i’m a big fan of notebooks. not only do they help me collect my thoughts, they provide a nice distraction when i need it. usually at a work meeting i can be found doodling in the margins, i’m listening to everything going on, but it’s just more fun to doodle than it is to try to maintain eye contact with other people.

i have one work notebook where i log my todo list, and write down obscure commands or how-tos on things i’ve done. i’ve tried the same approach to my personal life, but instead of actually maintaining the notebook i’ve just grown to collec them. i must have 10 different notebooks, various moleskines , pocket-sized, full-sized. all of them maybe have the first couple of pages written on, but for the most part they’re empty.

i’ve tried using planners too, but those eventually end up getting left at home cause no matter how small they are, i can’t fit them in my pocket.

i bought an ipaq, then sold it to a coworker. i never got the clip-on keyboard that i wanted to get so i never really used it.

other than stuffing my pockets with post-it notes, i think there’s really only one other option for me to try in my vain attempt to organize my life.

notecards. yup… plain, simple 3×5″ notebook cards. hell maybe i’ll splurge and get 4×6″ cards.

• getting started with getting things done
• introducing the hipster pda
• not insane to-do list

hell, even thomas jefferson used a similar concept to the hipster pda.

carrying around a single 3×5″ card and then filing it away or copying some comments off the card into a notebook might make things simpler. also no more dedicated work notebook, it’s not like i’ll leave that to the company if i leave. it comes with me, and no one bothers looking through it if i leave it on my desk. so i guess i’ll be carrying that around. wheeee.

another reason i’ve continued reading 43folders.com isn’t just for their adoration of moleskines, but also the fact that he tries to push the fischer space pen like a crack dealer. i’ve had my space pen for about 10 years, it’s always comforting knowing that if i ever needed to write upside-down completely submerged in water that i could.