldn’t - they were all sold out. This year I found one in July at a bookstore, and it is more or less perfect for this, although there’s room for just about 5 items, but not much explanation unless you use the notes page for each week. Still, a nice use for a nice notebook!

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If you read my main blog, Lornitropia, you know I started exercising again as part of a plan to lose some weight. Well, I know a lot of people think that weighing yourself every day will drive you nuts, but I’m one of those people who’s got to see the data. So I weigh myself every day using a Tanita scale that measures body fat, water, bone mass and some other stuff and I was recording that data in my usual journal, a Moleskine pocket size notebook.

Well, between that data and the notes from runs and strength training sessions the notebook was filling up at a rapid rate, and my thoughts were getting burried in a bunch of record keeping.

So I decided to get a Moleskine Daily Planner to keep all the fitness and weight stuff in.

It’s got the following advantages:

• It’s got a page per day. So, if I skip a day I have to waste a whole page of my book. That hurts a little, so it’s a nice reminder.
• 1 page per day provides just enough space to document things enough, without providing a huge void that needs to be filled on days when I don’t exercise.
• There are whole-year planning pages for the current and following year which are nice for jotting goals (like when I’ll bench press my weight, or run a 5k for the first time) and even a rough training schedule.

The pockets and address book in the back are so far unused, but they’re very nice. Overall, I’d say this book represents much better value than their usual notebook.

The only disadvantages are:

• You cannot really use it as a calendar as well, there isn’t enough room.
• It’s a thick little sucker, about twice the regular notebook. On the other hand, the thickness gives the small book a nice heft.

So, if you’ve been wondering what to use as a running or workout log, give a Moleskine Daily Planner a try!

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Earlier this week I posted a message asking if anyone was interested in a post about fixing a broken Moleskine band. Since a few folks (it would have taken only one) wanted to see it, here it is!

Just so we’re clear, here’s the problem I’m talking about:

The elastic band that used to wrap around the book has pulled out from its little pocket. One person suggested using a rubber band, but that’s not why you bought a Moleskine in the first place, right? No proper Moleskine should go through life with a broken band, so let’s fix it!

This is not real hard to fix, but you’ll need to gather a few items:

A razor blade or scissors to trim the end of the band, a paper clamp to hold the band with slack in it, a paper clip, a small screwdriver or small pocket knife, a small block of wood and a spring clamp. Oh yes, and common household white or carpenter’s glue.

First, if the band is frayed like this one, it needs to be trimmed so it has a nice even edge:

This will make it a lot easier to reinsert the band in the hole. It might be tempting to use super glue to stiffen the end of the band. The problem with doing this is that if you stiffen the band right at the edge of the pocket, where it needs to bend, the band will stick out and break more easily in the future.

Now you need to clamp the band in place so that there is plenty of slack for putting it back in the hole:

After that is done, the hole needs to be widened out:

I used a small screwdriver, but any small flat item that fits will do. Another Moleskine I fixed looked like the hole went in the opposite direction, but this one clearly went in this direction. I don’t know if Moleskine has changed the design, but either way will work well enough.

Now, put a little white household glue on the band, just a dab will do it – you don’t want too much to soak into the band.

I actually wiped quite a bit off after I took the photo. Once that’s done, grab the paper clip and use it to stuff the band into the widened hole:

This takes a bit of fiddling, to both stuff the band in and even it out. Take your time and don’t worry too much about deforming the hole. Just get the band stuck in about as far as its width and evenly spread out.

Then you only need to use the block of wood and the spring clamp to clamp the band in place.

Let it dry for a day or so – this is no time to skimp on cure time – and your Moleskine should be good as new!

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