When I am reading, or where I can’t bring a laptop, I like to use physical notebooks. My source for notebooks has been Moleskine, and a company in Florida called Levenger. Levenger has their own notebook system that is so flexible it actually took me a few years to wrap my mind around all of its potential. This NoteBook systems is called Circa. More about Circa after the break.
The circa system is base around some concepts that are very interesting; heavyweight paper, and plastic disc cut into a certain shape. You can see my active notebook in the picture above. The paper does not have holes like for three ring binders rather they have slots cut into it like in this image below.
This means that each sheet of paper can be removed and placed in another notebook like a looseleaf binder. You can buy a paper punch that will make the slots into any kind of paper. Heavy weight paper works the best and the longest.
I like working on heavy weight paper. I do bear down hard with my pens and pencils and the heavy weight paper can take what I dish out. The paper that Levenger sells is not cheap, but it does last and is of archival quality.
The paper comes in various colors and formats. I like the note taking style which I illustrated through the image. The margin box is where I put summaries and other points. The main section is where I put the ordinary notes. The disc allow me to actually fold the notebook back in on itself and take up half the room of an ordinary three ring binder.
Part of the mandate of this blog has been making people TechWise TechWarriors. Sometimes it is not easier to use a tech solution. For me, I still take written notes, and a circa notebook is now with me at all times for those situations.
Related posts:
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m glad to see that someone so tech focused still sees the value of traditional old pen and paper. Levenger Circa notebooks are awesome, I’ve been using them for about two years now, one for my work notes, a daily planner version, one for my personal stuff at home, and one to organize stuff for my blog. I’m addicted, and so are most other people who ever start using them.
I consider myself a technowise technowarrior. There are just some things that will take a long time to find a tech version. I use paper notebooks in meetings. That way I am not fumbling around opening my laptop. I just start writing and drawing. I transcribe the written notes into my note management program, EagleFiler.
Thanks for the comment
I think this is a nice notebook. I haven’t heard of the company and till now there were notebooks of the similar kind but had punch holes and by the end of the semester they would be loosely hanging out of my notebook. But these seem to be strongly intact within the notebook, since there are slots. What makes it even better is that it can be opened and the paper can be placed in the relevant binder. I usually have a bad habit of bringing along the wrong binder for the specific course. I think for me it will be a great tool
Have you thought about having one note taking book and simply moving the notes to an appropriate notebook when done for the day? You can do this with Circa notebooks.
{ 2 trackbacks }