I'm sure there was a topic about this a couple of months ago, apologies for not being able to find it..

I've been using one notebook for everything: journal, correspondence (copies), and notes on books I read. However in the last week I've been running into problems trying to find sections in this notebook ie I keep losing my notes. Perhaps my single notebook is too big! Anyway I was considering making notes of different subjects in different notebooks or having loose leaf ringbinders.

So I was wondering if anyone has advice on what works best............help!

(or does everyone just have to knuckle down and find the method that works best for them by trial and error...)

I keep several at any one time.

One for journalling,

One for creative stuff, ideas, artwork goes in there too.

and Several other types .. I suppose on the whole, keeping separate personal stuff from not too personal stuff.

One notebook for each subject at uni.
One notebook for story-ideas, drafting & brainstorming (I like keeping it together).
One hardcover journal for diary-writing.

One composition book for everything - work and personal smashed into one.

I number the pages and then make an index in the front or back. That way, if I look for something, and I look more than once, I write it in the index. I also date pages periodically.

I use a different color notebook for each subject. I get them big, and use each for two or three classes each (but not at the same time). I couldn't imaging getting one of those tiny 70 - page ones for fear of running out of room!

I keep a "commonplace book" for small notes on many subjects: ink sac sizes, URLs, quotations, equations, etc. I keep different journals for more extensive writing, arranged by subject. There is one for gardening, one for musical events we play for, one for pens, one for the antics of our cats, one for family stories, a copy book for e-mails.

So far, the commonplace book is the only one that needs an index. A TOC is useless for that application.

Never, never keep anything long term on a computer or a computer disk.

Paddler

One notebook, many Post-It Notes.

I hate that Post-its lose their sticky eventually... Like the handiness of being able to just stick them in.. So I'm somewhat tempted to try something like the Rollabind system.

Meanwhile I have a couple different books. One for writing (penmanship) exercises, one for journaling, one for design ideas, and one for pen stuff...

I used to put everything into one notebook (the beauty being I could grab that notebook as I ran out the door). But putting business, personal, and writing notes into one notebook became frustrating.

Now we put business notes into one notebook (with rip-out pages so we can extract pages and file them into case files).

I keep a "pen journal"--one where I doodle and try out inks, etc. It's my fun journal.

I keep a journal dedicated to a current (major) writing project.

Last, a fourth journal dedicated to all other writing projects.

My journal-life is much simpler and more functional now.

I have experience on both sides of the fence. I currently keep almost everything in one place, because that reduces the number of places I have to look for things when I need them, AND because it's more sane for me to only have ONE notebook active at one time.

I also see the GREAT wisdom in having a separate notebook for a big project. For me, this means that ONLY things related to that project go into the notebook. Let's say I'm writing a textbook, alongside the other things that I do on a normal basis. I think it only prudent to have a separate notebook for ALL notes on the textbook project, and ONLY notes on the textbook project.

I use graph paper composition books in a very nice leather slip cover that I had stamped with my name. It gets attention, and people are impressed by it.

I number each odd numbered page. Odd numbered pages are on the right when the book lays open.

I put the current date on each page when I start writing on it. The date and a page description goes on the very top of the page, and I draw a line under that to separate it from the page contents.

I never remove a page from the notebook.

I put a 1/2 inch margin on the left side for a Cornell kind of look, where I can draw attention to specific information, leave margin notes for myself, etc.

I put an index in the back of the book, starting on the last page, moving forward. That is, I start on the last page at the top, proceeding to the bottom. When that page is full, I turn to the next page closer to the front of the notebook, filling that from top to bottom, and so on.

A notebook is full when the index and the content pages meet (Usually about 8-10 pages from the last page).

I put a cover page on the very first page, which lists my name, my telephone numbers and my email addresses. I offer a reward on this page as well, to entice the person who finds it to return it to me. I am considering putting a pre-addressed and pre-paid fedex envelope in the notebook instead to reduce the hassle for the returnee to return my notebook to me.

This system has worked well for me, and thus I use it dependably. Especially at annual review time...

Hope this all helps.

If done well, I lose the Post-Its.


And by "lose," I mean "toss."

Or, in California, "recycle."

I keep two. One for work and one for everything else.

My work journal is just that, all the little loose kruft that makes up the day to day grind. I'm a scientist too, so my job requires keeping a lab notebook (I'm not counting this book. It's more of a chore than a help - it's main purpose is to be admissible in court in the event of a patent dispute). For my work journal I use a neat little "To Do" nomenclature that works like this

When I make a To Do item it gets created with a dash next to it
- do it like this

When I complete said item, I make a vertical like through the dash to make a "plus"
+ did it like this, completed item

Other leading indicators look like
(greek letter delta, a triangle) a data point or useful fact
(simple right pointing arrow) this item is waiting on another one (or something else) to get done
(circle the dash) this item moved to a fresh, recopied To Do list
= this item canceled, will not be done

The thing I like about this system, is that everything gets a dash in the beginning. As the item is sorted or completed, you build on the dash.

My everything else journal... here's where everything else goes. I'd like to think that I'm not defined by my job... that I might be an interesting person with worthwhile perspectives and hobbies (the jury is still out on this one). I keep an handmade hardback journal that I make with materials available to me at the time. The journal tells a lot about what was important to me at the time, in addition to the words contained therein.

I leave four or five blank pages in the beginning of the journal that I later fill in as a Table of Contents. I also use copious amounts of adhesive notes (a la Post It). If I ever go back to a journal and find they are loosing their stick... I take a few minutes and redo them. I'm also not shy about taping, gluing, whatever things into my journal... symphony tickets, photographs, airplane ticket stubs, foreign currency, cigar bands, anything that can be pressed flat, really. So in some sense, there is a scrapbook quality to my journals.

My earlier journals were moleskins... the bindings of these are definitely stressed because of all the stuff I've tried to cram in.

Brent

normally I have a notebook where I scribble in and thats it. I write all my schoolstuff on loose paper so it makes it harder for me to find everything (why take the easy way right^^). But wouldnt it be easier to use a laptop at university then write everything by hand?! (questions for all people that are going or went to university).

I started to write a journal though. Im always scared that i screw it up b/c my handwriting looks bad..

Great answers thank you

I like dvorak's dash system!

I'm still keeping one notebook for most things and I might go through it and index it, thanks for the tip, jkenton.
It's getting a bit unwieldy now as I'm nearing the end. I think I'll change brand of notebook to one with a harder cover that I used to use (Paperchase).

I got 4 x CD15 Apica notebooks and have started making notes in one, from my reading, by date (got a date stamp and I stamp all over the place, it keeps me right)

scratchy

I keep one notebook per girlfriend - and try to remember which ones to put away...

Many notebooks. Probably way too many. One for poems, one for studying scene construction, one for whining....

You get the picture.

Several. One Main Moleskine for daily writing. Another Moleskine dream diary. Another Mole book of lists. Various Cahiers for specific projects. An Apica for pen tests. A spiral Apica for writing mantras.

I am still amazed at the breadth of The Fountain Pen Network. I have notebooks of all sizes and shapes with good paper and bad. Some suck the ink up so I can't write on the back of the page which is ok because it's harder to write on the left side of the notebook.

I have been trying to isolate all business related notes to one book because it could become a sort of legal exhibit should issues arise that require dates and facts from the book. I enter info in a linear fashion and just write down the project number before entering notations. That's not a great system. The information is there; I know it is, but sometimes I have to read carefully through the book to find some info I need.

I had this hairbrained idea that I could improve this system by utilizing Levenger's Circa system because pages can be easily added and removed from the notebook or moved to another spot in the book. I thought I would dedicate a page to a particular job number and add pages behind the last page in order to continue notations for that project.

Didn't work because I usually grab the book when I get a phone call and then I have to fiddle around to get to the correct project number. I just want to get the information written down because I have a really bad memory.

As an architect, notebooks are really required and I am astonished at the number of design professionals who do not recognize the importance of notebooks. I use it to sketch details and other drawings as well as writing meeting notes and performing calculations. I always have to remember to slow down so I can read my writing later.

I write in blank notebooks handed out at conventions. I have several Rhodia notebooks but my favorite notebook is a grided lab book like National Brand 53-110 which has 96 pages and a 5 x 5 quad. The paper isn't too bad either. I am sort of proud of the fact that I always have a notebook with me. I think it speaks volumes about the fact that I am going to hear (or see) something of value that I want to recall in the future.

I always keep a moleskine in my pocket for on-the-fly writing no matter where I happen to be.

I compose in larger moleskines and Record books, one for each story that I happen to be working on and another to catch all the bits and pieces that don't yet have a home.

Then I keep one moleskine into which I log the stories and such, and this one is something of an index so that I can more quickly find the material in the others.

many books

each with a different theme

at the mo I have a lime green one on the go for personal thoughts, a navy one for odd crreative moments, a lined map covered book for random pen playing and ink tryouts

then the uni notes are seperated into subject
home study gets lumped together but away from uni work

Many notebooks, little or no organization!

I always have a pocket notebook with me for quotes, lists, notes, things I need to remember, prices on stuff for a project, or mini-journal entries. I've used a Moleskine pocket-ruled, Moleskine pocket cahier, and homemade notebooks (my current favorite) for this one.

I make my own notebooks for work which combine pre-printed calendar pages with blank, lined, or gridded pages for notes and to-do's. I've made notebooks for as little as a month and as long as six months.

I have several journals or other notebooks for free-writing, thinking on paper, or other forms of journaling; I select which one to use based on my whim at the moment.

I also use either steno notebooks or legal pads for other kinds of writing.

So many notebooks means I'll probably never be able to find something I've written again, but I can't help it; I just love notebooks!

Many notebooks. Reserve one shelf for them. Find notebook that has a spine that you can write titles on.

Sounds like me!

I carry 3 or more:
- one mainly for poetry, typically a wiredbound Whitelines A5 format, but it gets some "noise" as well.
- one for whining/journalling Moleskine A5
- one small 3x5 Moleskine to quickly scrib ideas when i dont have time to pull a larger ones.

Anything bigger than a few pages now gets an Apica CD-15

P.S. The Whitelines gets more than poetry and the Moleskine also get poetry because some ink color/nib combination are nicer on specific papers.

P.P.S. The new Rhodia Webnotebooks will hopefully replace the Moleskine A5

I've been using the circa system for work for the last year and I do mean system.

Have the letter size zip folio with a letter size circa notebook and myriad accessories;
the zip pouch (cumbersome if anything is in it) the 3 x 5 card holder pages, the dividers,
the page finder, reinforcement strips for anything that gets relocated frequently, and on and on.

It has helped me become more organized and therefore more productive- much more
so than ever before as far as organization. (it's kinda scary)

I decided it was working so well I am going to Circa for everything and have just
ordered the micro PDA size, the compact, and the junior size notebooks and I plan
on starting over with just about my whole "paper" life in them.

We'll see how that works. I already have a circa address book and love that. trying the
web notebook too.

(I also have the circa paper punch so I am hoping I can save a little money
on paper that way - the Levenger paper is too high priced unless you can
get it on sale, IMHO)

I keep a simple spiral notebook for just about everything. I am a university student and I usually use my laptop for notes so the rest of it is simply classes where I do not take many notes(Spanish) and essays for school.

i use lots of notebooks. i'm a teacher and a graduate student so my notes should be separated. i also have separate notebooks for expenses, things to do, quotes, sketches, and a journal of personal experiences

I have tried for using many notebooks sorted to various things but I seemed always to have the wrong one with me or carrying several was too much to do. Now I have a calander with one page per day that I can do all on. Next year I might go to the larger size version but this way I have it written and not searching.

I have several going at once.

1) An A4 Black n' Red for work. General notes on projects, todo list, etc.
2) Another A4 Black n' Red for my personal projects. Because of legal reason I must keep my personal work separate from work.
3) A personal journal which is a 8.25 x 5.24 (Almost A5) Cachet
4) A Everyday journal which is a 11 x 8.5 (Close to A4) Cachet

I have a composition book I use for a journal and a 3 ring binder for class notes, handouts, etc. I sometimes carry a small spiral notebook for those on the fly moments.

I use a small hardback notebook (paperchase own brand) which I keep in a fanny pack (I think thats what you guys in the USA call them. In the Uk they are called bum bags), along with a pencil (parker 45 propelling). In this goes everything that captures my attention/imagination : snatches of overheard conversation, an unusual physical appearance, weather, the atmosphere in a hospital waiting room, an unusual wall decoration or poster - anything.

I also have a thick hardback personal journal which is my diary. This is not written up daily. Just when something signifcant haapens in the family, or something that I want recorded to look back on in years to come. I usually take this one down twice a week or so. Like Dvorak, in it goes ticket stubs, postcards, notes from people I love, and all sorts of aide de memoir. It is bulging, but thankfully has an elastic like the Moleskine, to keep everything together.

For my work, Im a children's writer, I have one hardback notebook (paperchase) which I write brief story ideas in. Each idea gets one double page spread. That way I can return to it as I get more ideas, and jot them down.
When I'm ready to begin writing up properly, I use an extra large Moleskine soft-back note book. I like my manuscript books to be soft and flexible, yielding - don't know why.

When I'm half way through writing it in longhand, I begin to type up my manuscript on to the computer, alternating between typing and writing until it is finished. In the back envelope of the Moleskine I keep notes on my characters, their family trees, etc which I refer to quite a bit.

I also have a Moleskine repoters notebook which I use for writing exercises if I get a bit of a block. I use self help books like "What If" "Room to Write" etc to get me going...

Finally, I have a red Moleskine 18 month diary with matching notebook, for all the boring admin stuff lke dentist and hospital appts., university faculty meetings etc. In here goes my daily to do lists also.

I love Dvorak's notation system, and will definitely try and incorporate that in the future, if I can remeber them all!

Reporter's notebooks! I remember those from my science writer days. I think I still have one or two---they work really well for left-handed writers.

Seperate journals....This makes so much more sense than what I do: Keep a single journal for EVERYTHING, and TAB it with colored tabs according to what the entry is about: writing poetry, school, politics, etc.

My life is forever changed.

Not counting school stuff I always carry a small Rhodia pad, 2 large Moleskine notebooks (red and black), a small Moleskine notebook, and a Rhodia "reverse book" thing. Jeez, that's a lot. They each serve a unique function, I guess.

I've lost count of how many notebooks I have. Here's a partial list of handwritten and computer notebooks:

On MicroSoft OneNote:
General Journal
Farm Journal

Handwritten:
Storm Journal (hurricanes)
Bible Study
Wool Gathering (random thoughts)
Out and About (small Moleskine that I carry with me at all times)
Home Maintenance
Reader's Journal
Movie Journal
Food Journal (where I write down what I eat when I don't like what the scale says)

Now that I see this list - and admit that it's not complete - I realize, this may be a sickness!!! But I'm perfectly happy . . . . . . . although they say some crazy people are very happy . . .

Judybug

I'm in the middle of revamping/retooling my system, but this is what it looks like day zero (before improvements):

One 'problem book'--for some reason my 'journal' somehow metamorphosed into a series of entries wrestling with issues, like 'how should I deal with this problem student?', or more recently 'should I take Thomas J Woggles Esq, (a cat) to be put to sleep?' The penmanship in this is generally horrendous.

One 'jot' notebook where I put ideas of projects to do ('make hairsticks using white crystal beads,' 'tarot deck using actual historical figures from the Crusades')

One crappy drugstore notebook that's always in my purse that I write in when I'm stuck in lines or eating lunch alone. This notebook must have perforated sheets--anything good or useful that should be filed elsewhere should tear out without those little 'spiral' annoyances.

One 'bible' per story universe: I write fantasy and sci-fi, and each universe has a major book with sections on how people live, main characters, history, etc.

One 'writing practice' notebook where I do twenty minute freewrites just to keep myself writing, even if I'm not working on a story.

Don't know how to retool this--any suggestions?

HK

Buy more notebooks!

I've got a confession to make. I am considering keeping an electronic journal ie a journal on the PC

There are two main reasons. Firstly I am not writing nearly enough and I have to admit that I type faster than I write, plus I can rephrase and edit on the PC with greater ease. Secondly, the program that I have been looking at allows you to index your topics as you go along, for easy searching later, so I will be able to find entries I think were important.

I just wish I had the cognitive skills to plan writing in my head like "proper writers" before computers. My main problem is that I have been leaving out all the background information from my handwritten diary and even to the extent of not writing in it at all. Maybe is the result of a form of perfectionism, wanting to write an extensive and comprehensive diary entry but not doing anything because my efforts fail to satisfy my perfectionistic goals.

Actually I'm quite frustrated with handwriting a diary after a few years at it. If I try an electronic diary I can still continue to handwrite and most importantly use my FPs , doing my snail mail letters. And who knows there may be more material to put in them working from an electronic journal.

Comments welcome! Has anyone tried this? Did your computer crash and lose it all? Did it enhance your journaling or did you miss using your pens?

Once upon a time, my system used to be, one notebook, one computer screen, many post-it notes on the screen. I had to stop that since switching to laptops.

As for my current system, one notebook -- specifically, comp books. Though after reading through the replies here, maybe setting aside a few pages to act as an index wouldn't be a bad idea. Then again, the nice thing about having only one comp book for everything is that everything is in one place, chronologically arranged.

I like to keep personal stuff separate from academic stuff. I have a notebook for:
• personal diary,
• a notebook for my running log,
• one for my dissertation,
• one for academic talks,
• one for random ideas and information I have or collect (all non-academic),
• an academic jotter (for ideas related to my scholarly work),
• a reading notebook for academic stuff,
• a reading notebook for non-academic stuff,
• a sketchbook for drawing,
• a sketchbook for things with a running theme,
• and probably the most unusual of all is a poo log

When I was learning to type, my typing instructor made a point that expert legible handwriting is around 35 wpm while that speed on the typewriter -- using touch typing, not hunt and peck -- is considered the low end of average.



I can't write for long stretches in my notebook. What I do is when a catchy thought enters my head, I jot it down, maybe draw it out a little bit more. But the bulk of the work is done on a computer.

Also, I should clarify that the computer is for verbal journaling. Visual journaling, I do in a notebook. I have a pen tablet for the computer but my eye-hand coordination isn't there yet for it to be more efficient than plain old pen and paper.

Back to the computer, it's much neater and it's faster. The more I write, the more I cross out and I go back to what I crossed out and that's too messy mentally for me to have my past ideas at the front of my thoughts.



I use external storage to store everything, that way, switching between computers is no hassle. As for crashing, that shouldn't be an issue if your note-taking, novel-writing or word-processing software does automatic background saves.

What? No one, including the great writers, every planned writing in their heads and had perfect written stuff when they first wrote. It's a myth. Writing is a process and it doesn't end the first time we put pen to paper. If you consider writing a process and not the end process, you'll quickly realise that you have to give yourself permission to think on paper. No writer entirely thinks in the head. It's cumbersome, inefficient, and a pain!

I currently have two- a Miquelrius I've been using as a journal for the past two years (it'll certainly make it to three, given my smallish handwriting) and a "hipster" (stack of index cards with a cover and a clip) for short-term things like lists and patient info (before it gets put into their charts). Planning on adding another one to bridge the gap. Also have a sketchpad that I keep forgetting to bring.

Many....

1 Pocket Moleskine plain - planner and random notes about work /phone numbers
1 Miquelrius flexi plain 200 notebook - daily journal, musings and all
2 notebooks per subject, 1 for lecture notes and the other for readings
1 Moleskine address book - for all the words that I come across and not understand.
1 Moleskine plain large notebook - for all errant scribblings and thoughts that don't belong in the Miquelrius

Just lately, I have been writing everything in this huge, clunky and really horrible old spiral-bound Mead school notebook (horrible for thin-ness of paper, and the micro-perf that totally doesn't work).

The notebook is about an inch and a half thick. I think there's just something about this huge pile of hideous paper that makes me want to use it.

I use comp books because something about paper being cheap makes me want to use it. Well that and I like that its cardboard covers give it durability. But seriously, if I had to spend more than a lunch’s worth of money on a notebook, I'd never want to write in it because I'd never want to "tarnish" it. A friend recently egged me to buy Wreck This Journal and it's gone a little bit towards my inhibition on writing in nice journals but not completely.

I absolutely know what you mean. Even though I bought some Clairefontaines and other 'nice' notebooks, I think this notebook's cheapitude has opened the floodgates for me.