The Absolute BEST Way to Use a Notebook

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I use one notebook at a time and do all of these in there. I take it everywhere to write ideas, thoughts, quotes, notes on books, life organization, and goals.

Yes! Everyone must’ve thought I was so crazy at the cafe today when I pulled out notebooks nonstop out of my bag

Notebook junkie since I was little kid. My dad was an industrial engineer, artist, photographer. He always had stacks of notebooks, drafting pencils artist pencils and pens in his desk and various sets of Cross pen & pencil sets, no we are not related to the Cross pens, haha. I always ran around as a kid with a leather binder my dad gave me and wrote in it when I was a kid. But my obsession with all things pen related began when I was in fourth grade and my 10th birthday my dad bought me my first Cross pen & pencil set ✒️📓📕

As soon as I saw that beautiful masterpiece of a mustache, I knew he wasn't bluffing about being a philosopher.

📓notebook buying junkie, below average at filling them out fully & organizing them… but working on it, which is one reason why I love this channel

I really enjoy your content. Being a Marine Corps Veteran that has spent some time in Wounded Warriors—they taught me that carrying a notebook around and being able to log my day and reflect how that day went every evening is one of the best forms of therapy one can do for themselves. I have multiple different notebooks but really like the idea of an analog lifestyle. Keep up the great content! 📓

I've adopted a simple system: - Catch all journal/diary: Literally just unload my brain into this one. Basically everything (except my other notebook stuff) goes here. Plans, thoughts, feeling, musings, etc. - workout/training log: self explanatory. I know we have apps for this, but I just like physically writing it all down. - everyday carry pocket notebook: for catching stuff when I'm out and about that I needa remember. Plus things like shopping lists and dates/appointments I shouldn't be forgetting. - Manuscript/compendium/commonplace thingo: I just transfer my scribble of annotations from the books I'm reading just to try to retain some of that info. It's messy as hell, but that's a reflection of me as a person and I'm fine with it.

📘🧙🏻‍♂️I use a catch all, a work log book / to-do daily book, a sketchbook for ideas, a daily journal for thought and feelings… I think the trick is to find a level that suits you… I tried bullet journaling but found I was spending more time filling it in than actually working or thinking so dropped that… thanks for the videos really enjoy them

This is my absolute favorite video! My own journey started when I came across Tiago Forte's second brain concept, then I wasted months going from app to app, building workflow after workflow and not achieving any results. I then discovered the analog Zettelkasten, and again, I wasted time obsessing over the system and workflow without achieving anything. I think notebooks are the answer for me. I want to start a YouTube channel, but I need to do some discovery around the niche and content so that sounds like a great use for a deep thinking journal. I also started carrying a pocket notebook for a catch all, and I am using my plasma donation money this week to order some more Leichturnn notebooks for topical commonplace books so I can start actually working on this huge stack of books I've been buying over the months.

🤔📓 I'm here because I've been trying to simplify and declutter my digital life and write things down by hand more often, since I'm convinced there are mental benefits to doing so. I'm just trying to get ideas on how to build my notebook system. It has always felt overwhelming because the sky is literally the limit on what you can do with notebooks, and I haven't always been the best at actually writing in them habitually. Thanks for the suggestions!

📓📗📔📘📙📒I'm a crazy notebook person. Bujo, philosophy notes, physics notes, memories I need to work through. And morning journal. Also ideas, for both stories or business plans.😂

I really like your videos on stuff like this, so much content about journaling is about productivity and optimising your time in quite a capitalistic way, while this is a lot more about living philosophically and intentionally - just feels a lot more sustainable and nourishing, it’s great

I have started using more and more notebooks because of your videos. I have a catch all pocket notebook, a reading log of sorts, a Sunday sermon journal, and I’m starting a nature log too. It’s been such a breath of fresh air to step away from technology (IT by trade) and take a more analog approach to things. 🧙🏼‍♂️

(📒) I started writing/journaling at the age of 10. It was more of a diary than anything, and it was mostly nonsensical ramblings of a young child. But as the years grew by, I grew fond of writing and just collecting and assessing my thoughts. Currently, I've only been writing for half a decade, but it has already helped me so much—from helping me realize the kind of person I am, realizing how my mind works, whom I wish to be in the future, and etc. And thanks to this video and channel, I now know what to call my notebooks and how to differentiate my journals, from my catch-it-all, and etc. Thanks so much, ParkNotes!

I now know your channel for a while and I knew that your obsessed with notebooks , but I am fascinated every time for which things you have a notebook. Like a "workout log", what!?

Profound thanks, brother! I'm a polymath who's crippled by severe ADHD. I'm 33, and I would've become a polymath like you if I only weren't so lethargic all the time. I have a lot of notebooks, too, that I've bought over the years, but they're all blank. Thanks for motivating me again! I'm definitely going to incorporate some of your ideas. I've been wanting to have a dictionary book for over a decade now. I have had a couple, but I failed to be consistent and stopped recording words after a while. As a teenager or a pre-teen, I recall having a tall notebook for useless info/trivia. I recall cutting and pasting clippings from magazines. Good old days! Again, I wasn't consistent, and I stopped doing that after a while. I'm always very low on energy. Too low to even exercise. I used to be the best at taking notes in college. For some courses, I'd take notes by hand very quickly. But for others, I'd be too lazy to take notes. The most recent thing I've done is voice-recording class lectures. But I have almost never listened to them later to take notes. 😢 I was going through your recent philosophy books for beginners video (again) today and was planning to get some of those books and start reading them. I made it to the end, and I watched everything. Looking forward to the proverbs! 🧙‍♂️

📓🧙🏽I LOVE notebooks. Specifically those I can insert into leather journal covers. I have a pocket leather journal with three inserts, a standard Traveler’s Notebook sized leather journal with two inserts and an A5 sized leather journal with one insert. In the pocket leather journal I have one insert I use as my bullet journal, another insert I use as a “catch all” notebook, and an insert I use as a reading log (which I recently started after watching your reading log video). In the standard sized Traveler’s Notebook journal, I have an insert I use as a common place notebook and an insert I use as a diary. Lastly, in my A5 sized leather journal, I have an insert I have been trying to figure out what to do with. This video gave me lots of great ideas! Thanks so much for taking the time to make this video.

📓 I’m kind of the opposite of you in how I notebook: there’s one for pretty much everything. Class notes (doing my second masters in theology) are in their own books, as is any fiction writing project. But my personal life gets one notebook. It’s my planner, diary, reflection journal, prayer journal, reading log, movie/show log… it’s like the paper version of me and my mind and it goes with me everywhere in a great leather cover. I also want to take this chance to thank you for making these videos. I found your channel while looking for some inspiration about how to better organize and use my notebook, and came across your video about soliloquies. You’re pretty inspiring, Parker! This one gives me some great ways to think about my personal writing. Please make that video about a personal handbook! And I’d also love to know where you studied theology. Keep up the good work, Notebook Sage and Wizard. 🧙🏼‍♂️

Thank you for mentioning the smythson notebooks - this was the perfect cherry on top of the gift I’m giving my fiancé on our wedding day, he’s a writer and a film buff too.