I don’t know about you but March has been a weird month for me. No, it’s not because of Daylight Saving Time. I’ve been feeling uninspired since the 2nd week of March. It’s weird. I started journaling in the morning again (3 pages of streams of consciousness) so I can feel inspired again. I think it worked and I think it may have something to do with major changes in my bullet journal life.
Parting Ways with my Rhodia Goalbook
I’ve been using a Leuchtturm1917 notebook since 2017. When I started writing with fountain pens for bullet journaling, I decided to move to a more fountain pen friendly notebook, the Rhodia Goalbook. I love the Goalbook because it was a softcover notebook, it uses Clairefontaine paper (aka one of the best fountain pen friendly paper out there), and it’s numbered.
I’ve been using the Goalbook as my bullet journal notebook since January 2019. I never had a bad writing experience with it. The paper is thick and smooth and ink doesn’t ghost, feather, or bleed. I enjoyed writing in it so much that I started writing my blog drafts in my bullet journal.
My original plan was to get through the Goalbook until it runs out of pages. With the rate that I’ve been going (cramming everything in one notebook), I’d say that it would have lasted until May. I thought that I could wait for a few more months until one day, it kind hit me – I don’t think I liked the Rhodia Goalbook for Bullet Journaling.
I thought about why it was affecting my productivity and I arrived to this conclusion:
- I didn’t like that the dots were too dark (2019 Rhodia Goalbook has lighter dots now). The darker dots were something that I’ve noticed when I first got it but I just shrugged it off because – they were just dots, right? Wrong.
- The ivory paper wasn’t helping me focus. I know this is weird (or maybe not because we’re cut from the same cloth) but I feel that color has something to do with that. I tend to neglect my bullet journal as the sun goes down because my overhead lights are warm. Warm lights + warm colored paper = ??? I did a quick Google search so that I could use something for reference. According to The Spruce, “Too much warm light can tend to be a bit soporific, and make it harder to focus on specific tasks. That’s why many office spaces are lit with cooler lights instead.”
Another thing that I’ve noticed – and this may or may have not affected my productivity is how the paper was just TOO smooth (maybe this would bode well for others)! I thought I was being my paper snob self but then I recently read a review about the Rhodia paper (from Mountain of Ink) and she concluded:
While I have been using fountain pens for bullet journaling, I still use pencils especially when I’m sketching or planning. I also noticed that because of its smoothness, I felt that I wrote differently on a Rhodia compared to the Leuchtturm (probably better on the LT).
Going back to Leuchtturm1917 Notebooks
With that realization, I immediately went to the store and bought a Leuchtturm. I had originally planned to buy the official bullet journal notebook because it has guides (something to present to the bujo curious) but I wasn’t patient enough so I just grabbed what was left on the shelf.
There are a lot of options for a bullet journal notebook but I decided that I should just stick with the familiar. I never really had problems with the LT except for the fear that it wouldn’t be able to handle my fountain pen inks (which is why I bought a Rhodia in the first place). The Leuchtturm is also consistent and comes with sticker labels so it’s easy to archive (which is something that I particularly like).
It was the Morning Pages* fault!
*The Morning Pages is a practice (from The Artist’s Way) wherein you write 3 pages (of streams of consciousness), longhand.
- Read more about morning pages from Little Coffee Fox.
I started writing morning pages on and off in February in random notepads I found at home. I basically used fountain pens on crap paper and then threw them in the trash. In March, I started writing my morning pages on an old Leuchtturm and fell in love with the writing experience. When I started writing on a Leuchtturm, I was inspired to write everyday. I then noticed that I wasn’t feeling the same with my bujo – and came to the conclusion that maybe it was the paper?
Rewriting my Bujo Entries from the Rhodia: Monthly Recaps
First off… you are NOT advised to do this (rewriting EVERYTHING) when migrating to another notebook! If you are planning to rewrite your bujo because you want it to look neater, there’s no need to do that. Your time will be better spent doing something more productive.
As much as I wouldn’t want to rewrite my entries in the new notebooks, I had to. I have good reasons – and they’re not for aesthetic purposes. I’m rewriting important details because:
- I have no intention of archiving the Rhodia Goalbook (as I do with my bullet journals) because it only has 3 months in it.
- When I do move to another country, I would want to bring as little as possible and I only intend on bringing my current and past bullet journals in case I need it for reference. (P.S. I’ve done this in 2017 & books are heavy!)
I’ve already done it and no, I didn’t write every single daily log from the Rhodia Goalbook. I was lucky that most of my bullet journaling for the past 3 months was task-oriented so I didn’t have much to rewrite. What I did was to review each month, decide which ones are important, and write it in a monthly log format.
I call them my Monthly Recap. What’s in the monthly recap?
- Important dates/events – due dates, birthdays
- Milestones – achievements
- Significant highlights per day – haircut, purchases
I had a habit tracker last January but I did not feel that I would need that data in the future. Maybe if it were significant, I could have written a summary of my habits. Let’s say I tracked that I had 2 cups of coffee the last week of January, I could write why at the bottom of my recap page – “Drank 2 cups of coffee for a week because I had to use the BOGO coupons at Starbucks”.
Favorite Things This Month
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Here are my favorite blog posts in March:
Morning Pages
I’ve talked about the morning pages here and it’s actually an exercise from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I haven’t read the book entirely but I already have already downloaded the eBook so that I could learn more about it.
Starbucks Italian Roast
I normally do my journaling while drinking coffee at Starbucks because that has been a habit of mine for the longest time. But lately, I’ve started brewing my own coffee at home and use a Starbucks reusable cup for good measure.
Captain Marvel
I watched Captain Marvel when it premiered in theaters and I can’t wait to watch it again. Avengers: End Game is premiering next month so that’s obviously going to make it in my April favorites list.
Lofree Keyboard
Lofree keyboards are retro-inspired bluetooth keyboards. I’ve seen this keyboard before but this time, it really suits the Rediscover Analog brand. If you want to live analog in the digital age, this is a great statement accessory.
Galen Leather Notebook Covers
I love the Galen Leather products but what I’ve really been eyeing on are their notebook covers. They’re really beautiful and classy protection for your journals.
Final Thoughts
I’m obviously picky with paper and I guess it’s because I’ve been writing on paper more now. I’m also glad that I was able to make the switch early on because it only took me less than an hour to review 3 months of daily logs. I will still have to check it again after doing my April pages and then redact some information on the Rhodia. What about you? Are you picky with paper/notebooks? Or do you have experiences with these notebooks? Tell me more in the comments!
Let’s keep analog alive,
Jestine
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