21st Century PDA: Moleskine

on 01.11.05, 07:43am in life • share on facebook • comments (19)

In many ways, I truly live the digital lifestyle: smartphones, media centers, home servers, digital cameras, etc. It’s sad, but if it’s digital, I’ve probably toyed with it at some point. Which is why this post is surprising even for me.

While I’ve seen several posts on various weblogs about the Moleskine notebook (also known as the ‘iPod of notebooks‘, which apparently even Neil Gaiman loves), it wasn’t until I read Brian Johnson’s post the other day that I finally broke down, ran to Borders and bought a Pocket Moleskine Sketch Notebook. Within 15 minutes of getting home, I actually ended up ordering three more online.

I just couldn’t help it – I instantly realized that one of the biggest contributors to my own ‘inner’ stress is that I still haven’t found an optimal solution to my idea schizophrenia. While getting things organized ‘digitally’ (in OneNote) kept things in a single place, I still didn’t feel like I was able to express myself as well as I could on paper. I ended up ordering a Pocket Squared Notebook, a Pocket Ruled Notebook and a Pocket Plain Notebook (and to be honest, if I had any musical ability, I would have probably picked up a Music Notebook as well).

Why did I get four? Well, right now I want to see what works best for me. I really think the squared will be best for capturing ideas and diagrams, while the ruled will be best in the car for quick notes. Even part of me silently wished that I had one of these when I was at Mount Everest to keep a journal of my travels.

Here’s some interesting links with some Moleskine observations, tips and ‘hacks’:

One last thought: Pens. After reading several comments/posts, I decided to pick up some Pilot G2 pens that everyone’s raving about in the comments of these moleskine weblogs. For some reason, I feel the notebook deserves a great pen to go with it.

I know, I’m sick.

19 Comments

    James Kendrick (January 11, 2005 @ 8:25 am)

    You should really look at the Tablet PC. Be creative, be spontaneous, and still have them in one place in OneNote. :)

    K. Todd Storch (January 11, 2005 @ 11:32 am)

    I understand being a skeptic, I was the same way. I’ve worked with many “systems”, including 100% PDA and the Moleskine seems to be the answer.

    You can do the same thing with a plain old yellow pad, but it just doesn’t have the same feeling as being able to shut the cover and have your own personal “book”.

    Thanks for the link and for checking out my blog as well!

    Todd

    Steve (January 11, 2005 @ 1:36 pm)

    Ya know, I seriously considered the Tablet, but it just doesn’t do it for me. I can’t take notes/ideas down on a tablet as fast as I can on paper.

    Of course, the tablet does a better job of a ’search’ than manually looking through handwritten pages :)

    Jeff Atwood (January 11, 2005 @ 3:43 pm)

    For shame! Moleskine is for pretentious art geeks. Real men use ratty spiral bound notebooks with the ac/dc logo hand sketched on the cover

    l.m.orchard (January 12, 2005 @ 9:02 pm)

    Personally, I can’t stand the Pilot G2. If I recall, it was some sort of gel ink that never dried fast enough and always left me with smearing and ink transfer when I turned pages.

    My favorite pen of all time has to be the Pilot Precise V5, great for my tiny handwriting in my moleskine:

    http://www.pilotpen.us/detail.asp?PenID=43

    Willem Odendaal (January 14, 2005 @ 3:19 am)

    Moleskine

    Moleskine

    Leslie S. Russell (January 25, 2005 @ 7:35 am)

    The Zebra F-402 fine point is my fave. No bleed, fast drying, smooth ink flow.

    http://www.zebrapen.com/ball-f402.html

    shahine.com/omar/ (January 27, 2005 @ 6:17 pm)

    Staying on the Getting Things Done Wagon

    Omar Shahine's WebLog (January 27, 2005 @ 6:17 pm)

    Staying on the Getting Things Done Wagon

    shahine.com/omar/ (January 27, 2005 @ 6:23 pm)

    Staying on the Getting Things Done Wagon

    shahine.com/omar/ (January 28, 2005 @ 11:27 pm)

    How the Moleskine Rocked My World

    Omar Shahine's WebLog (January 28, 2005 @ 11:28 pm)

    How the Moleskine Rocked My World

    Jelle Druyts (January 30, 2005 @ 3:41 am)

    Moleskine

    O (February 19, 2005 @ 7:26 pm)

    I’m using a fine point fountain pen, a good quality one, with great success. Even in the thinner paged notebook version I’d have to really go heavy to get bleed through. The surface of the paper makes the ink flow smooth and the dry is fast. I prefer the esthetic of the fountain pen, always have and now I have a paper journal that can take it. And, of course, in the sketchbook it is supurb. What of my PDA? It’s good for ereader. ::thrive!, O

    joren (September 12, 2005 @ 5:55 pm)

    I’m glad to read your interesting post and know I’m not the only one with this compulsion. Thank you.

    Bob Garner (December 31, 2005 @ 5:53 pm)

    Hey. I love my moleskine. However, I understand that the marketing about Hemingway and Picasso is just that, marketing. Check out this site:http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A1113346.

    I still love it.

    MSN tests new blog, search features (February 19, 2006 @ 11:24 pm)

    MSN Search’s WebLog

    MSN tests new blog, search features | The service will let users find blogs and
    syndicate content using the RSS format, as well as search blogs for specific …

    Dave Vogt (April 21, 2006 @ 7:11 am)

    I’m witholding judgement until I actually hold one in my hand. I have been using mini marble notebooks from Wal*Mart for years, and I don’t think a PDA could really satisfy me like that.

    As far as pens go, I’m more a fan of the uniball Signo RT. I’m not precisely sure why, but they feel cleaner to me.

    Steven in Berlin (April 29, 2006 @ 11:24 am)

    Barcelona

    Traveling is an exhausting, expensive, stressful experience, yet altogether enlightening and ultimately rewarding. I thoroughly enjoy surrounding myself with the unknown, a maze if you will, and finding a way out (or not). Spain may be an E.U. member…

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