Why I Don't Carry Field Notes

Comments · 406

• DF

  @DFitchArt · 2 months ago · pinned

  What pocket notebooks do you use and do you have any add-ons that help with your system?

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• TH

  @theredemu · 1 month ago

  OMG I used to fold my pages like that in my planner in elementary school after they were used. I totally forgot about that!! Memory unlocked!

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• WO

  @WowCoolRobotMinis · 2 months ago

  I used to have a very inconvenient Franklin Covey Notebook thing, and it was so wildly inconvenient that I stopped doing it at all. Most of the Field Notes stuff I&apos;ve seen feels more like a barely more portable, but equally nice and expensive, version that will be equally discouraging to have on me or write in.<br><br>Meanwhile a 25¢ 2x3&quot; notebook like this I can have with me nonstop is actually what I wanted 99% of the time anyway.<br><br>The paper fold is just decreasing friction to use and being a little bit looser with the idea that these are ultimately disposable notebooks... It feels like you&apos;ve just unlocked my brain<br><br>This really feels like a best of both worlds

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• MA

  @Martha-g2d9b · 2 months ago

  I’ve jused your method since 6th grade. It was a “cool” to fold &nbsp;your pages. &nbsp;Thank you for bringing this to light for new writers. Oh, I’m 74 so i’ve been doing this method for over 60 years. ❤

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• PA

  @PamOrl · 2 months ago (edited)

  At almost $4.50 each currently, Field Notes has become a luxury I don’t need. I use the same mini composition notebooks. Cheap and simple. Your folding idea is brilliant…I’m going to use it on mine.<br><br>I made a simple leather cover: one piece of leather cut to size, punch 2 holes in the top/middle, 2 holes bottom/middle, run a piece of thin elastic cord thru, knot it…”Travelers Notebook” style. Slip in 1 or 2 comp books. Then cut holes on the back near the edge, 1 on top, 1 on bottom, run a piece of flat elastic thru, then glued the ends together. This creates a loop that you can flip over to keep it closed. Super cheap and extremely durable.

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• MI

  @missy3240 · 2 months ago

  The page fold is so cool! I will definitely try this. I also like cheap notebooks for quick notes because I don&apos;t worry about being precious with them.

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• CR

  @crainseye8499 · 2 months ago

  i like how you’re like “i don’t have anything against field notes” and then you tell us what you have against field notes lol but in all seriousness this is super informative. subscribed!

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• JO

  @JosefBuhlmann · 2 days ago

  I have stumbled across your channel while looking for more info on common place books in which I first heard about it from Ryan Holidays.<br><br>I have been wanting to get in the habit of taking notes and journaling. However, with journaling not a lot goes on in my world. But I am working on reading more books and improve myself intellectually like my grammar and math.<br><br>And that’s how I came across Ryan Holiday, and other YouTube videos like yours.

• DO

  @doceasye · 2 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezPJrTMbfaY&amp;t=215">3:35</a> best part here, it&apos;s about your system and what works for you.

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• JA

  @jayjorz · 6 days ago (edited)

  I enjoyed using these notebooks as well. I found them browsing a dollar store some time last year and was amazed that they had mini versions of the composition notebooks. To me, the composition notebooks were the fancy expensive ones we couldn&apos;t get when back to school shopping at K-mart in elementary school. I put one in my car, and one in my pocket as a work log. Unfortunately they don&apos;t hold up well in pants pockets for a laborer that bends over all day. Had a tough time finding which pocket to keep it in where it wouldn&apos;t get bent or fall out. Finally settled on the left breast pocket of my safety work vest. Lately I&apos;ve been using the reporter&apos;s notebooks that are spiral bound at the top. Found a cheap 4 pack at the supermarket stationary isle and they seem to work well for me. The negative to those is, you have to decide which orientation you&apos;re going to write in, and fill the page up so you don&apos;t get mixed up when the notebook is flipped around and accidentally write backwards into a blank space you left on a previous page. It probably works better for someone that isn&apos;t scatter brained. I feel like I need to go look up which orientation other people write in these reporters notebooks. I&apos;m glad you showed the method of folding pages to keep your place because that was my second problem with the mini composition books. I put a lot of wear on the cover and pages just trying to get to where I left off. My work notes only require I write down 6-10 strings of 7 numbers a day to track what I&apos;ve accomplished, so unless I take incidental notes, each page will be for 3 or 4 days of entries with lots of opening and closing the book. I&apos;ve begun to write down more journal style notes in between tracking work so I can fill out the notebooks faster and avoid having them be destroyed in my pockets from bending and lifting, and moisture over time. I have seen others laminate their notebook covers, and I think that might be a good step to reinforce these inexpensive ones with tape.

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• BK

  @bkturley9964 · 1 month ago

  I thought I was the only crazy one to do this! Even fold the pages the same. I did find a cheap simple way to band and hold a pen. I use cheap black flat hair ties that are $1 for 25 or whatever to band the book horizontally, and staple the band to both the front and back cover through the near the binding where the extra layer of binding is. &nbsp;A pen can be held by the band and using its clip, or tease a little slack out between the staples to make a loop across the binding edge

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• ST

  @story8633 · 2 months ago

  For the little pocket composition books, I took some duck tape, about 3 inches and put another 2 inch piece on the sticky side of the tape so that there was a half inch on each side that was still sticky but 2 inches that weren&apos;t. Then I put a pencil on the spine of the notebook put the tape over it and pressed down to the cover. Now I have a pen holder right on the notebook, the pen slips in and out easily, and I can make another one quickly for the next notebook. &nbsp;I like the spine, but you could also do it on either cover if you prefer.

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