Editing The Pen Addict 140/transcript (section)

== Esther Brook Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' but kind of the overhanging topic that a lot of people wanted me to talk about this week was my good friends at the Esther Brook pen company. And everyone's like, you talking about Esther Brook this week, you better be talking about Esther Brook this week. What's going on with Esther Brook? A lot of things happened today and I'm not ready to talk about it. I don't have time to put my brain around everything that I need to talk about this. Wow. Okay. So we'll maybe cover it next week, but I'm also delimited in the fact that I'm sick of talking about it. I don't want to give them the time of day at this point, but I guess also the people need to know. So, um, let's give

'''Myke Hurley:''' them the, the vision and the, and the scribble pen treatment, right? Next week is the last time. It's not going to be the last time. Okay. So we're just going to be sick about it then.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Cause something happened today that I'm not ready to talk about that. It will not be the last

'''Myke Hurley:''' time. All right, cool. I mean, I will talk about it forever. I love the scandals, but I know they

'''Brad Dowdy:''' upset you. I mean, they don't upset me. I just get, I get over. It's a waste of brain cells. You get sick of it. Cases. Yeah. You get sick of it. I hate wasting my time dealing with idiots. I will

'''Myke Hurley:''' tease. I will tease. Uh, cause we're not going to talk about it too much, but they have now a Kickstarter project, uh, which we'll talk about this. Yeah. This is, this is part of the whole deal. Just watch the video.

'''None:''' I know, I know me and Brad didn't like, we didn't put a lot into our video, but just go watch this

'''Brad Dowdy:''' video. It'll be in the show notes. So you haven't checked the Slack chat room for getting ready for the Atlanta pen show. Have you? No. Since we've okay. Check that. And, um, you'll understand, um, a little bit why this isn't going in a way anytime soon. So, man, that was a lot of followup. Uh, and, and I, uh, I ignored a lot of the followup. Oh my God, Brad. Wow. Okay. That's going to be interesting. Yeah. So I apologize. We're going to have to tease this for next week cause I'm not ready to talk about everything yet. Um, but needless to say, if you want, if you want the latest on Esther brook, you should turn in tune in next week. I'll be at liberty to discuss more things. So awesome. I'm excited. All right. You ready to get into some nuts and bolts about, uh, about why we're here today? Yeah, I am. Yeah. The episode we're going to be referring to from this point forward in this episode is episode number 137. So appropriately titled notebook emergency and this, the genesis of this, and if you haven't listened to it, you don't have to listen to that episode necessarily to understand what's getting ready to happen here. But I posted a picture when all of a sudden I realized I had five active notebooks that I was keeping different types of notes in and going, am I an idiot? Or is this like the normal thing to do? Or I was getting a little bit overwhelmed. I had some information here, some information there, you know, all these different notebooks. And then I brought it onto you, Myke, in the show and you kind of relayed like some of the same feelings, right? You're in the same boat of having multiple notebooks going at one time, right? Oh, always, always. Yeah. So you have several, you know, one notebook carry has like one topic and, you know, a few other topics here. So we did that episode and I thought I'm weird. I'm the crazy one. And as I mentioned in a couple episodes ago, after this episode, I've never gotten more feedback for a single episode in my life than that notebook emergency episode. And Myke, me and you, we are on the low end of the totem pole as far as the number of notebooks in use. And there's no way I got everyone's feedback in on this episode coming up, but I picked out a bunch of them. And so many different people wrote in and followed up on that episode that I thought we would cover it and kind of talk about what other people do with their notebooks and kind of have a discussion around that and see how sane we're actually, we actually are. And our listeners are just the insane ones. So the first one is, is from Kim. She says, hi, hi, Brad and Myke, some feedback on the number of active notebooks. She said, if you're interested, I have the following active notebooks pretty much all the time. So number one is a daily planner, Hobonichi for this year. Number two, a daily notebook kept at the office all the time. Master size. Do you know what the master size Leuchtturm 1917 is, Myke? Nope. This is a killer product. You're gonna have to put this one in the show notes. I do not own one of these, but Leuchtturm makes a size called master. They should just call it monster. It is that big. I don't know the dimensions. Maybe you can look, look it up while

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm babbling. Yes. What do you want it in millimeters? It doesn't matter. Okay. It's 225

'''Brad Dowdy:''' by 315 millimeters. Yeah. So it's like a four bigger than eight and a half by 11. It's, it's gigantic. It's beautiful looking. So that's number two for Kim. Number three, field notes for work notes when on business travel, which for her is a frequent, frequent thing. Number four, moleskin large journal with soft cover for Hungarian language studies. Maybe you can go see Kim when you go to Hungary. Right. And now aren't you going to Hungary? No. Romania. Oh, Romania. Sorry. Isn't, aren't those the same? Stupid Americans. Stupid Americans. Another field notes with notes and measurements for apartment furnishing project. And then what will be an extremely popular choice. Notebook number six is an A5 size TARDIS themed notebook from the BBC merchandise shop for long form journaling on weekends. So she has a group of notebooks that live in a location. So the daily notebook kept at the office and the TARDIS notebook is the journaling notebook for weekends. And then another group of notebooks that are mobile. So there's a group of notebooks that are on the go, the planner and both field notes. And then the fourth notebook is for learning. So she has a really, really well-defined breakdown that makes me look like a lost cause because I'm not sure what's in each notebook half the time. I just kind of get on a whim and just start writing these things down. So are you able to keep your notebook separated for like their intended use? Because I have a lot of

'''Myke Hurley:''' crossover and that's causing me some problems. I have minimal crossover. Um, but if I have, because if I have to cross over, I feel uncomfortable.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I feel guilty when I do, but then I just end up doing it anyway. And then I keep telling myself, you know, I'll find that note later. And a lot of times I'm going back through my stack of finished notebooks, searching for that note that I really wanted. Um, because I'm also behind digitizing them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's why I don't do the crossover because my notebooks are so specific for their purpose that if I cross them over, I'm kind of screwed.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. All right. So let's get into what Dwayne has to say. This, this is kind of, uh, um, uh, along the same lines. Dwayne has five notebooks in use. The field notes red blooded. That is my catch all EDC notebook for shopping lists, article ideas, and random thoughts. That's my number one notebook at all times, whether doesn't matter what notebooks it is. I have a notebook. That's essentially my inbox. That's my notebook that I'll carry out of the house and carry around, carry to a coffee shop, just whatever junk I want to write in it. I definitely have that notebook. Cause number two is a Kukuyo idea notebook. I use to record a daily list of 10 or so ideas on random topics, including article ideas, business ideas, website ideas. That's a genius idea. I wish this is one of those things that if I did the chronodex where like I planned out my time every day, like I would have an hour or 30 minutes to say, let's brainstorm some ideas. Do you have just a total brainstorming focused notebook or any area in your life where you kind of dump that information? Like I'm going to sit down, I'm going to have this time, not for planning, not for scheduling meetings, not for writing articles, but for like creative stuff you want to do. Do you have a place to put that? Or do you take the time to do that? No, on both groups, I think. Yeah. That's such a great idea. I don't do that at all, but I read that and I was like, that's a really good use of your time, number one, and a good use of your notebook. So I'm really, really behind that, um, that idea. So, um, I'm going to have to think about incorporating that in stealing these ideas. And that's what I wanted to try to do here. You know, I'm just, I'm reading what everyone else does to maybe give the listeners an idea for how they use their notebooks and maybe something sticks with, you know, what we're talking about and something that would fit into your, to your daily writing or weekly writing or, or however you use your notebook. So that's what I wanted to kind of get out of this episode. So his number three notebook is a notebook he made from himself from scrap paper, staples, and gaffers tape that I use for, that he uses for article and blog planning. So I want to know, and I bet that the number would be pretty good. How many people make their own notebooks? You know, everyone that makes their own notebooks, I bet still, you know, buys the Moleskens or Field Notes or Roadies or whatever, but they're always monkeying around with some other format or paper or cover that would fit their, um, fit their needs too, and just kind of adds into the rotation. So he has a second notebook that he made himself that he uses for a writing schedule. So Dwayne's a planner. And then number five is another notebook that he made himself for making notes about classes he teaches. He says, luckily there's very little overlap and I've got each notebook performing a solitary task. This year I'm going to focus on recording things into Evernote daily. So I don't have to worry about digitizing it later. So he, uh, he says I used to carry a Moleskens pocket size, but I've retired it. All I'd use is use now for is pen testing. So, so from Kim and Dwayne, these first two multiple notebook users, I'm already getting like killer ideas from this. It's like, I need to, I don't need to rein in my quantity. I need to rein in the direction that I'm using these notebooks for. So I hope you're finding it useful and I hope others are finding it useful because it's really neat to, to see how other people's systems are set up. And it's so similar to us and to what a lot of people that are listening do. So, um, hopefully it's working out and we got a bunch more to get to. Um, but we have, we have some more friends to talk about

'''Myke Hurley:''' today. What do we got Myke? This episode is also brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store for a free trial and 10% off visit squarespace.com and enter the offer code Inc at checkout Squarespace start here, go anywhere over the time that Squarespace have sponsored us. We've spoken about a few examples. Like we've spoken about like the relay FM blog. We've spoken about knock co and, uh, the pen addict, both being Squarespace sites, but we have a brand new example for you, uh, via, just by, by Jeff Bridges. So I saw that last night in case you haven't seen this Squarespace had a Superbowl ad and they've got like a whole ad campaign around it at the moment, which, uh, features a great site that they've created called dreaming with Jeff.com. Basically Jeff Bridges in collaboration with Squarespace have created like an audio album of sleeping tapes and Jeff, you know, in the videos, which are really funny and very entertaining, um, that they've created other than just the ad, uh, Jeff talks about how important sleep is and dreaming is, and he's created this album, uh, that is for that. So you can go to dreaming with Jeff.com and of course it's a Squarespace website and it shows you like the versatility and a lot of the features of Squarespace. So it looks great on all platforms. They have a beautiful template that they picked as one of the stock templates, which is some slight modifications, which anybody can do. All of the modifications they made are really easy for anyone on Squarespace with a Squarespace account to do. They haven't done anything special with it, but it has like an inbuilt audio player, which is part of Squarespace. They have the store so you can buy digital and even some physical versions of the albums. Uh, and, uh, the money that's raised there is going to go to charity. It's going to go to the no kid hungry charity in the States. So you can go to dreaming with Jeff.com and you can just see how fantastic this Squarespace website looks. And you're going to see, I can see something like that. You're going to check them out because they've got some other information about Squarespace there on that page. And I'm sure that you're going to want to get involved yourself. Of course, Squarespace, they have this great rock solid platform. They have great hosting. They have all this stuff like the commerce platform. Like I mentioned, they have a 24 seven support and so much more. I love them. Brad loves them. And we think you're going to love them too. Start a free trial right now with no credit card required by going to squarespace.com. And when you sign up, make sure that you use the offer code Inc at checkout. This will get you 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the pen addict. Thank you so much to Squarespace for supporting relay FM Squarespace. Start here, go anywhere.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So their commercial play, the Jeff Bridges commercial played on the Superbowl last night. And it did, you don't know it's Squarespace till the end. And I'm just sitting there dying, laughing at, at Jeff. I, I, the chat room will have to tell me what instrument he was playing there to, um, to lull the people in the bedroom that he was sitting into sleep. And I'm just sitting there dying, laughing. My wife's like, who is that guy? It's like, that's Jeff Bridges. And she's like, okay, I thought he looked familiar and not just let it go at that. But it was really good. I, I, I liked that. Um, I liked that commercial a lot. So I will have, I haven't checked out the site yet, so I'll have to go do that. All right. This is a long one, but it carries so many things I want to talk about in it. So this is from Lisa and she titles this reactions on notebook use. She says, I try to have one notebook for real work. Currently a Marmon Memosign special memo notepad B6. That one lives in my backpack, often in a topo accessory bag with my iPad, but comes in and out for use. But then I have scattered notebooks for locations at my desk, on my dresser,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' beside bedside table. And she says like for each of those, she likes to have just something there to catch information when she needs it, where she needs it for later transfer. So number one, Myke,

'''Myke Hurley:''' do you keep a notebook on your nightstand or near your bed? Not near my bed. No, I can see why people do that. I mean, you've got your dreaming tapes, you know? Right. So many people do that. Oh, it's genius. Like, yeah, I am not one of those people though, that wakes up with great ideas.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like I know that's why not everybody, but a lot of people do it. They're like, you know, they wake up from sleep and they have that great idea. I'm not sure you have, you know,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm not sure you have great ideas while you're awake. Yeah. I just don't have any great ideas.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I don't have an idea notebook because I have no ideas to write in the notebook.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I, I don't do that either. Um, I would wager again, a lot of our listeners do that and I totally see the validity in that, but I've just never gotten, that's never been a thing for me. Um, I've never woken up and gone, Oh, I wish I had a notebook here to write this down. It's, uh, like you, I don't have any good ideas. So, um, she continues, but since I don't actually carry a notebook in my pocket, it would have to transfer between my backpack and smaller bags. I'm thinking of trying a smaller Marmon notebook and sometimes use note cards for capture on systems for her to do's. She uses things on her computer and phone, but lately I found it helpful to write up a real to do plan for the day in the morning after consulting iCal and things. I put that on a three by five card, which I do put in my pocket. So this is something that I've mentioned several times that I want to do, but have not implemented yet that I have a list of things to do digitally. And every day I went to wake up, look at those digital items and transfer them to paper because that's where I seem to work out of more during the day, to be perfectly honest. I may have my phone with me all day long, but if I have a list of things to do, I'm going to be more likely to look at them on a piece of paper that I'm carrying around than on my phone. I can't explain that. It doesn't make any logical sense, but it's just the way I feel. I feel like I will do those things better. So do you do any of that, Myke? Do you, if you have, you have so much, you're a big OmniFocus guy. So do you have any kind of transference daily out of OmniFocus into a paper list that you then