Near the end of January I wrote this.

Three months later, let’s talk about it.

Back at the beginning of January, I saw this ad for something called the LOCHBY Mini Field Journal on Instagram . Now, I like to pride myself on not falling for ads on social media and not clicking on things (on purpose as I do have giant Millennial thumbs that misclick things) even if I find them interesting. I just don’t want to feed the algorithm, you know?

But this? It had me. Oh boy, did it have me.

So I ordered one. It arrived at the end of January. I’ve used it about three months in coalition with my Bullet Journal.

Inside of the LOCHBY Mini Field Journal before I filled it with my nonsense.
The first Field Notes Kraft, I was thinking it could be a supplement to my regular Bullet Journal when I didn’t want to carry it everywhere.
A Field Notes National Parks Series I used for writing out stuff for Fifth Draft.
A Field Notes Autumn Trilogy edition, which I started back in October to take notes for Project CITY.
And finally, the LOCHBY notebook it came with. This one is for sketching out dialogues and for my boys to draw in.

Right away, I loved the feel and compact nature of it. I’m a dad, with a lot of pockets doing a lot of things, so to have it all in one place was nice. I used to keep everything in a Maxpedition Fatty Organizer, which also did its job well, but as they say: The point of an EDC is to have everything not only within arm’s reach, but to be as easily accessible as possible. And flipping a clasp open is much faster than undoing a zipper then taking one notebook out to find a face to write on without everything falling out of the pouch.

Maxpedition Fatty Organizer
Maxpedition Fatty Organizer 2
I’ll miss it, but it won’t be gone for long, I’m sure.

The biggest trial I found, and this was all internal, was the justification for buying one.

I carried the Fatty Pack organizer with me everywhere but I found myself not using it all the much, especially when I had ideas. I can’t tell you (shamefully) how many ideas and dialogue scripts and notes I let slip past because the thought of taking the pack out was too much. This had to be something I used regularly, and religiously.

So I thought the first notebook could be a supplement, an assistant, to the main Bullet Journal notebook I keep. Lest we forget my mad web of notebook use:

A picture of a flowchart of how ideas will work in this new/old Bullet Journal system.

This didn’t feel too out of place, but again, the internal conflict created issues. Which notebook should I write stuff in if I’m at home? The main one or the supplemental one? Well, I started the day with the supplemental one because I was in the kitchen away from my desk so I should just continue there, right? When do I sync them up? Is there a sync up?

See? Madness.

After much thought and a confusing February and March, I took a new approach for the month of April. I wasn’t going to make the first notebook a Bullet Journal Mini, but a commonplace book of sorts. Everything could go in there, or nothing could go in there. It didn’t matter. There were no expectations on it.

So what did I do?

This past month I wrote a five page comic script in it, all while waiting for the boys to finish their bubble baths or in the front seat of the car while waiting in the parking lot for April to finish grabbing something in the store. Moments like that.

JINXWORLD Comic Scripts
Page 1 of a five page script.

I also started this exercise, kind of how artists will sketch nonsense to get them warmed up for what they really have to write, where I just try to rhyme as many two word combinations as I can. I don’t have a name for it, but the more obscure the word feels to my everyday vocabulary, the better.

Word Combination practice
See? Lotta nonsense.

And that’s worked perfectly. Sometimes, I don’t always have my Bullet Journal with me. But I can always have this with me.

The second notebook is the Fifth Draft notebook, and that’s where blogs on here get their start.

At least, where they SHOULD get their start. It’s probably the one I’ve used the least because I only write here once a week, regularly. That seems to be changing (Helloooooooo, 2nd blog post of the week), so it looks like this one will break the ice off and start warming up for more use.

A notebook page discussing the book Kwame Crashes the Underworld
Turned it sideways to give it an almost A4 page feeling. Almost.
A notebook page with scribbled text that will one day be a blog post about almost quitting writing.

The third notebook has been pretty stationary the entire time, as it’s the (hopeful) next book I’m going to start writing this summer, codenamed Project CITY.

A Field Notes Autumn Trilogy edition

A lot of this work has moved over to the Haunted Mansion notebook I picked up in Disneyland this past fall, to become the novel’s bible, but since this book’s production has been so scatterbrained, I keep it with me i case I just need something to write it in. Again, not a ton of use, but if I was writing a brand new book from scratch I imagine this notebook, in this position, would get the most use.

The inside cover of a Field Notes Autumn Trilogy edition designated for the INDEX of a book in progress.
Shhhhh. I don’t often share details of the books I’m writing. This is as close as you’ll get to what this one might contain.
The cover of an engraved notebook featuring designs from the Haunted Mansion.
A lot more of the production of Project CITY is happening here, but every so often something creeps up and that’s why I keep the Field Notes with me.

The last notebook I wanted to give a bit of an Austin Kleon feel to, as something where text and image could go concordantly. I saw that he would draw contour sketches of events in his life, so I wanted to combine that with writing down some of the cute, frankly insane, things my kids say.

Two notebook pages, one with sketched hairstyles and the other with dialogue of a child asking where babies come from.
This conversation happened over breakfast. BREAKFAST.

Plus, it allowed me to draw again and BOY DID I MISS DRAWING.

More importantly, it gave my kids a place to draw when I didn’t have anything else for them to do when they get bored.

A kid has drawn the Bat Signal on a notebook page

All in all, this one might the wildcard notebook I’m most glad I included. I love drawing. It helps me think in a way nothing else does, and I can’t believe i forgot that.

I mean, of course I can believe I forgot that. Have you seen my life right now? It’s a wonder I remember to brush my teeth every day but oh wait that’s right I SOMETIMES FORGET TO BRUSH MY OWN TEETH. This notebook space will, I think over all the others, provide a wonderful insight into the time it was being used.

That’s all four notebooks and their designated spaces accounted for. COMMONPLACE, FIFTH DRAFT, CURRENT BOOK, and SKETCH DIALOGUE. Going with those names for now.

Combine that with the tools I carry…

An 86 Lux reading light and a small pouch of Pokemon note tabs.
An 86 Lux reading light and a small pouch of Pokemon note tabs on hand at all times.

And it’s shaping up nicely.

Like I said, this isn’t meant to be anything required of me to use, but a lot of this is nice to have. Handy to have. Highly recommended purchase.

I’m starting to shift my life around. Eating less, working out more, drinking less, and taking my phone with me less. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than before. And instead of grabbing my phone when I lay down with my boys in bed, I take this with me, use the reading light to jot down a note, and then use it to read a book in bed while they drift off to sleep. Then they ask me what I’m writing before they slip into bliss and I tell them, “Nothing important.”

Thanks for reading,

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