A Tiny Blog about Tiny Analog Tools

One conference that I try not to miss is the annual meeting that focuses on sleep health and sleep medicine. It is appropriately named SLEEP. When I came back from that conference this summer, I took with me a pain in my shoulder. One of the tradeoffs of keeping several notebooks is that they can’t all travel with you, at least not without some extra weight. Since I’ve been traveling often this year, I’m starting to get a sense of the note-taking tools I like to take with me.

Teensy, Tiny, Takable

Just about every time I travel, I have a notebook moment. It’s the moment when I am packing and can’t get everything to fit into my bag, about a fourth of which tends to be paper. It also happens every time I move, and I have to part with the four tons of paper that are the physical manifestation of the last five years of my life, all of my raw notes, plans, musings, tragedies. In those notebook moments, I consider going back to being a digital purist of sorts, being that person who is paperless, that one who never has a pen on her.

Since I’ve moved again, I’ve been having more notebook moments. The compromise I’ve settled on (for now) is prioritizing small binders over bound notebooks. Because of the physical constraints of the small binders that I use, it’s hard to make them feel heavy.

My current core setup for analog notes is two binders, a six-ring, mini 6 and a five-ring, mini 5. With my tiny font, I can write notes in the mini 6. As usual, I route my important notes to digital systems. I also use the mini 6 to journal in morning pages style, which tends to spread across one page of 2 mm grid paper. I use the mini 5 as a wallet and daily log, and I might expand on log notes from the mini 5 into the mini 6. If something exciting happens that I log, I use the mini 6 to expand on it.

These two analog systems are tiny and lightweight. They can travel with me to anywhere I want to take them, and they integrate well with my digital systems.

Modularity Makes For Intentionality, Maybe

I think I have fewer notebook moments with my two tiny binders because they are modular. They are not as simple as a notebook, but the modularity allows for flexibility. I only have to carry the notes that I need at the time.

For the notes that I don’t need, I try to make a habit of physically archiving them into archive binders, scanning the important notes and digitally summarizing them. I like that I don’t have to carry notes with me that are no longer relevant or no longer represent how I feel about some aspect of my life. By opening the binder rings, I can remove the unnecessary and make room for new ideas as they come.

Perhaps the modularity and physical constraints of the binder force intentionality. For example, right now, I have several sections in my mini 6 binder. Some sections are lists of project ideas, morning pages journaling, space to think (i.e., brainstorming), to-do lists, story drafting. If I want to draft another short story, I would first have to archive my current story draft, as there is not enough physical space to start a major writing project. If I want to write another week of morning pages, I must first process and archive the current week, or I would risk overloading the binder. One of the perks of a binder is the ability to switch modes by archiving and unarchiving. If I want to spend my day on writing, I could temporarily archive some of the notes that are not as relevant to a day of focused writing, giving me more physical and mental space to write. Maybe the way we use tiny, analog tools might help us with intentionality and focus.

It’s time for me to go focus on some other writing projects and improve my organization and archiving, all in good, writing fun. Email me to let me know how you’re using your writing, note-taking, or journaling tools and how your tools might change as you travel.