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I love how you focus on tools that truly help improve productivity! I’ve tried a few of these myself, and they’ve made such a difference. Can’t wait to hear your take on other tools in future episodes!

Must Haves: Elastic closure Sturdy cover Non-thin paper Dot grid

The pilot v-pen is a good starter. You it’s pre-filled and you just use it like any other pen, however it is disposable not reusable, so there is that. But if you don’t mind that it is a very nice pen.

Hi there. I’m a sucker for covers on journals, but lined journals break it for me. Reminds me of doing homework/schoolwork and writing assignments

I love buying from book binderies. Citrus Book Bindery has ones that you can customize and are beautiful.

Thanks for the insight! I’ve been using one of these tools for a while now, but I’m definitely going to try out the others. Excited to see how they’ll boost my productivity!

When I'm introducing someone to fountain pens for the first time, I recommend the platinum preppy. I have a handful in various colors that I use with my TWSBI 580 rose gold pen that is my daily driver. I think my preppy collection covers blue, green, pink, red, and purple. Ink matches the barrel but it is a great starting point for someone who has never used them. I really love platinum ink as it holds up well to my lefty writing and impatience.

Mark I want to know more about all that cool stuff in the background.. both of your do studio tour?

By digitized do you just mean you want someone to scan all your dev notebooks?

You guys have mentioned some cool stuff notebooks, square grid notebooks, and fountain pens, could you provide some links to these items?

Jess: Scandal! I need another notebook. Her partner in another room: Do you, though?? Also, I've been to the Atlas Stationers store on a trip to Chicago. Gorgeous store!

I found I only got 5 things I had done from the list. 6 if you count the bonus question about the digital planner. I've been a minimalist for a long time but stationary is a place I've tried to go for quality when I do buy things. The points I got were based on vibes, sharing my successes with journaling, and abandoning things within my journal. Usually it's because I forgot about it and then didn't remember it until well after I forgot whatever it was for.

For me: Softcover! If it is a hoardcover I don't like taking it with me. So, for a notebook to be fuctional to me it has to be softcover.

Elastic closure with my monthly and travel journals are a must. Since I write and junk journal and scrapbook, those books get thiiiick and need the elastic to help.

19:12 Yeeees Savannah Scribbles' work has been such an inspiration for me this past few month

I replied to a few comments... my 1st fountain pen was a pilot metropolitan. A metal body, thicker barrel pen, which I find easier to use as I get older. I now have possibly 100 fountain pens and roughly that many inks. As my hands get stiffer... bigger barreled weighty fountain pens are best for me to use. The balance and looser grip needed to make them write means less hand fatigue for me. 🎈🎈😂😅

Mark! I’m here to say: GIVE ME ALL THE FOUNTAIN PEN CONTENT! I love seeing it!

Jess, maybe it might help you to focus on the process of taking care of your body instead of concrete weight loss goals. You could e.g. track movements you've done or healthy meals you've cooked :)

How much water someone needs to drink is actually very individual like you mentioned at 5:40 ! For example, my kidneys aren't great so I have to drink at least 2.5 L (roughly 85 oz) daily. What helps me a lot is having a water bottle that is exactly that size (it's been called a fish tank because it's huge lol). Haven't found a solution for when I'm on the go yet. By the way, it's totally fine hydration-wise to drink liquids other than water. There might be some other reasons to stick to water (e.g. reducing sugar or caffeine intake) but soda will hydrate you too!

blank pages are a need for sure. I hate dot grid because I'm a tiny writer and the dot grid just seems to confining

Mark were you talking about the freewheel press pens?

I like hearing other perspectives about the variety of notebooks. I'm very happy with my inexpensive Artist Loft journals (dot grid with index). They handle my microns, stabilos, zebra mildliners, and pilot G2 pens without issues, at least that I've noticed. Offhand, I don't recall the gsm but I love the books.

In order: 1. Size. I'm totally a B5 girl, and I now feel like I'm an A&O captive because they are the only ones putting out a good B5. 2. Stark white paper (160 gsm). 3. Numbered pages (not getting this very often, thankyouthankyouthankyou, @MarkYourPages !!!. 4. Attractive covers. I have to admit I'm not into "cutsie" covers. So even puts out journals I would never spend money on.

The main features I look for in a notebook are; A5 or A6 size, soft cover because I like to put them into my favourite leather covers, so I really don't care what the cover looks like, as long as it's flexible. Medium-to-thick fountain-pen-friendly paper, little/no ghosting. Clairefontaine and Rhodia are my favourites. Lined, dot or grid doesn't matter, I have uses for all three. Additional must-have features for a planner are horizontal weeklies and full-size Saturday/Sunday, plus notes pages for custom collections.

The retro winter thing was awful! I was so disappointed.

I recommend a dashboard to land on for collecting all . I've used one for 2 years - displaying all the relevant areas - media, writing, patreon, chores etc. So nice to be kept aware of all based on timers etc - and all visible at once in the size of the window (no scrolling)

i am always cranky about the 'vegan' leather or faux, why not just describe it as what it is vinyl, environmentally unfriendly etc, ps not a personal blast, just ugh

I feel this noise conversation so much. I have found an interesting loophole by listening to music from Korea and Japan. I know a tiny amount of Japanese and almost no Korean so I'm able to listen to upbeat pop music and not get distracted by lyrics. I think I have about a day's worth of music (like 20+ hours of music) on my playlist. I'm also tentatively moving from an undated Tomoe River Paper journal to an undated journal recommended by Jess on her Amazon storefront. I'm disabled and can't make it to a store easily so I'm excited to get a new journal that should have much less ghosting but can also cover all my needs from running my business to managing my chronic illness. Just hoping I have the energy to keep up with setting up my pages even though it's good for me to slow down and do something with my hands.

I swear you guys are talking about getting into card making and scrapbooking. Those of us who are 50+ are LOL because the 90’s are calling…

#pagenumbersforlife

As a minimum, FSC certified paper (or equivalent) because there’s still too many forests being cut down without considering the environment or local communities involved

The one notebook that had every single one of my must haves got discontinued (RIP Maisie Lane Co) - I was very pleased to see the updates in the A&O ones though, bc I agree the linen covers were nasty! My old one got covered in coffee stains lmao

I prefer the B5 because it gives me the space to work and put photos. I have plenty of A5's but I tend to use those for my reading journals. Can't wait to get started on my 2025 journal.

Mark! I accidentally cut my ribbon from my bookmark when I was trimming my collage in my last journal! I was so devastated! I get it Jess! The A&O charm ensures the ribbon doesn’t get weird folds in it! It’s a sensory, perfectionist trait that I want the ribbon to be straight. I am embracing my quirkiness ❤

Another fun podcast! Thank you, both! Mark, Hemlock and Oak has 150gsm notebooks with a square grid (I haven't tried them yet, but that might be what you are looking for - I used their planner with the same paper a couple of years ago & it was nice). I don't think I'm *too* particular about paper/notebooks for "everyday use/portability" ...except the paper has to be white. I'm just getting into using "nicer" notebooks for hobbies/memory keeping - cooking journal, RPG journal, etc. Dot grid is OK, though I do prefer grid/graph lines. A couple of years ago, I HATED ghosting, but the planners that work for me are TRP and I've gotten used to it. (Though weirdly, I still hate ghosting on other paper. 🤷‍♀) Those A&O covers, though, are so pretty - they keep me coming back! 🤣

160 gsm cover, dotted, elastic closure, numbered pages and of course a nice cover.

Scribbles that matter is on Amazon in Australia. I assume then it would be in NZ too?

Leyland Journal? @26:00? You only said it once and Googlin didn’t help

I'm fairly new to the high-end notebook world but have fallen in love with A&O. I bought one to use as a reading journal this year...and have bought three more since. My husband just bought his first...he saw me looking at Mark's A&O and had to have it! He's so excited!

i'm new to both of y'all. I would love a B5 160GSM grid with spiral. I know lots of people love the bound books but I am a spiral girl

“A persnickety biscuit ?!!””

Mark, I’ll take your “manky” notebooks!!! I’m trying to practice rebinding 🤷🏻‍♀️🙏🏼🥹

My biggest consideration is what color of the A5 hardcover dot grid LT1917 I'm getting next. I've tried so many others, like the official BuJo, but for me, thicker pages and heavier notebook is not ideal, because my journal goes with me EVERYWHERE and I use it constantly. It's 80gsm, and I am a fountain pen users, but I rarely have bleed through and I honestly kinda like the ghosting and the "used" feel it gives my pages. I go through about 3-4 per year because I am an "everything journal" person and long form journal often

My husband bought me such a beautiful notebook. It is lined and the paper bleeds and ghosts so much. But I am loving it because it was such a Beautiful thing that he gifted it to me. My next one will be a tifosi 🍀

For me the most important thing for choosing a journaling notebook is definitely the 160 GSM and the quality of the paper. to be honest first when I started a journaling. I only used80 GSM papers because that was the only thing I had access to in my country and thicker paper was only available for sketching notebooks, which was not good for journaling. I’m a very, let’s say color affiliated person and soon I realize that working with different pens and lots of markers the biggest problem that I had was ghosting and feathering and stuff like this, which was really made my notebook very ugly, which made it even harder for me to stick to journaling as a newbe. as it goes further, and I watch more videos of definitely Jess and I learn more about the thickness and the quality of the papers and traveling to another country which gave me other options of quality. I started using 160 GSM, which made my life so much easier and I was able to use as many colors as I wanted in my journal which made it for me more joyful to use my journal. The second most important thing is definitely the covee design and I do not care about the material as much as you because I do not use them as a content creator kind of thing or keep them for a long period but design should be pretty colorful and of course,m a hard cover because I don’t like it that I put my journal in my bag and it comes out crushed or smooshed 😂

Not sure I got the name right from the journaling content creator who created her own bullet journal? Did somebody get it, or know who they are?

I'm pretty flexible with mine: A5, 5mm dot grid, 100gsm or higher paper.

Ghosting doesn't bother me at all, LT1917 has been my daily for over 5 years. So fun to hear other preferences!

I love lines not dots. I am such a cursive written list maker. Medium thick paper and lots of pages as I do everything books.

For me it must have: 1) undated 2) an elastic closure and pen loop, if it doesn’t, I won’t buy it no matter how nice the cover. 3) 120 gsm white paper 4) beautiful cover and can’t be linen 5) must be productivity driven 6) must have a budget page in the back 7) brand