December 10, 2005: My Moleskine hack
Or should I say slash?
Posted on 2005-12-10 18:10 by Jørn Støylen [permalink]
An important aspect of the Getting Things Done system is to get things out of your mind and into a trusted system. Well, I’m trying out Tracks as my trusted system, as it’s available online and therefore within reach whenever I’m near a computer with Internet access, which is pretty often.
But for those times when I’m away from a computer—for example, out in the city doing errands—I need some way to capture my thoughts until I’m back online.
Whats it got in its nassty little pocketses?
What I’ve realized lately, is that if I’m ever going to be able to capture thoughts anywhere, anytime, I’m going to have to carry pen and paper in my pant pockets. I already carry my keys, cards and cash in my pockets, which is how I make sure I always have those things at hand.
So I decided that I needed to find a pen that’s small enough to fit in my pocket, along with some kind of paper. Now, at first I just thought of bringing a sheet of paper folded up, or maybe a blank or ruled variant of the PocketMod, since I just need a piece of paper to jot down stuff.
The search for the perfect pen
Yesterday I went to at least half a dozen stores, looking for a pen. My requirements: It should be shorter but not thinner than normal, it should write with black gel ink, it shouldn’t be too expensive, and it had to be something I could stand for when it comes to personal taste.
I found a very cool one at Ordning&Reda which was matte black, and when you clicked the back end to bring out the pen tip, the back end extended so that it became a normal length pen. Two things made me not buy it, though: One, it wrote in blue, dry ink. Two, it cost NOK 400, or about $60.
Then I found the Pilot G-2 XS, which is cheap and uses gel ink, but the ones I found had blue ink and were colored pink or purple, which would seriously hamper my brain’s desire to take it out in public. (Recently I bought new toothbrushes for me and Christina, one pink and one green, thinking the latter would be for me. But Christina insisted on having that one, so I ended up with the pink one. I used it for a little while, but yesterday I bought a new, blue one for myself and threw the pink one away. I just couldn’t stand it anymore.)
Today I went out searching again, and finally found the G-2 XS in black, and with black ink, so I bought a couple of those (approx. $3 each). Then I thought of what I was going to write on, and decided to check if the book store had a special something.
Moleskine notebooks
It’s almost impossible to follow the GTD movement online without reading about Moleskine notebooks. They’re quite expensive, but also of very good quality, which is why many GTD devotees swear by them.
The store where I found the pens also had a selection of Moleskines. Most of them are too big for pant pockets, though. If I used a shirt or a suit on a daily basis, their pocket notebooks would be fine—but I don’t. However, they had sets of three thinner, squared ‘Cahier’ notebooks, which I figured might be more useful. Originally I wanted lined instead of squared, but for reasons that will soon be apparent it’s a pretty good thing that they didn’t have those. Read on.
Hack/slash
In my younger days I used to carry a wallet in my back pocket, but I’ve stopped that, and instead carry money loose in my left pocket, and all the other stuff in my right. (It’s a question of style, I guess.)
There are a lot of suggestions for Moleskine hacks out there, and here’s mine, although I’m inclined to call it more of a slash than a hack:
Cut it in half.
Just find a paper knife and a ruler and cut it straight across the middle, and round off the freshly-cut corners a bit. You’re left with two smaller, journalist style (bound at the top edge) notebooks instead, more or less the size of a credit card. Since they’re squared instead of ruled, though, you’re free to use them in any direction you like.
So finally I’m ready to capture thoughts wherever and whenever they might hit me! Another crucial GTD success factor is in place in my life.
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I just carry my backpack with my 90% of the time and have a notebook in it.
So do I, but then I’d have to stop, get the backpack off my back, open it, find the notebook and pen, scribble “buy milk” or whatever I needed to remember, put it back in, close it and get the backpack back on.
Compare that with: Get the notebook and pen from your pocket, scribble “get milk” or whatever, put the notebook and pen back in your pocket, all even possible while walking.
It’s all about setting up the least possible resistance, or you won’t do it.