A6 notebook + mechanical pencil are an indispensable part of my travel kit. i always worry that i will lose my phone at some point so important addresses are written there.
pen and paper can be very useful in places with a different language/writing system. there was a time i looked for a specific product that i had a difficulty describing. fortunately, i met a local who can speak english and asked him to write down the local name of the said product. it can be done on the phone but i find that older people are more comfortable writing with a pen and paper.
for everyday, i use my phone s native notes app for quick jots but still carry with me a notebook and pencil.
Writing on your phone is fine for structured notes that aren’t going to change much but they really really suck for free form writing.
I use an A5 Leuchtturm1917 Weekly Planner for my work shifts, appointments, reminders, tasks, to do’s, etc. It has blank sections for each day allowing you to format your daily plan how you like and you can cross things out and add to it as needed (really great for paying bills as you can note it down then write “paid” next to it).
While you don’t get audible alerts from it, I have found that after using google calendars for years that 95% of the entries don’t need an audio alert & have the downside of disappearing from your notifications at the end of the scheduled time or day which can be a pain when you want to push a task to the next day. With pen and paper things stay until you mark them as done (and there is many different ways to do that).
I have a couple of A5 ruled notebooks for my lists, longer term to do lists, messages etc. When you cross something out it doesn’t disappear or move to another place in an app, it sits there easily visible for future reference or reminders.
There is certainly something freeing from using physical pen and paper to write how you want and structure your notes how they work for you without having to spread them across multiple apps.
Need to make graphs or make plans or maps? Use graph or dot grid paper.
Need to write structured notes? Use one of the many lined papers with your preferred line density and spacing.
Want to free form your notes &/or draw? Use plain paper or sketch paper.
Want to write music? Use paper printed with staff’s.
Need to plan your day? Use one of the great many daily, weekly, monthly or yearly planners ranging from structured all the way to free form.
Have a need to keep track of “to do’s”? There a great number of pads, notebooks, planners and journals that are all about to do lists (there are even systems that have set ways to mark items as in progress, on hold, completed, etc to make things more consistent).
Want to keep a record of books, movies, recipes, plants, travel, babies etc? Guess what, there are journals formatted especially for these. topics
After trying to do 100% of my notes, planning, to do’s, reminders, etc on my phone for over 15 years and having constant issues with notification spam, missed reminders and finding information I have moved back to using planners and notebooks.
They allow me to write how I want, cross things out, add thing in, highlight, draw diagrams, maps, plans etc and most important of all it allows me to make mistakes and correct them.
I have found that I am reaching far less for my phone to look up daily plans & notes as I am remembering them more reliably after writing them down by hand.
Back in this January I decided to start writing morning pages and decided to use fountain pen. Also thought to spend a little bit much more on a nice fountain pen. While at the time I thought I was rushing to just buying things, this purchase was really great! I still write with it every single day, morning pages and daily notes.
I work in an environment where the accuracy and detail in my notes is critical, and the faster I write, the better both are. More than once, notes I took on something that seemed unrelated at the time were the key to figuring out what went wrong. Additionally, it’s common in my field to work in places where the best case for being caught with an unauthorized device is said device being nuked from orbit, and worst case, still that but also being charged with treason 🙃
Plus, it’s just really satisfying to take notes in whatever color I feel like for the day 😁
This sounds a lot like me! Though I’m closer to 8 or 9 inked at a time. Lots of notes in meetings; I have a few stub nibs inked up that I use for headers, then rotate (less systematically) through the other pens throughout the day. The changing colors for each meeting help to provide a good visual separation between meetings in my notes. Plus, it’s a nice little change of pace to “reset” between meetings by choosing a new pen.
It may be easier to find a more well behaved ink instead of trying to get everyone else at the office to use a heavier paper. However, Rhodia, Tomoe, and Clairefontaine are your go-to papers that are fountain pen friendly. But this isn’t exactly something you’d keep around to run through the office printer.
If this is a private printer and you’re running a few pages occasionally, you could get a decent A4 notepad and pull pages as needed.
I’m US based so unfortunately there’s a mismatch in size. I’ll probably just drop some sheets in right before I print, definitely not going to pay to replace everyone else’s paper!
On top of what others have said, it’s worth checking that the nib & feed are properly seated. I’ve had that happen with TWISBI’s before and that was the issue.
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