Editing The Pen Addict 621/transcript (section)

== Travel tips and experiences with the Plotter binder. ==

* Ben asks, late last year, I started using the Bible-sized Plotter binder and I'm loving it. I use it with the Weekly Planner inserts and take notes on blank paper. Brad, how do you travel with your Plotter? I recently traveled and felt I needed to protect the binder rings from getting smashed in my bag. Do you put the binder back in the box that it came in? Do you pack it in a certain area of your bag? Maybe I'm overthinking this.
* Welcome, Ben.
* So, yeah, I use the Plotter similar to Ben in that I have a Weekly Planner inserts and then I have a notes section, basically. I have a couple other smaller sections, but those are the two. Those take up probably 80 or 90% of how my Plotter is set up. So, how do I travel with my Plotter? And it's, again, it depends, right? I'm on vacation right now. I purposely didn't bring my Plotter this time on this trip because my Plotter is essentially a work device, is how I treat it. And I wasn't planning on doing much work this week. Turns out that was a wrong assumption, which we will very much talk about next week, Myke. You will enjoy next week's episode.
* So, I didn't have my Plotter. But normally, when I do take it, I'm not concerned about the binder rings. And so far, I have not had any issue with the binder rings. What my concern with traveling the Plotter is the exterior metal bar and the sharp edges. Because that's what I don't want anywhere near, you know, anything it can damage. So, that's my scenario of, you know, thinking about how to protect the Plotter when I carry it. Because the binder, the backing of the binder is a steel rod and the steel rod is exterior to the Plotter. If you're not familiar with that, we can put a link in the show notes. You can go just visualize what this is. Well, the edges of that are sharp. Sharp metal. So, I'll put them in my back. I'll put it in my backpack. But I kind of don't put it around other stuff if I'm carrying it in my backpack. But I don't think about protecting it for the rings. Maybe by protecting it from the sharp edges, I'm by default protecting it from the ring. So, maybe we're doing the same thing. When I'm at a pen show, I always carry my Plotter. And I just carried it in, like, my pocket of my jeans or my shorts. Or I'll carry it in a small bag and I'll just throw it in with other things. If I know, like, it's going to be around, like, another pen case that's, like, nylon or something like that where I'm not worried. But I will orient it so the edges don't poke into anything I don't want it to. So, I am conscious about the exterior edges. But I never, I haven't thought about the internal binder rings. Which I guess is good quality covers. They're thick enough to wear. They're thick enough and the bar provides enough rigidity to protect the rings. Because they're small, right? If we had, like, an inch and a half ring binder, we're going to have much more trouble with the rings bending out of shape or things knocking it. But I think due to the size, it kind of works as a design to protect itself. So, I guess my end thought is that, like, I'm protecting the corner, exterior corners. And by default, I'm protecting everything else that I need to with that. So, slightly overthinking it, Ben. But I would just, you know, just make sure the exterior is not going to, you know, scrape up a laptop cover or something like that. And I think you're going to be good to go. Like, and I haven't even heard of many people having much damage with the rings either. So, that's not something that crosses my desk very often. So, I wouldn't mind hearing if people did have trouble and how those, how you go about it getting fixed. But I'm sure it's just, they can replace those things if necessary. So, good question.
* All right. Let's take our first break and thank Squarespace for the support of this episode. They are the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just getting started or managing a growing brand, you can stand out from the crowd of a beautiful website, engage directly over your audience and sell anything, your products, services, even the content that you create. Squarespace has everything you need, all in one place, all on your terms.
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