Nothing compares to a quality pen and some organized (and disorganized) thoughts.
I’ll check our Notesnook.
Maybe 2026 will be the year I move off an iPhone. I have a privacy phone with nostr:nprofile1qqs9g69ua6m5ec6ukstnmnyewj7a4j0gjjn5hu75f7w23d64gczunmgpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43z786xdyf installed arriving this week.
Also, make sure to have a #penstr note now and then.
I’ll go first:
Everyday I use this pen to make note of four areas in a small notebook:
- Black - weight
- Blue - spiritual related
- Red - exercise
- Green - deep work hours and revue to date
Not enough blue last year. A nice amount of red in December. Black needs work. Green was good for hours and I just need to change where those hours go.
The tips are much finer on this compared to the OG pen we grew up with.
Discussion
Agreed. I have used many digital note taking apps and systems over the years, but still always carry a cheap pocket sized notebook (size of Field Notes but cheaper and better quality) and a G2 mini pen (mod'd to remove the pocket clip). My pocket notebooks are always dot grid and I use them sideways with two pages open, which makes a tiny note book twice the size (game changer).
For the most part I use a simplified #BulletJournal method of dots and crossed out dots. As with digital notetaking, I've gone through decades of iterations on analog note systems and always came back to simple, cheap, what I can keep in my pocket. So right now it's a pocket note book and pen, or a stack of 3x5 index cards as a #hipsterPDA (more on that here > https://briangreen.net/notsu_cards
#writing #notes #penstr
"which makes a tiny note book twice the size" Definitely do this. 🙏 👊
When I read #hipsterPDA I immediately thought about that guy 10-15 years ago in San Francisco who was talking about this. Then I clicked on your website and I clicked on the link and saw that it was that guy Merlin Mann. I wonder how many people on Nostr were reading about that guy back in the day. Probably more than I would guess.
I look forward to going through your site later this weekend. A lot of fun things in there!
...and Field Notes were way overpriced, but embarrassingly I used them for several years because I thought they were cool.
Yup - Merlin Mann - his HipsterPDA blog post it still up online (I linked to it on my own blog post). I've been using index cards that way for decades thanks to him. I did progress and upgrade to Notsu dot grid cards.
There are a lot of 'productivity' systems now that use the 3x5 index card format, Ugmonk and others. All just capitalizing on cool, well made gear vs. using the damn things. But to each their own. I'm minimalist and a cheap-ass, I also have spent my lifetime hacking things to make them better for my own needs.
Crossing things off a list is so satisfying.
Your website is a great - excited to read that article tonight.
And as you no doubt remember the Palm Pilot was all the rage when the HipsterPDA article came out. I loved that.
Very nice! I’ve been looking into inks that dont fade over time, too.