My first Field Notes notebooks

Reading about how big a fan of Field Notes notebooks Jamie Rubin is, got me thinking about trying these versatile paper capture devices out. I eventually ordered a pair of Pitch Black Dot-Graph notebooks in late April, to be delivered to me by post.

I picked them up from the post office this morning, and I really like them!

Even though I prefer digital over paper, I still like taking some notes with pen and paper. It helps keep me focused on what I’m doing, largely because there aren’t any notifications, pop-ups, and other windows to switch to when you’re writing in a paper notebook.

What I typically do after I’ve taken my notes is scan them into Evernote (usually with the Evernote app). That way I have the best of both worlds: paper and pen for more focused notetaking, and a searchable digital record afterwards.

I chose dot-graph paper because it seems like a great compromise between lined and graph paper. I don’t usually take notes in a linear fashion. I like drawing, adding annotations, and so on. Dot-graph paper seems like a good fit for that. Just enough visual structure for my notes.

Another notebook that I’m interested in is the HumanWrites Writable, although I haven’t bought one yet. I love the dot-graph paper, and the HumanWrites mission to help further children’s education.

For the time being, though, I’m looking forward to using my Field Notes notebooks, hopefully in really productive, and creative ways.