Dont let me ruin my Moleskine on the first day

March 2, 2006 2:59 PM

How do you setup/organize your Moleskine?

After reading posts on Metafilter, and other places, I fell for the hype, or whatever. I just had my 3.5" X 5.5" ruled notebook arrive yesterday. I love lists, goal setting and just writing my life minutia on pieces of loose paper, but they were always getting destroyed and lost, so the molekine seemed perfect for me. Now my only problem is partitioning it in a practical and useful way. Or should I just leave it totally free of partitions in an open mind-dump?
How do you setup your moleskins.
If this question was posed, I apologize, but I couldnt find it.

posted by kevin_2864212 to society & culture (23 comments total)

I had a related question. I was looking for an app that printed sudokus or crosswords, in a Moleskine type size.
posted by ill3 at 3:14 PM on March 2, 2006

I don't. I draw a line over every new entry that doesn't start on a new page, and title the entry. I've found that just scanning the titles works well enough.
posted by adamrice at 3:23 PM on March 2, 2006

Um, I often write in mine.
posted by xmutex at 3:48 PM on March 2, 2006

Mine is a datebook, so I write down stuff I have to do in it.
posted by fixedgear at 3:52 PM on March 2, 2006

More Moleskine minutiae than you could ever hope for can be found at moleskinerie (discussed here), and at this discussion at 37folders.
posted by Tufa at 3:56 PM on March 2, 2006

I have a Ciak with seven sections of different colored pages. I use the different sections for different topics, and on the top left-hand corner of each new entry, I make a few keyword "tags," like this, so I can flip through the pages to find what I'm looking for.

You can do the same with Moleskine by dividing sections with post-it flags.
posted by Brittanie at 3:57 PM on March 2, 2006

ill3, could you be thinking of PocketMod?
posted by Tufa at 4:18 PM on March 2, 2006

The first thing I do with a new Moleskine is number all the pages. I try to start new topics/lists on right-hand pages which makes browsing easier for me. If I return to a topic after several pages on something else, I'll add a page number reference back (and forward). Very occasionally for I'll dogear a page corner for information I'll need to refer back to frequently.

Alternate advice: don't overanalyze it, just use it. You'll figure out what works for you.
posted by zanni at 4:23 PM on March 2, 2006

Drawing a line and titling in all caps also works well for me, adamrice. And I do all the stuff zanni said (number the pages, start entries on right-hand, page number references).

For my ToDo lists, I put a dash (-) in front of each item. When it's finished, I draw a vertical line through it (+). Turning minuses into plusses makes me feel good about what I've done, too.

But yeah, don't overanalyze. If Moleskine works for you, this will be notebook number one of 5 gazillion and it won't matter anyway :)
posted by nessahead at 5:00 PM on March 2, 2006

Like Brittanie, I use Post-It flags (or their equivalent.) to show me where important pages are. Stick a bunch inside the back cover for later use.
posted by Guy Smiley at 6:01 PM on March 2, 2006

I number the pages and keep the first few pages open for quotes and my lists: lists of words I want to look up, books I want to read, movies I want to see, questions I want answered, things like that. The rest is free for whatever strikes my fancy.
posted by stray at 7:18 PM on March 2, 2006

Good organizing tips
posted by jeremias at 8:06 PM on March 2, 2006

I just cut the adhesive strip off post-its rather than buying flags for my tabs. I also number the odd pages and keep the first couple of pages free for a table of contents. Stuff some index cards in the pocket or just inside the front cover for disposable notes. Write important phone numbers and birthdays on the very back page facing the pocket.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:10 PM on March 2, 2006

I don't have a moleskine, but I have various other kinds of notebooks.
One that I use for remembering things has little tabs made out of PostIt Flags, which others recommended as well. I have various things in there that I need to refer to once in a while, like a list of movies I need to see, and info for a concert I'm organizing. Once the pages for the movies are full, I'll move them to a different section and take along the tab. Once the concert is over, that tab just goes away.

I also keep a lab notebook for work: whenever I start a new book, I skip 4 pages for a table of contents, which I write in as I go. That way I can find things I'm looking for the "regular" way, by looking in the table of contents at the beginning. That's easier than scanning the text of the whole notebook.
posted by easternblot at 8:56 PM on March 2, 2006

Don't put too much thought into it. I use the back of my notebook for keeping track of my money, the last pages for right down books, music and movies to check out, the front cover for my weekly budget and everything else for everything else.
posted by drezdn at 9:30 PM on March 2, 2006

Okay, so, I'm confused. I admit I've never owned a moleskine. But... aren't they just very very nice notebooks? Why would you use them any way other than you'd use any notebook that wasn't "disposable"? Seriously, can someone explain?
posted by Kololo at 10:39 PM on March 2, 2006

Just make sure you use a Muji rollerball with your Moleskine. Everything else will work itself out.
posted by grouse at 1:57 AM on March 3, 2006

I keep about ten square post-its on the inside back cover - opposite the pocket. It's remarkable how often they come in handy. And an emergency paperclip clipped above for the same reason. I use post-it flags (or actually the muji equivalent) to mark the information that I find myself referring to most often, and i keep about ten of those at the back as well.
posted by featherboa at 3:04 AM on March 3, 2006

Oh yeah, I keep an emergency twenty in the pocket.
posted by fixedgear at 5:04 AM on March 3, 2006

But... aren't they just very very nice notebooks?

Pretty much, they seem to have reached a level of tech fetish though.
posted by drezdn at 8:58 AM on March 3, 2006

But... aren't they just very very nice notebooks? Why would you use them any way other than you'd use any notebook that wasn't "disposable"?

They're durable as hell, they're easier to use than softcover pocket notebooks, and the pocket's handy. So yes, they're just very nice notebooks.

Pretty much, they seem to have reached a level of tech fetish though.

This is as big an understatement as the term "Mac enthusiast." And I say that as someone who has a Moleskine in his coat pocket right now.

All this moleskine crap and organization fetish seems pretty pathetic to me-- isnt this really just another trap for obsessive nerds who need to organize and categorize everything to fall into?

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures etc.

Bottom line, a tool you like is a tool you'll use.
posted by middleclasstool at 3:14 PM on March 3, 2006

[removed obsessive nerd rant, take it to metatalk if you need to]
posted by jessamyn at 2:39 PM on March 4, 2006

i have one notebook in my briefcase and one in my carry-on suitcase and a very small spiral pad that i transfer from handbag to handbag. at home, i have various diaries sorted by topic (cases; academics; personal issue #1; daily memoranda; vacation #1; vacation #1 &c). i just write down stuff as it occurs to me in the carry-around notebooks and then transfer it to the topic specific notebook regularly. sometimes this means copying things; sometimes it amounts to redrafting; sometimes it's scissors-and-glue.

i ran through a half-dozen systems before i found one that worked.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:17 AM on April 19, 2006