Getting Ready for 2010: My Moleskine Setup

I'm a few days late, but with the new year upon us, I've decided to inaugurate a new Moleskine. The old one is… well, it's not skilful. The bounden is broken, pages are out, and information technology's but about total anyway. Plus, I've got a saucy new Moleskine in fire engine red that's eager to arrive the game.

Since I make a big deal about using a Moleskine (or similar notebook) every bit an always-with-you productivity tool, I idea I'd share exactly how I set mine up. It's not super-complicated, but it might requite an idea of how a simple pad of paper tin can hold together all the strains of an insanely circuitous life.

My strategy is unproblematic: Make it as piece of cake as possible to pull the thing out, use it, and put it away. No messing effectually to find the right department, no page numbers, nix fancy. A few tabs, judicious utilize of the bookmark and elastic strap, and a proficient fine-tipped pen. And that'south it.

Making Sections

Ane of the greatest inventions of the 20th century was – ok, I enlarge myself. Still, Post-It Alphabetize Tabs go with Moleskine notebooks like biscotti goes with coffee. Normally sold in assortments of three colors, these footling plastic tabs are a little under an inch long and are coated on one end with Mail service-It mucilaginous stuff so you tin easily add tabs to any slice of paper or card stock.

I use two per Moleskine. The get-go one goes a little past halfway into the volume, the 2nd about a dozen or so pages back from the terminate. That makes three sections:

1. Side by side Actions/Notes

The first department starts on page 1, so doesn't demand an identifying tab. This is an ever-growing listing of next actions. I've tried using contexts in my paper to-do list, only it just gets in the way – I never know what to do with the next task after a page marked "@telephone" or "@reckoner" is full. It certainly defeats the betoken to have to flip dorsum and forth to find the right context to add a new task to.

I used to have a separate department for notes, but I don't anymore. What I exercise instead is this: tasks proceed the correct-hand folio, notes on the left-paw page. And I exercise a lot of notes – I brainstorm post ideas, outline posts I intend to work on soon, jot addresses and phone numbers, draw maps and write directions, and on and on.

There is one correct-manus page that's non for notes, usually the first one. This I designate for "Someday/Maybe". I merely don't run into the same problem that contexts give me – running out of room on the page – considering I guess I don't use Anytime/maybe all that much. In any instance, I've never filled the page before needing a new Moleskine.

two. Projects/Goals

The first tab (which means the second section) is for projects. On the showtime page of the section, the i with the tab on it, I keep a running list of all the projects I'yard working on. The next couple of pages are blank, so I can continue the list when the start page gets total. A few pages in, I start pages for each project, usually only lists of tasks and random ideas I want to think.

On the dorsum of the get-go page, I write brusk-term goals. I have a simple formula: "Past [Appointment] I will take [GOAL]". I typically set up goals for one month, 3 months, and (maybe) 6 months in the future, so in this notebook, I'll have something similar "By February 15th, I volition have…", "Past April 15th, I will have…" and (maybe) "Past July 15th, I will accept…" Then I revisit this page every so often to judge my progress and prepare new goals.

three. Reference

The last section is for pieces of data I might need on the go: logins for my utilities, my Google Voice number (I can never remember information technology!), and other random simply occasionally-useful stuff.

My Moleskine in use

My Moleskine lives in my back pocket. As I said, the goal is that when I need to u.s.a. information technology, whether to check something, write downwardly a task, or cross something off, information technology tin happen instantly. Both the bookmark and the elastic strap are drafted into service of this primary goal.

Usually, the sewn-in bookmark marks the start folio nether "Next actions" that I can write in, and the rubberband strap is wrapped effectually the starting time bare folio nether "Projects". If – and this happens very rarely – if the notes and tasks in the "Next actions" section get too far out-of-whack, whether because I've taken a bunch of notes recently and gotten several pages ahead of the concluding folio of tasks, or vice versa, I'll use the bookmark and strap to mark the concluding pages of tasks and notes separately.

Although the Airplane pilot G-2 is the time-honored companion to the Moleskine, my current favorite pen for my Moleskine is the Sharpie Retractable Fine-Point pen, a fat click-pen with a fiber-tip that lets me write super-small (thus maximizing the usefulness of a pocket-sized notebook).

And that's the whole system. Like I said, uncomplicated, but it works. And because it works with minimal endeavor, I actually use information technology. Every. Unmarried. Day.

Practise y'all have whatsoever special tricks that assistance y'all get the most out of a pocket notebook? How do you set up yours upward? Let's hear it!

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/getting-ready-for-2010-my-moleskine-setup.html

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