Pretty much. I utilize pocket notebooks for on the go, A5 for my desk of table, and I am setting up rings for reference and long term projects. I also use digital tools. My answer is that there isn't any one notebook that will do everything and that is okay.
I think it might be the ring system for me (having tried first codex, then string, then ring); but I've never tried passport size, and I really, really want to. Currently my favourite sizes are A5 for work, and A6 (squeezed into a Filofax Pocket size) for everything else because it feels more personal somehow.
I journal most days, but tbh a haven’t found the attraction of a pocket notebook, I have a couple but struggle to write in them when I have my journal, help haha
I am still seeking the middle road between "rings" and the "strings", as you say, but in a different way. By crafting my way through wacky ideas like a "deconstructed" journal (like Treasure Books made, a yt channel on junk journaling, highly recommend!), to making my own system such as a book cover with a bajillion elastic strings meant to hold smaller, less bound signatures of paper for the closest I can get to the level of customizing rings have, but in folded paper format rather than single sheet. There is a way, people, it might just be highly unorthodox and highly DIY. I saw some amazing ideas on YT and genuinely recommend surfing around!
This is what I've learned, you can't explain this obsession to someone for whom a notebook is just a piece of paper, they just won't understand. Thank you for your comment, it's very nice to know that I am not alone in this :)
Would you please make a video on the layouts and systems you use in all your various notebooks? I too am a huge fan of notebooks and have a growing collection. I would be interested to see your work flow and styles for your notebooks and perhaps put some into practice within my own.
Im so happy to share the obsession with y'all. I love notebooks because it makes me feel like i pull out info/feelings out of my head and make them tangible in the book in front of me. It can also give me distance from some ideas and think more objectively. My notebooks create peace for me 😅😅
Nodding along. I have 3 different notebooks that I use daily. Or 4, depending on how you count one of them. I have an A6 Hobonichi with the little weekly supplement they make to accompany it (I need a weekly view, and I like the vertical weekly layout for time tracking). I keep the weekly supplement in the back pocket of my Hobonichi cover so the two books travel together. I use the daily Hobonichi pages for personal notes and observations. Then I have an A5 notebook (lined) for daily writing practice - I write four pages of longhand "automatic" prose every day. And I have a B6 slim notebook (grid) for taking work notes, reading notes, and other stuff like shopping lists, packing lists, etc. My favorite A5 notebook is the Seven Seas Writer from Nanami Paper. For the B6 slim notebook, I go back and forth between the Nanami Cafe Note and Midori MD notebooks.
Oh my friend, thank you for this sharing. Peace is the perfect term to describe our torment! I too have come to your conclusion, we just have to embrace our cross. I subscribed to your channel.
Yes, this torment of finding the perfect system, or the perfect notebook and as soon as we think we found it there's always at least one "but"... Thank you for your comment and subscription
On point! I keep thinking I've found the perfect system and it lasts two months at best. Now I've narrowed it down to Midori TN Passport. Then I thought, heck maybe Field Notes in a TN pocket size!. Of course I just received and waiting on some inserts but I still love the Midori cover better. Argh... the struggle is real. Then to make matters even more interesting I found my old old old Franklin Covey pocket ring binder cover and I've fallen in love all over again with rings! Which by the way, Franklin sells storage boxes for the used ring binder planners. That may solve your problem with how to store your used planner pages.
I had been thinking about using Field Notes in a pocket sized TN, but as you said, "the Midori cover is better". There's something to the feel and touch of the things that we use. Personally, I have to enjoy the product that I am using. Maybe that's why this struggle is very real :-) Otherwise it would have been, "Meh... I am just using a pocket notebook from Walmart. It get things done" P.S. The more I use my FIlofax the more I am falling in love with the system and now I really want to buy a pocket size Filofax
@@Noteability me too. Thinking of giving Franklin Covey another go around. The storage boxes are a great organizational idea. My Midori is original not Traveler’s. It just feels great. Nothing like it.
Buy cheap plastic 6 ring binders to store old notes from a ring system. I hate writing on the backs of the pages when my hand hits the rings, though. I also 3D printed a page with holes as a backing to support the pages.
I've tried many and have never found the perfect type, size or paper some half used some discarded some not yet used, cheap ones and not so cheap and no one notebook has done it all, so the search continues. : (
Have you tried to remove all the notebooks from the access but one and just use it until it's full? But make sure it's not a huge one, maybe 40-60 sheets max
Ugh, it's like you stabbed me in the gut when you said that there is no perfect notebook. 😮😅 Honestly, I realized this a while ago. I like hard covered, soft covered, ones with thin paper (TRP) and ones with thick paper, too. It all depends on what I plan on using it for. I usually don't like using filler paper in binders a as my notebook because it is more of a pain to store later.
I am sorry for the stub :-) It hurt me as well, even though I LOVE notebooks, I've been trying to find that holy grail notebook for a long time. I have a confession to make... The more I use ring planners the more I love them, and the only thing that keeps me from switching 100% is the problem with storing those leafs.
Try tying strings through the holes? I'm a travelers notebook fiend but if I had the hole punch leafs of paper I would tie a lil twine to make it a 'book' and store them in a box
How do I balance a regular TN, full size, and an a6 hobonichi? I'm wanting to make an A6 hobonichi and a full size notebook work but I also really love my Travelers regular. I'm so close. It's adhd, bipolar depression and trying to fill a hole in me. Oh, I also have a notebook about journals, pens, inks, and generally toys dilemma.
I like the leather of the Traveler's Company notebooks, especially when it's been used. I sold my regular one and now I regret that decision. I have been using my passport TN for about 7 or 8 years, and the feel of the leather is so great
If all I’m doing is journaling I can be at peace with a Traveler’s Company Passport with some fountain pen friendly inserts that I make myself. Drawing is different but I don’t really want to mix drawing with journaling anyway
Seems like a very solid system. The best part in this adventure is that tomorrow, this "perfect" system might be a completely different than you use today. I've come from a single notebook to a combination of a passport size TN + a regular one, to the current system with a lot of different notebooks. Who knows what I will be using a year from now. That's a blessing and a curse at the same time
