A few months back I accidentally left my favorite notebook out in the rain. I wanted something I could get my hands on quickly, and found a 3 pack of Field Notes on Amazon that would arrive the next day, so I pulled the trigger.
Getting the notebooks in has been a real joy. Partly because it’s reminding me of when I carried a pocket notebook for a brief season in high school, another because I’d forgotten just how convenient it is to always have my notebook with me.
I use my notebook in my own modified bullet journal style. The pages are kept intentionally simple and help me capture everything from notes on my creative life, to tasks and lists like my reading list, simple habit trackers, and some daily/monthly review. I’ve always kept it deliberately minimalist, so having a version I can keep in my pocket has been a welcome change.
One of the most profound parts of field notes is it’s literally next to my phone in the same pocket. So now when I go to reach for my phone, I’m presented with a choice: waste time on my phone, or pull out my notebook.
Another thing I’m realizing is it’s resetting my default of putting notes on my phone. Here’s an excerpt; “I almost just pulled out my phone to write that to-do, but instead I went for these Field Notes. Love it.”
A new habit that’s started to form is keeping random ‘content notes’ (creative scraps like phrases of writings, fonts, colors, books, sketches, layout inspiration, etc) in line with all my other notes by marking the note with a square instead of a standard bullet. Every few days I’ll take those scraps and pull them into more formal places like Notion.
This has significantly impacted my writing. Not only has it helped me have a less cluttered writing environment and allowed me to slow down to process thoughts, the physical act of using the notebook makes me feel more like a writer, taking away some friction and helping me uncover what I’m really trying to say.
It turns out, my best writing doesn’t come from a screen. It comes from pen and paper.
The notebook grounds me to the present, where instead of immediately opening a browser and hunting down the latest idea, the notebook allows me to sit with the idea a little longer and see what other ideas arise, essentially making a barrier between ideation and research.
It also helps me be more productive and present with my kids. When I work on my computer, I can easily get tunnel vision. In the notebook, it’s much easier to stay attuned to what’s going on around me or handle a simple interruption and get right back to what I was doing.
I enjoy how the notebook is starting to change me. It’s resetting my defaults, it’s impacting my writing and simplifying how I approach processing content. As Joan Westenberg says, every tool changes the shape of the hand that uses it.
What I think I appreciate most about the pocket notebook is it’s reinforcing my identity as an artist. Even just by carrying the notebook I feel more creative. I’m reminded to slow down and fill the space between tasks differently. It’s in that space where I find the creative output my heart longs to create, shape, and maybe even release to the world.
Alain de Botton seems to perfectly capture the changes I feel in this quote from his book How to think more effectively—“We need a new collective sense of what hard work might involve and even what it might look like. It won’t necessarily be the person who runs from meeting to meeting or juggles international phone calls who is genuinely engaged in working hard; it might be the person sitting at the window, gazing out at the clouds, occasionally cupping their head in their hands and writing something down in a little notebook.”