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Funny, I just ordered a pocket notebook for the first time in years today. I'm curious to see what contingent of people on HN still use a physical notebook. I a
by grep_name 7y ago
Funny, I just ordered a pocket notebook for the first time in years today. I'm curious to see what contingent of people on HN still use a physical notebook. I also use orgmode extensively to keep track of my intentions, media preferences, notes, and stray ideas, but it doesn't really scratch the same itch as a physical notebook.
The reason I had to order a physical notebook online is because I wanted a pocket notebook with no lines, dots, or grids on the pages, which is surprisingly hard to find. I'm attracted to the non-linear approach to notebooking, and plan to fill this one with content in a random page-order as things strike me. Sometimes I just have a cool thought or sentence, or just want to slowly fill a page with something, and it can really help your creativity solidify to have a trailing log of your weird random inspirations. Sometimes I just transcribe lines from a song or book I like, or write down something someone said. Some pages are just geometric shapes. Rarely, I'll make a simple "today this happened and this is how I felt about it" page. By the time you fill it up you have a really organic document that can help you understand what makes you unique and what you like / care about in your daily life, without the stress of writing a cohesive or linear work.
- jolmg 7y agoI've also used org-mode and tried to make the switch to pocket notebooks[1]. My reason was that org-mode just wasn't as accessible to me. It's not as practical to use when away from a keyboard as a physical notebook is. However, writing as much in the physical notebook as I do in org-mode would fill it too quickly. I also can't be as structured in the physical notebook as I can in org-mode. I guess I'm still figuring stuff out. Lately, I've been mostly using the notebook for taking notes of measurements or prices at the store. Maybe in reality my reason for trying a physical notebook is that I missed using a writing utensil. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J535NN2 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J535NN2