Ermahgerd... NOTEBOOKS!
Ermahgerd... NOTEBOOKS!
Living with ADHD and OCD means periodically I develop (and get overly-excited over) a new, elaborate organization system that I somehow, foolishly, believe will last forever.
However, this week I've got a tremendous new system that I think may last forever!
The Tremendous Development!
You can now write and preserve data in a physical, human-readable format that's immune to hard drive failures! And it's like, right there in front of you so you're less likely to forget about it!
But the best part is...
These Don't Suck!
Remember these 99 cent bois from grade school?
Garbage.
But TankieTanuki, those are the cheapest ones, which means they're the notebooks of The People!
No. Full stop. Don't even.
You're an adult. Your thoughts are worth preserving. These aren't diamond-encrusted—it's like paying twice as much for the boots that last ten times as long. These were not expensive: The A6 ones were about $3.00 each and the A5 were $5.50.
Do you think Stalin's commissars were recording state grain quotas on those shitty McJournals where the spiral falls out the fourth time you open it and the ink bleeds through three pages at a time?
No.
Stalin would have shot your ass for doing a shitty job and you'd have deserved it.
Cool Features
-
Thick Paper
-
Hardback
The book is its own clipboard! Vegan leather (aka plastic lol 
). Bound securely with string 'n' stuff.
-
Adorably Smol
A5 for studying. A6 for writing down bit ideas or memos.
-
That's right. Those are mother-fucking DOTS on those pages!
You can draw technical shit like tables better because of the vertical guides, but it's less conspicuous than grid/graph paper.
-
PAGE NUMBERS!!? You better believe it. Leverage the power of INDEXING!
Also the red A6 one looks like Quotations from Mao Zedong.
I may start getting into fountain pens now. Lord, help me. 
Also the red A6 one looks like Quotations from Mao Zedong.
My copy of the little red book is like on A5
:pathetic:
Hard to beat a moleskine and a good gel pen. Something about ADHD and the feeling of writing, it just helps.
The touch. Ze smell
(of paper) 
.Also, no push notifications nor clickbait.
Who makes there / where to buy? I love a good hardback notebook, but so many are so overpriced
Oh no they got to you
Dot grid paper is the superior note-taking paper. It's all the power of grid paper, without the visual clutter.
My only possible addition is: if you're really going to go through these notebooks often (or even just, not going to be wearing out the covers every time), consider getting a reusable outer cover and just buying refills that are just the pages and a simple binding
Someone on here recommended it to me, but I fill a moleskine about once every couple years so I haven't tried it out yet.
You can get ones with clasps almost like little 3 ring (6 ring ig?) binders, or just slipcovers. Aliexpress seems to be the spot.
No grid paper on these but all other options are there: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32865900837.html supposedly really nice quality paper on these but again I haven't tried them yet
slip cover: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005007347218116.html
Book refills are a thing?
I don't fill them that fast. I also like the idea of archiving them on a bookshelf eventually.
I would say the refills are robust enough for a bookshelf! they still have a paper dust jacket it looks like, just not as durable as plastic or pleather
But yeah, judging by the number in the OP you've probably got plenty to last a while like me
I've always wanted to get better at taking notes, but I have no system for it. Any tips?
I literally have no system. I'm just jotting down tons of stuff. But it's still useful, because:
- just the process of writing it down seems to help clarify and organize a thought
- I look back several pages a few times a day and actually glance at what I wrote down. Then it's like "oh right, I need to do that, that had completely left my mind until I read this"
Maybe the best system is to have no system. If I had a rigid system I would have to think before I wrote on the pad, rather than think with the pad.
IDK. I bought these because I thought I could become good at note taking.
I've been using the Midori A5 notebooks with grid lining since the dot grids are either unavailable or expensive as fuck depending on where I look. I wish the pages were numbered, although I just manually number them and then I make an Index page at the front. With the plastic cover it comes with a pen/cil loop and I can slip a small plastic ruler inside the back cover. Bought a bunch of replacement erasers for the mechanical pencil I have and I'm not afraid to write and erase stuff.
I use LibreCalc/Excel to test out formats for pages since I can easily make a grid in them and then see how best to use a page's grid space.
These were cheap enough that I can just jot my stream of consciousness without guilt. I think it came out to around 2 cents per page.
Of course there is no replacing spreadshits. I have one A5 notebook for Kerbal Space Program that I use in tandem with LibreCalc to aesthetically compare ship ideas and draw blueprints.
Mine weren't expensive. I just did the math.
Size Price/Book Price/Page A5 $5.46 ¢3.5 A6 $3.03 ¢1.9 That's after-tax. They're sold in packs of seven.
Nice. The Midori A4 I'm using works out to about 8.8 cents. Could probably knock that down to 6-7 if I bulk-ordered them from a stationary website here, but that's a hassle and would probably be like $100+ in bulk at least.
Haha. We must’ve gotten the same “ADHD BRAIN” update patch - I just did similar! I went with A5 40pg saddle stitch Kraft cover notebooks in a variety of colors, hole punched to fit in 1.25in, 6-ring binders. I went for dot grid for all of my schematic needs! And also someone from Hexbear got me into fountain pens a few months ago… I love them though lol I’ve tried Pilot Kakuno to start, and then Lamy Safari. Safari are really nice. Love all the ink colors too- my currently favorite is purple
Stalin would have shot your ass for doing a shitty job and you'd have deserved it.
My handwriting is so ugly that note keeping is just really unsatisfying :((
Probably just need to get into the habit and it will improve
I can write really pretty but my speed drops dramatically.
My problem with using nicer notebooks is I get perfectionist about what I put down and want everything to be organized. Whereas, with those shit ruled spiral notebooks I can go wild and jot random shit down whenever. I have some very nice moleskins that only have like 5-10 pages filled out because something that nice feels like it should savored and worthy of the cost of the notebook. Or maybe I just have an aversion to writing in books.🤷
That's exactly the inhibition I'm only now overcoming. There are a lot of pages and only so many days left!
Hell yeah
My recommendation for pens would be the AIHAO x97, its the better version of a Pilot Precise V5. Also if you prefer a marker style pen I suggest the Tombow hard tip brush pen, it's the better fine point Sharpie.
I bought a JINHAO a couple weeks ago. Is that good?
My handwriting is bad with it; I'm not used to the reduced friction. Is there a trick to the technique? I'm much better with the Pilot G-2.
I've been using the Midori A5 notebooks with grid lining since the dot grids are either unavailable or expensive as fuck depending on where I look. I wish the pages were numbered, although I just manually number them and then I make an Index page at the front. With the plastic cover it comes with a pen/cil loop and I can slip a small plastic ruler inside the back cover. Bought a bunch of replacement erasers for the mechanical pencil I have and I'm not afraid to write and erase stuff.
I use LibreCalc/Excel to test out formats for pages since I can easily make a grid in them and then see how best to use a page's grid space.
did you add shadow under the wojacks?
yeah i'm fancy
Haha. We must’ve gotten the same “ADHD BRAIN” update patch - I just did similar! I went with A5 40pg saddle stitch Kraft cover notebooks in a variety of colors, hole punched to fit in 1.25in, 6-ring binders. I went for dot grid for all of my schematic needs! And also someone from Hexbear got me into fountain pens a few months ago… I love them though lol I’ve tried Pilot Kakuno to start, and then Lamy Safari. Safari are really nice. Love all the ink colors too- my currently favorite is purpleMy handwriting is so ugly that note keeping is just really unsatisfying :((
Probably just need to get into the habit and it will improve
Beautiful post comrade. Have big ADHD brain and had mostly given up on organizing altogether but you may have inspired me
