13 Comments

“Think With Your Hand” — that is what it is all about! There are numerous studies proving that we retain thought best with our hands, and not via keyboard. I tell my first grade students that when they learn cursive. Only cursive moves with your thoughts. They will be well equipped when they are ready to see their real writing.

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What a fantastic idea! I technically have some everything notebooks, but they lack structure. They have just been for planning and capturing ideas with some mild logging here or there. Your structure—especially the vows—has me inspired for my own 2025 notebook!

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Love it. A friend gifted me a bullet journal which is very similar to this but more in tune with scheduling stuff- but I like your use case more and will tailor mine to this method. Appreciate the inspiration!

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I love this

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Love it! I use a Leuchtturm1917 as well and added their pen loop and Drehgriffel pen for when I’m traveling. My spin on this in 2024 is that I used the journal to finally become a morning person. I write first thing, recording the time I arrive at my desk and my goals for the morning, and I’m not allowed to write in it past 9am! 📔

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That is awesome! I haven't heard of the Dregriffel pen. I've been stuck on Muji pens for a while.

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I like your approach (wedding vows!) much better than the bullet journal system, which I found too ToDo/systematic. One can always adapt several ideas. I did love the permanence feel of a real book with great paper of the 1917. One good idea is doing an Index, which I find best starting at the back of the book. If pages are numbered it helps to reference. Also writing (and even designing) with fountain pens and different inks is a real joy (Lamy Safari pens especially). JetPens my favorite source for all.

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It seems that your Everything Notebook is just another name for a Bullet Journal, most of the users of which system also use a Leuchtturm 1917 notebook. Things like your reading lists are known as "collections" in the BuJo world.

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Interesting - yeah, I need to look into the Bullet Journal. The Leuchtturm 1917 has recently released a journal in collaboration with Bullet Journal, so that would be the best of both worlds.

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I've tried to keep separate notebooks for separate parts of life, but I've never been that successful or consistent -- will have to try this as a system.

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I'm going to give this a shot. I think this could be an improvement on my current "everything notebook" I keep in a small Moleskine; sometimes it's too small. The "books at the front" part is really intriguing.

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Let me know how it goes!

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An excellent idea!

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