NotSoThoreau

I am thinking about doing some pen and ink posts. I have been on a fountain pen kick lately. Back in the old days, I used to use Moleskines for planning. I had a couple of different systems. I have been trying to use my iPhone for some of that. I’ve been using Life Balance, which I’ve used long enough to trust. I used the built in Calendar and Reminders for some things. I’ve installed and discarded several other programs. But it seems I’ve lost my task for keeping everything digital.

I write all over the place. I used to do morning pages and I still write fairly often in cheap spiral notebooks. I have a large Moleskines reporter that I will grab and write in during the day. I wanted something else, a small structured record of my day. I have been keeping track of what I eat. I want to track my finances better. I wanted a bit about the weather and a note of the days happenings.

I ordered a Habana, but had to wait for it to come in. I checked Target and found a bunch of marked down notebooks, including a couple of small Moleskines. I set up my system in one of those.

I use two facing pages per day. At the top left, I date the page. Next is the weather and temperature. If I check it early in the morning, I’ll sometimes write the day’s forecast. Below that is my food diary. On the bottom third is my financial log. I carry over my balance every day and note my inflows and outflows. I track my cash on hand. I have been so disorganized, no matter how hard I try. I have been able to know exactly how much I have by checking this record.

The right hand page is my log of the day. I will do a few notes as I go through the day. At night, before I go to bed, I carry the day over. I write my template for the next day. I carry over my balances. And I make any last notes for the day. It’s very satisfying. And that’s why I am playing with fountain pens.