As I mentioned in the one other blog post I’ve written since getting my iPad, I got an iPad to blog more often.

For many years RecordingThoughts.com was lucky to get a post a month. It was more like a post every 6 months during the time I started having children. I late 2011 I decided it was time to step it up, and was able to do 3 posts a week.

Then I bought an iPad to make it easier to use lunch time and other empty moments to do some writing. After all, being lighter than a laptop and nearly as easy to type on it should be a great solution, right?

Wrong.

My last full week of blog posts was the first week of January, about the time I made a new logo for the site and tweaked the theme a little. I got the IPad on the 9th.

Now, it’s not a lack of ideas – quite the opposite. Between replacing paper with an app for GtD and other areas where old notebooks are threatened by new apps and the various new apps to play with there’s lots to write about. The problem is that the iPad was designed for content consumption, and mustering the discipline to write in this environment is like trying to diet in an office filled with home baking enthusiasts and microwave popcorn addicts.

A paper notebook doesn’t show posts from Facebook, or tempt me to do research. It just begs for writing because that’s pretty much all it’s good for.

I finally took the plunge and bought an iPad, and naturally it’s prompted me to reexamine how I record some of my thoughts, keep lists, and so on.

One of the main targets of this scrutiny has been how I implement David Allen’s getting things done methodology. While I’ve been doing it using pencil and paper, the iPad is a distinct enough environment I felt there was a good chance the iPad could be a real alternative.

After looking a bit, I ended up buying Omnifocus for the iPad, which I’d bought a long time ago for the iPhone. I bought the iPad version while momentarily blinded by their review feature. I say blinded because instead of giving the app a more careful review, I just assumed that anything so expensive would surely have the features I need. I was wrong. I also now remember why I’d stopped using the iPhone version.

First, the good:

• The app supports syncing between devices, and it doesn’t require a subscription to do so. This means I can change an item on my iPhone ($20 app), and see the change later on the iPad, or on the mac, if I have the software installed.
• The inbox feature is also nice. Even though it is just a text box, it is just a text box with nothing else required. As a result it’s quick and easy to enter something and get it off my mind. I’d say it’s even easier than writing it down.
• There is a review feature that takes you through all of your projects, to ensure you’re kept aware of them and keeping them on the radar. This is an area where most apps seriously fall short, and why I’ve stayed with paper, and why I got excited by this application. The iPhone version does not have this feature.

The bad:

• The price is high. $40 for the iPad app, $20 for the iPhone app, and $80 for the mac app.
• There is no reporting. None. You cannot even filter lists of tasks by date or specific status. This means that when I’m doing my month end report for the boss and I want to review my finished projects and tasks for items to add, I can’t tell when they were completed, or even separate completed tasks from pending tasks. I can spend $80(!) for the mac application that may provide this, but the $40(!!!) price tag on the iPad app is justified by the maker on the basis that it is a fully-functional stand-alone app, which it clearly isn’t. Folks who are just managing personal items might be fine without reporting, but I suspect they could get by with something much less expensive.
• There’s no dates on anything. If someone asks, say, on what day you sent the Henderson file, it may very well be on your list but there will be no way to see what date it was completed on.
• The review process cannot be manually initiated, you have to review each project manually by clicking into each one or wait for the review period (default one week!) to pass so that projects are marked due for review.The problem is that I don’t review projects because they are X days old, or because it’s Tuesday. I review them because my next action list has gotten short, and/or I feel like I’m forgetting something. The review feature in Omnifocus doesn’t work for this. The system should, at least, mark any project where an item is completed as up for review.If there are no projects to review, hitting the review button just gets me a notice telling me there are no projects to review, but that I can review them manually by going to the project and hitting the manual review button. If the purpose of review is to ensure awareness of a project, clearly I’m already aware if I go to the project manually, which makes manual review pointless.
• I use one folder for work projects, and another folder for personal projects. Unfortunately, I cannot review just a folder’s worth of projects. It’s either review them all, or review none. So while I’m in the office I have to review all of my personal projects. This also prevents folders from being a way to do Areas of Focus, which have their own review cycle.
• There isn’t any notification that items are up for review. Not even a badge with a number on the review menu item.
• The system has a way to mark projects as being on hold, but there’s no tickler mechanism to take them off hold or prompt their review. Nor is there any way to review just on-hold items. I feel like putting a project on hold is functionally the same as deleting it.
• There’s no way of adding a note to a project so that it shows up in the list like an action item. This is used for things like “Boss canceled project because customer X said they didn’t want it.”, which aren’t necessarily part of getting things done but later may be a big part of getting things figured out when people want to know why it was cancelled. There are places to put notes, and they have some visibility, but it means adding the note to another action item which usually isn’t appropriate. Last but not least, notes should show up even after they are written because they show history.Second to the broken review feature, this is the biggest weakness. On paper it was easy to write down an idea, or a simple question to myself. In Omnifocus I cannot record those as next actions because there can be only one next action at a item. So there’s really no where to put it, and thus doesn’t get recorded.

Conclusion

I’m still using the app because the iPad is much lighter and easier to carry than a bunch of file folders, and not using an app that cost FORTY DOLLARS will drive me nuts, but I suspect I will be back on paper within a month. I can already feel the pressure building. I’m working around the review limitations by setting all projects to review every day, but that erie disconnected feeling is starting to happen more often. I’ve decided to stick with it despite the absence of any usable reports or dates, on the basis that if the app proves itself I might spring for the $80 desktop app to get reporting, or find some way to access the data some other way. More likely is that the end-of-month report will be hell, and it will be goodbye Omnifocus.

Then, once again, a bunch of file folders won’t seem like so much to carry

I wanted to give this site an updated look, and while I was planning to hire a designer, and probably still should, I sketched some ideas and then managed to get one of them working in Adobe Illustrator. For a little entertainment value, here’s the pages from my notebook where I played with some ideas:

I found the color palate “The Happy Thought”, on www.colorlovers.com – Many thanks to Opificium – and tweaked the theme a little. It needs more work, but I feel like some of the cobwebs have been cleared.

When Stillman and Birn sent some books for review, naturally a Beta was included. I figured I’d let my girls at it, since they like to paint and surely having 5 & 6 year old girls paint on paper would be a pretty serious test. but after using the other books for a while I got a bit protective, and didn’t want to give up the Beta. That left the watercolor up to me, and I dreaded it. I put it off, put it off some more, and then finally I jumped. I must have had some kind of fear of watercolors.

Experienced artists with good technique find Beta to be perfectly usable paper. But what about the rest of us? What about people like me who haven’t picked up a brush with creative intent in decades? I’m as good a hack as anyone, and figured the absence of technique would provide a good test.

My first experiment was using tube paints from Reeves to color a simple sketch. Those familiar with You Can Draw In 30 Days will recognize the elements, and I’m sure the art of my children has been an influence:

I squeezed paint onto a pallet, and even mixed colors a bit to get different greens and different reds. The sky was way too thick and I tried to thin it out with more water once it was on the paper. I didn’t soak the page beforehand like some tutorials suggest. I just went at it like someone who had paints and a brush and no instruction, and who was used to painting walls. I was pretty pleased with the result, all things considered.

The paper took it just fine. It was almost like painting on plywood, or sheetrock. As I got each part wet, it did get a little wavy, but in the end the page stayed fairly flat but for a gentle curve:

Not bad considering that some houses have received thinner coats of paint. With the cover closed it flattened out:

After a few days and painting the other side the sheet flattened right out.

My next experiment was with Prismacolor watercolor pencils. Shrunk down a bit the one of Riley on the right doesn’t look half bad to my eye, but the other one is pretty horrid. As they say, don’t be afraid to make a bad drawing! I had no idea I was so fearless By the way, the paper is white – I just didn’t correct the white balance.

I think I prefer watercolor pencils to actual watercolor paints. They seem easier to work with for me, but that didn’t save me from the temptation of travel and pocket sets – one each from Sakura and Winsor & Newton. The red Uni KH-20 pencil sharpener below was painted using Sakura’s 12-color pocket travel set, using the color of the pans as the guide to which red to choose – bad move, as they look a lot different on paper than they do in the pan. The crab was pencils.

When I spoke to Michael Kallman, the main guy at Stillman and Birn, he said that many folks were using the Epsilon and Alpha books for watercolor even though that is not what they’re intended for and S & B doesn’t recommend it. Since we all want a book that does everything but in the end we’ll have to live with compromises, I decided to see how the thinner paper reacts for myself.

So I decided to do some color charts from the portable watercolor sets, along with some tests to see if some of the pens I have would take a wash, in my Epsilon book. Noodler’s Bulletproof black proved to be more like BB-gun proof, incidentally. The paper got a bit lumpy, and in spots where I tried to blend colors aggressively a bit of pulp came up. When dry the paper flattened out, but the scrubbed areas were rough to the touch. The folks who are adept with paints don’t seem to have any issues, but I think I’ll stick with Beta. The Sakura Micron was the only pen that could take a wash without smearing like crazy – but it needed 5 minutes or so to dry first.

When I first started using the books I was predisposed to like the Epsilon. It was most like what I had already, and being mostly a fountain pen user it seemed like a safe choice. Now I’ve changed my mind. I see why people get into watercolors, both the paints and the pencils. They’re fun. They also take more than a few different knacks to do well, and those who haven’t yet developed the skills need a surface that will be patient – for me that is Beta. A fine fountain pen, and a a harder lead work well enough on Beta that I’d rather have the thicker paper than the smoother surface. It’s more opaque than the others, and more crinkle resistant.

I did do a little watercolor, both paints and pencils, in my Leuchtturm1917 notebook, which has 80g paper. Pretty much instant buckling, and any scrubbing quickly rended the surface. Simply wetting pencil lightly wasn’t too bad, but this is definitely not viable watercolor paper, nor was it intended to be. I tried it because I wanted to see what the other end of the spectrum looked like.

I haven’t given Alpha much use – just a light sketch and very light wash with the watercolor pencils. I will give it a more serious try next, and my mind may change again, but for now I think Beta would be my first choice for a do-everything paper.

Sharpening vs clicking vs refilling vs carrying a spare. Sharpening is a moment of contemplation. A break in the process to briefly reflect and consider next steps. A nice sharpened point to record newly focused thoughts. Or it’s a pain in the ass interruption . It’s handier to carry spares that sharpen, but it takes space. Refilling a mechanical pencil is easy enough, and doesn’t need to be done that often. A simple shake tells me if it’s got extra lead or not. Clicking on the mechanical might seem very convenient, but it’s got to be done often, and often in the middle of a word. If the lead gets too short, all of a sudden a nice smooth writing experience is brought to an end as the sharp end of the tube digs into the paper. A wooden pencil provides a more gentle transition from sharp to dull.

Availability of lead grades. Mechanical lead goes from 4H down to 4B, but I’ve only found 2B in stores. Wooden pencils go from 9H+ down to 9B+, depending on the brand, and I’ve had no trouble finding them in art stores.

Lead quality. I think there is better lead available in wooden pencils, but the standard Pentel Hi-Polymer lead commonly found for mechnicals is pretty darned good.

Eraser quality. You can stick an eraser on the back of any wooden pencil that will work fairly well, but really a stand alone eraser is the way to go. The little 3mm erasers on mechanicals aren’t worth much.

Pocket clip. Mechanicals almost always have them, woodies don’t.

Protected point. You can put an accessory cap on a wood pencil, but it’s built-in on the mechanical. However, if that little tube on the end of a mechanical gets bent it’s game over. Dropping a mechanical, and having it land on the point is usually a game ender. Wooden pencils are lighter, so there’s less energy to cause damage when broken.

Variation/character of line. Woodies have it, mechanicals not so much. Sometimes I want it, sometimes, not.

Cost. A box of premium wooden pencils is higher than a really nice mechanical pencil. But, one pencil lost costs less to replace than the mechanical. Since I rarely lose these things, the mechanical is cheaper for me.

Weight. No contest – a wooden pencil weighs less than half of a good mechanical – but it’s so little it doesn’t really matter.

Procreation. As wooden pencils get shorter, they get discarded around the house as they are replaced with new pencils. These discarded shorties can come in handy. A box of 12 pencils is really 12 writing instruments, even if only one is the ‘main’ one at any given time.

Nostalgia. This one is a draw for me – It really depends on which nostalgia I’m after. Grade school or college & early work years? Either is ok.

Smell. Wooden pencils have a very distinctive smell, and when I first started using them again it had me flashing back to grade school days. Mechanicals don’t really have that.

So what have I missed? Which do you prefer, and why?

One notebook, many notebooks, or something else? This is something that has had me thinking in circles for a long time. Should I have one notebook, and record everything in that, or different notebooks for different subjects, or something else?

To give others something to chew on as they make choices for themselves, I’ve written a multi-part series on the virtues of different systems from my point of view. This final part of the series is about what’s been working for me – what books I’m using for what.

The main journal. I’ve used a variety of books for this, from accountant’s record books, to pocket size Moleskines to my current 5×8 Leuchtturm1917. I’ve got a Master sized Leuchtturm1917 waiting to be tried next, along with a few others. I really like the dot grid format over line grid or lines. My next favorite would be blank. My main use for the dots is really only to keep my writing from getting too big, otherwise I’d be fine with blank pages. I don’t use the pocket much, except for receipts and business cards occasionally. I do use the band and ribbon, however.

General ideas. I’ve tried to keep a separate Ideas journal, but I just never remember to bring it. The main journal works well for this.

Work versus personal. For a long time I kept work and personal stuff separate. Then I got tired of carrying two books, and put everything in one book. Then one day I was at a conference, and I left my notebook on a table. Someone returned it to me, but the thought of someone from the business world reading through my personal stuff gave me pause. I decided it that if I was keeping one book, it was a personal book and I’d better think of it that way. In some professions and some companies, any business notes may be considered business property, another thing to consider when mixing the two subjects in one book.

For a several trips I just carried a small Cahier or Volant style notebook, and that worked fairly well because they’re small and I didn’t have to worry about losing them. A notebook that fits in a jacket pocket is a lot easier to keep track of. The common 5×8 size will generally fit an outside suitcoat pocket, but it’s not a nice fit.

The problem with a book that is kept only for a few days is that later on I can never remember that there is a little notebook that has entries between entries in my larger journals. I suppose I could make an entry stating that, but I never remember. So I ended up writing less because I felt like it was going to end up in a black hole.

Using GTD with blank sheets and file folders, there’s not much left to put in a work journal very little anymore. I’ve started just keeping the few notes I need to in my personal book, since most of them aren’t critical to the business. Real notes on specific projects end up on letter size sheets and in the proper folder.

Food. Keeping a food diary is a vital part of managing a diet. I found that food diary entries take up a lot of space, and have little reference value. The value in making them is in the making of them. A separate book works better for this, and I’m using a Moleskine Cahier in pocket size.

Software projects. When they get big enough, like NumberQuotes.com, need a separate book. The reference value is so high it’s too painful to have it spread across many journals. As I think of new features to add or changes to make, I’m usually not in a place to make them. When I am I need it all in a single place so I can process them efficiently. I’ve used large Cahiers and large hardcover Moleskines for this. Both work fine.

Music. I have been learning several musical instruments for a long time, and I’ve made the most progress on the Irish tin whistle. It might be easier to just print music out than write it in a notebook, but it’s easier to carry a small notebook than a bunch of sheets of music. It is tedious to copy tunes into it, and it takes some art to make them look good. But the result is a very handy collection, and one that has a strong asthetic vibe to it. Using a Moleskine pocket size music book.

Weight, body measurements, and other log-type items. These fit best in a weekly planner from Moleskine, where I record the basics. I used to put them in my journal, but like food entires it took up a lot of space and was tedious to get through when reviewing old journals. The pre-printed dates actually prod me to record the entries – the idea of wasting the book by leaving it blank gets to me. The one week per page format gives me just enough space to record some stats, and the facing notes page allows me to record things that strike me as needing to be recorded.

Exercise records. I’ve actually put this online, when I’m actually getting off my lazy ass and working out, and www.dailymile.com works well. Before I discovered daily mile I used an iPhone app, and before that used a one page per day planner. That got to be a lot of writing, at least when I do weight training, because I had to write the names of the exercises I was doing.

Blogging/business ideas. This one is a real struggle. Sometimes it makes sense to treat it like a defined project, so it fits into GTD territory. Other times I’m musing a brainstorming and just writing ideas, and it fits best in a journal. Other times I really wish I’d kept everything in once place so I could go back to it more easily – a vote for a separate book. This is one area where I think the table of contents would help out, like that in the Leuchtturm1917 books I’m using now.

Woodworking projects & sketches. I’ve been using a large Moleskine sketchbook for this, and it’s been a good book, but it’s getting full. Part of me wants to keep them in the journal, if for no other reason that the asthetics of having sketches and drawings. I also think it might encourage me to sketch more. But sometimes a project, like the revised hanging desk, may be mulitple sketches over a few days. In the journal they’d be broken up by journal entries. Not really a problem if the book has page numbers and I can make “started on page, continued on page” notes to provide continuity. A book full of projects and sketches is neat in its own way as well. Thankfully I don’t have to make up my mind on this one yet.

Birds. This is a Moleskine pocket Volant, and given how little opportunity I get to go birding, it’s working fine.

House. When we bought our first house, the idea was to keep house-specific stuff, like window measurements, and sizes of rooms, etc. in it so when we needed, say, drapes, it would all be there waiting for us. It hasn’t worked out. We hardly look at it, write in it, or use it.

Mileage/Car. The idea here was to record each fill-up and maintenance item. I kept it up for a while, in a pocket Moleskine hardcover squared book, but then took a few years off. Maintenance never made it in, and the book, despite being kept in the door pocket, is in terrible shape. This could/should have been a Cahier. I don’t think it would be a good idea to make these entries in the journal, however.

Separate book vs. in the journal. I’ve found that unless the new book has a very strong purpose (like the NumberQuotes notebook) or has a specific place in my life and routine (weekly planner), it’s at risk of being abandoned. The food journal hasn’t quite become a reliable partner yet, but the birds book has. The weekly planner has become very important, and I record some things there that could be in my journal. Despite many attempts to find an electronic replacement for my weight records, pen and paper have proven to be the best and most reliable.

If the work has a lot of structure, and clear boundaries, a separate book seems to work best. If the work is somewhat amorphous, a separate book just doesn’t feel right. For example, I just used the large Leuchtturm1917 Jottbook I received to start a web-focused notebook, only ideas and thoughts related to my various websites that don’t have books of their own, or for ideas (like selling ad space) that are common to all sites. That lasted a short while before the book become refocused on this blog. So far, it’s been earning its keep.

What’s been working for you?

As part of my effort to get back to drawing I’ve started making sketches of snapshots I take of the girls. Originally the plan was to take a new snap every day, and then try to sketch it in 5-10 minutes or less. The goal is to learn to draw a fairly recognizable likeness quickly.

I’ve done three so far, and I believe I’ve made a little progress:

This was the first attempt. Ginny (on the right) looks particularly scary!

The second attempt, of Riley, I think was better. Bordering on recognizable, but still not very good. the eyes are passable for now, but the area around her mouth is a mess. This one looks more youthful than the other two, and I’m not sure why that is.

This last attempt was better yet in some respects. The eyes are marginally better than the last one, but I got the position of the head wrong. She also looks way too old, and I don’t know what it is that makes her look old. Her face also looks flat. I’m guessing that is shading and not the shape of the outline. Of the three, I spent the least time on this one. It was also done in my main journal instead of a pocket Moleskine sketchbook like the other two, and there is some extraneous graphite smudges from the facing page.

I want my journals to be more visual. While I learn a lot about myself from journalling, and it’s helped me achieve a lot, I also want my journals to be interesting to look at later in live – more like a photo album.

I know the basics of sketching from my years as an engineer. I can draw basic orthoganol drawings, isometric, perspective, etc. But when explaining to someone how a piece of machinery would be laid out, there wasn’t much need to draw kids I wouldn’t have for 10 years, plants or other bits of scenery.

So if I want my journals to be more visual, and I’m not going to turn them into scrapbooks, then I need to get better at drawing. I started out with Edward’s classic Drawing on the Right Side of the brain. It is a good book. I know that if I did the exercises as suggested, I would get better. The problem is that they are pretty heavy. A frequent requirement is an hour to an hour and a half of uninterrupted time. I’ve got three kids below the age of 7 – an hour of uninterrupted time usually comes while I’m sleeping. Still, I tried  them – first back in ’06, and again recently. I ran into the time crunch and decided to look for a book with some simpler exercises.

That lead me to You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less
(affiliate link). I’m on lesson 20, and it’s working pretty well. I don’t imagine I will be using what I’ve learned directly, but I’ve gotten less rusty and more confident. Not as good as I need to be, but better. The Kindle version has worked fine for me.

Another thing I’m doing is to try to take a quick snapshot of my daughters each day as I walk them to school, and then spend 5-10 minutes to sketch the photo off my iPhone. I’m hoping that I will increase my ability to get down basic shapes quickly. I’ve done two, and I think i see improvement so far.

I’ve also gotten the book Sketching People (affiliate link), and it has some interesting exercises for learning gestures, but I haven’t dug into the exercises yet.

Here are the top 4 things I’ve learned so far:

• Drawing is like most other manual skills. Some of it is “like riding a bicycle”, but much of it needs to be maintained. Drawing for short periods, frequently, produces the most growth.
• Patience and quality go together. If I’m not willing to slow down to do shading properly, or clean up extra lines, then I’ve got to live with the results.
• Details make a big difference. Lines that don’t quite line up, shading that isn’t smooth or the right shape, sloppy corners, etc. The list is endless. This is the hardest thing to get used to because for most of my life sketches were an explanitory tool accompanied by lots of talking. To stand on their own they need to be precise.
• The materials used do make a difference. Really, it comes down to erasing. If I can erase without feeling like I’ve just dug a hole in the paper, then I’ll erase. Otherwise, I’ll try the “No, look at the thicker, clearly more correct line over here” method. Thicker paper, like the Stillman and Birn stuff, and softer pencils makes erasing the same spot several times a non-issue.

One of the presents I unwrapped on Christmas morning was a journal my wife ordered for me from Papercoterie.

Papercoterie is a site where you can send in a design or photograph, and they make a book or calendar.

Susan got a book for everyone in the family, each with a photograph on the cover. This of course makes a great gift because of the personalization, but will real pen lovers be impressed or satisfied with the paper?

The binding is sewn, has headbands, and lays flat. Like a Moleskine the first page of the book is glued to the flysheet (the loose half of the paper that is glued to the inside of the cover) so it will be annoying to write on, but it’s hard to mark the book down for that when Moleskine and others do the same thing. There is a placeholder ribbon.

All pages are lined with 6mm ruling. There are no page numbers. There is 20mm between the ruling and the binding, and 9mm between the ruling and the outside edge of the page. The top and bottom ruling lines are thicker. There are 80 pages. The papercoterie site provides little info on the paper, other than stating it is 50% recycled. This is a competently bound book which should be easy to write in, and the ruling is a common size and is purposefully laid on the page.

Fountain pens feel pretty good on the paper. Not as glassy smooth as Rhodia, and maybe a hair more tooth than a typical Moleskine. No feathering that I could see. The paper is white. My Pelikan M800 in EF was pleasant to use, and my Namiki fine was also nice. With the ruling this book has I suspect most will be using wider nibs.

A 1-2 second pause didn’t bleed through with my pens, but a few mm diameter circle colored continuously for 10 seconds not only bled but through the sheet behind and onto the third. The same exercise with the same pen produced the same results on Rhodia paper. A 5-second circle didn’t touch the sheet behind, but did show through to the other side. My conclusion here is that if those writing with nibbed firehoses may be disappointed, but the rest of us will be satisfied. I’m surprised that this paper is more opaque than most, which is a nice surprise.

This book is clearly aimed at the mainstream user, who will probably not be using fountain pens. Fair enough, as it’s being sold as a memento and gift more than hardworking notebook. Still, it’s more competent than many journals found in bookshops, and has a personalized cover to boot. I think most serious users would find the book more than usable.

What will I use mine for? I think I might just do what the cover says, and write down the adventures I have with the girls.

One notebook, many notebooks, or something else? This is something that has had me thinking in circles for a long time. Should I have one notebook, and record everything in that, or different notebooks for different subjects, or something else?

To give others something to chew on as they make choices for themselves, I’ve written a multi-part series on the virtues of different systems from my point of view. This part is about the advantages of using loose sheets of paper instead of notebooks.

Loose sheets are simple but effective. That’s probably why David Allen recommends them in his book Getting Things Done. When I started using David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology for my personal life, I started out trying to use index cards and notebooks. It just didn’t work. Finally I duplicated the system that worked so well at the office and I started keeping file folders for projects and using letter-sized sheets. I’ve been using that for a while and it works well enough that I even considered going to blank sheets (or maybe dot grid) for everything, even my journal.

The best paper comes in loose sheets. I can get whatever kind of paper I want, in whatever color or weight. I can mix blank sheets and various kinds of ruling. Nearly any paper that is made is available in reams and is not too expensive. I could vary colors or styles to suit the purpose or provide additional categorization. Letter size sheets are everywhere, so if I’m not picky in a pinch I can just ask for a few sheets from the hotel if I run out while traveling, or just rely on their supply.

There’s a ton of accessories designed to work with letter sized sheets, including folders, envelopes, luggage, cabinets, etc. Whatever you need, someone makes it and you can probably buy it locally.

A simple blank sheet always fits the environment. They are more business oriented than a small notebook might seem to be, and since they’re blank to start with there’s no risk of inadvertently sharing personal thoughts with anyone.

Blank sheets are versatile and adaptable. Since it’s not part of a book, it doesn’t have a dedicated purpose. The paper can be used for anything – I can write a letter, leave a note, give it to my daughters to draw on, or fold it into an airplane. This is especially useful when traveling, because it means I carry less.

Content and organization are separated. I can decide how to organize later. If I fill a sheet with a mix of ideas and journaling, I can make a copy and have it in two places. I can carry just the past few weeks of journaling with me, and archive the rest at home. Making copies of any material is far easier with loose sheets as well, so backups become a real possibility. Business and personal can be mixed when it makes sense, and then separated when it doesn’t. I can bring the notes from the last 5 product meetings without being the notes from my performance review.

Next: What’s working for me.