Ahhh… I cracked open a cleanskin Moleskine last night and have spent some time today wondering how I might hack it.
I tell ya, I don’t know what I did without Moleskines for so long. There is something mystical, magical, intoxicating about them. I swear I get almost as much joy out of cracking open a cleanskin Moleskine as I do turning on a new PC for the first time. There is a sense of exploration, of new beginnings, of promises, boy’s own adventure about it, that I find myself putting the moment off, not sure that I’m truly ready for the responsibility…
This new one is purely for me to write down my thoughts, ideas, inspirations, revelations – no tasks, no productivity stuff, no goals – just to contemplate, ponder, poke at the hidden meanings of my internal monologue.
Via PigPog I discovered my latest hack from moleskinerie – using Excel to create a page index which gets pasted into the first four pages of the new book.
Here’s the one I have put together:
(click on the image to download my Excel template for free!)
It’s set up for 200 pages which accommodates the 192-page ruled notebooks with the pocket, not the tiny form factor (I’ve got a couple of those but struggle to write small enough in them to make them useful).
I simply print it out, slice it up into four separate pages that get glued (using 3M Repositionable Spray Adhesive) into pages 2 – 5 of the new book. I actually like to leave page one completely blank. In the index I can keep a note of the topics I’m writing about in the book for fast future reference.
I also recently learned to keep a page-sized piece of blotter paper in between the current page I’m up to, to stop ink blots appearing on pages from when I shut the page before the ink from my uni-ball eye pen has completely dried. I’m using paper from an art book which I find does a good job and has a nice rough feel to it. I used just a cut-down piece of printer paper before that though, which worked just as well but didn’t have the same tactile texture to it. I’m a very tactile kind of guy. I like to touch. 🙂
Anybody else want to share with me their current favourite Moleskine hacks?
I think that over half the joy of the moleskine is it’s texture. I tend to get weird looks from my friends at uni when they catch me gently stroking the pages. I can imagine that the contrast in texture between the blotting paper and the pages would be quite cool… I am so weird…
The only really neat trick I have with my moleskine is that I managed to get my hands on a mini pen with a piece of looped twine on the lid which I have attached to the elastic. I get to avoid hunting around for a pen when I have to jot something down and the ink doodad is the same width as a standard one so I can just cut the end off the ink thing in pens when the run down far enough to replace it.
Other than that I just keep a couple of pieces of loose paper in the pocket and some blank shopping list forms so I can plan the grocery shop on the train.
I can’t write with mini-pens. I tried one for a while but I have big fingers. 🙂
The other thing I’ve tried as a blotter, btw, is a manila folder cover cut down to size. I have a thing with manila folders too. I love the colour, that sandy, wheat colour. Reminds me of driving through France, it’s the same colour as bales of hay.
The ony thing I know for certain is I think your getting weirder. ATM I am unsure if that’s a good or bad thing.
After I had come back from the US of A in 2K I had planned to start a “journal” or random thoughts kinda thing. Like everything else in my life it’s something else I didn’t do.
Maybe if I got a moleskine I would be inspired, but probably not.
I use Levenger Page Points in my Moleskine, they’re bookmarks you can leave in place that don’t fall out and you can clip them at the top, bottom (upside down) and on the side.
They’re also quicker to flick to if there’s a page you’re turning back to regularly and they protect that edge of the paper from the extra handling.
http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=Category=17-193|PageID=302|Level=2-3|
I use dried leaves as bookmarks. I tend to be outdoors when I write in my Moleskin (or any other notebook for that matter) and I’ll pluck a leaf off a tree and stick it into the book. All my books have leaves from different locations and parts of my life – I’ve only just realised I have formed a collection of sorts without trying. How’s that for obsessive compulsive?
http://www.lefigaro.fr/eco-entreprises/20060805.FIG000000547_les_carnets_moleskine_redeviennent_francais.html
I love these things and have four or five of them going at any one time. Often, when the kids and wife have gone to bed I pull one out and just thumb through the pages. Somehow the day’s stress just melts away. Weird, eh?
My best hack to date is what I call my Moleskine Backpack (rather than hack). I found an old black leather briefcase at a discount store with an insert pouch that had three pen-loops and a pocket for glasses. Son of gun if it wasn’t exactly the right size to slip around the front cover of my Moleskine (once I had freed it with an exacto knife from its former home). Now my Moleskine has a removable backpack (actually frontpack) that carries three colorful G-2 Pilots and a pair of reading glasses (yep, the eyes are about gone). I also made a second pack from the front panel of a USGS leather field notebook case. Used alcohol to darken the leather and it also carries 3 pens and a pair of glasses. Now, when my spirit yearns for the Misty Mountains, I’m off (with my Moleskine) in a flash, hack-pack and all!!!! Life is sweet!!!