Moleskine cahier pocket notebook

April 3, 2024

As someone who remains on some level feeling stuck often, a few months ago I started carrying around a Moleskine cahier notebook. Writing in a notebook is not anything too special, but it has ended freeing my mind in a way I never really expected.

The constraint of the pocket size (3.5” by 5.5”) forces my thoughts into short succinct entries. At first I wrote random snippets of unrelated things such as a grocery list. But now I switched to using it as a private journal. Where I’m at in the present moment (often a coffee shop), what I’m thinking. Maybe I am at a bar or a restaurant and I have just enough time to write a quick entry without drawing too much attention. Or perhaps I am sitting outside somewhere or on the bus or the train contemplating not sure what to do with myself.

Later on when I’m sitting in front of my computer facing the dreaded writer’s block I will take the time to type up my journal entry. It doesn’t take too long. Even though the content of these journal entries don’t have much sustenance, there might be a sliver of context of inspiration to continue off from. The risk of only relying on paper notes is you are liable to lose them. The unthinkable has already happened to me as I once lost a laptop along with a notebook of my novel writing notes. I don’t wish to repeat it.

Writing in a notebook feels as if it increases my productivity. Even if it doesn’t seem to amount to much, anything is better than staring at the blank page filled with the anxiety of not knowing what to write next.