Because life isn’t complicated enough, I always have 3 notebooks going at the same time:
- My logbook stays on my nightstand.
- My sketchbook stays in my office or goes in my bag if I’m traveling.
- My pocket notebook goes with me everywhere.
I love the classic Moleskine and Field Notes sized notebooks, but they’re still a bit big. To be able to carry it everywhere, I need something that will really fit in my pocket — the notebooks I use are no bigger than my iPhone 4. (Because I know people will ask: I carry this type of Moleskine and usually a Pilot G2 or a PaperMate Flair pen.)
These notebooks are workhorses—they aren’t about pretty drawings or good penmanship, they’re about capturing ideas and the general debris of everyday life. It’s funny, but because I don’t treat them preciously, they’re often a more honest documentation of my scattered, day-to-day process than my logbooks (which are always recalled through my poor memory at the end of the day) and my sketchbooks (which I use a bit more intentionally, trying to work out a problem, map out a chapter, get a drawing right, etc.)
I always stamp my address in the front page.
The majority of pages are taken up with to-do lists. (I start each week with a date stamp.)
Sometimes I’m just making a note to follow up later or trying to work something out…
Sometimes thoughts come fully-formed and just need to be dictated.
Dreams and quotes (and apple stickers?)
Sketches at the art museum.
Doodle at a Bill Callahan show.
If you think about it, a map can be a sort of to-do list laid out in space. (This is a map of Maui that I drew on vacation from tour guides.)
Phone doodles.
Here I’m trying to figure out a cover for Steal Like An Artist.
When I had a day job in marketing, I doodled a lot more.
