THE NOTEBOOK

No no, I'm not talking about that 2004 romantic Nicholas Sparks novel turned film hit. I'm talking real, lifelike, crispy paper books here. The ones in which you're supposed to pen all your thoughts, hopes and dreams in. I confide in my notebooks, like I confide in only my best friends. But I might even tell them more. Grocery lists, blog post ideas, homework assignments, quotes, to-do lists, finance related stuff after sushi dinner with my friends, songs that I have to look up on Deezer when I get home, the name of a brand I had never heard of before, you name it. Notebooks can be used to keep track of your life or a certain aspect of it. I think notebooks can even help you get better at tasks or competences such as discipline.

One could argue that it would be easier to use the Notes application on your smartphone or tablet. And I have to be honest, I do use that app a lot. Simply because I don't always have a notebook at hand. But even though we don't depend on stationery the way we used to, I will stay faithful to this ancient way of keeping track of things because of several reasons:

• My whole life is in these pages. I'd rather write it down than type it in. I can highlight things, cross things off a list, line words through, make mindmaps, write vertically and diagonally, add little crazy drawings & sketches and work with different colors and fonts.
• It can help you get your mind of things. Pen all of your thoughts down before you go to sleep and you will be assured that even though you may not know everything yet, when morning comes you will still know where all of your ideas are.
• Call me oldfashioned but there is just something about filling in pages, turning them while wiping some of the ink over the page, fold the edges, accidentally rip a piece off. I love it.
• Crossing things of your list. This actually works motivating which is why I always divide a big task into multiple smaller ones to get things done! In other words: a notebook can make me a more productive person.
• The right pen and the right paper can make brilliant ideas come to life. A few scribbles on paper could possibly turn in to one gem of a bestseller.
• I actually have a whole pile of beautiful empty, notebooks that I still need to find a purpose for. For a while I thought it would be fun to use specific notebooks for different topics but that just didn't work for me. So to be honest, that pile of crisp white notebooks is also a great decoration piece to me.Right now I'm thinking about starting a five minute journal. It was recommended to me by the lovely Mimi Ikonn. What do you use notebooks for?