Why is the topic of notebooks and planning so popular? I came across a bunch of youtube videos on how to use various notebooks for personal planning. I never realised how many videos on the topic there are, or is this just a side effect of the youtube algorithm, having shown a bit of interest, they chuck everything they have at me.
The author of this piece, despite declaring that the filofax is more flexible has settled on the Hobonichi; while the filofax is more flexible and thus can be used in more time management/recording systems, the portability and size of the hobonichi wins it for her.
One of the suggestions is that writing something down helps remember things and that this is an important part of the use of real pocket books.
All this made me go and look at my old filofax. I threw away again some of the pages/inserts. The filofax is bulky, it’s never going to be a pocket book but for me, the Hobonici is too inflexible.
Some claim that the ideas of Bullet Journaling help as a method of time management. Wikipedia says, “Bullet journals are usually handwritten and kept in a single notebook. The core tools of a bullet journal are: an index, rapid logging, logs, & collections.” In some implementations, each entry type is preceded by an icon. It gives some ideas on how to organise your notebook. Microsoft also comment, with a useful categorisation and of course a suggestion for a software tool. A number of writers refer to BuJo as their information model.
One of the insights I have learned from IT strategy is to adopt the optimum process from the vendor; perhaps these tools work better if you do what the journal designers expect.
I use google calendar for event planning, MS todo for task scheduling, and this wiki for my logs. This is all helped by being able to search on the diary, and schedules. I might buy myself a nice notebook for contemporaneous notes and short term to do lists. But I can’t see myself moving off my IT tools. Part of the reason for this is my poor hand writing, part of this is that my phone can fit in my pocket and if I working at a desk, I can use my larger IT devices. NB When I used a filofax, I also used a briefcase and I agree with polkadotparadisio that the filofax is too bulky to be carried in my pockets even when wearing an overcoat, a pocketbook it ain’t.
Some of the notebooks are beautiful.
I admit that even today, carrying a laptop is a weight I’d rather not have to manage. Sun Microsystems had something with the javacard which eventually allowed one to approach any workstation on the network, use it and the network would find and display your virtual desktop.
So for me, it’ll remain IT and my phone, with a note book for contemporary notes, which I will try and transcribe to another IT resource, either a folder, or a wiki.