Let’s be clear about what we’re talking about here.

This isn’t journaling. Journaling is about processing emotions and experiences. That’s valuable, but it’s not what this is for.

This isn’t “morning pages” or free writing. Those are about getting words flowing without judgment. Again, valuable for what they do, but different purpose.

This isn’t a task management system. You can track tasks if you want, but that’s not the main point.

This is using paper to think better.

It’s externalizing the process of figuring things out so you can actually see what you’re thinking instead of just feeling overwhelmed by it.

When you keep everything in your head, you’re constantly using mental energy just to remember what you’re supposed to be doing. You can’t see patterns. You can’t build on previous thoughts—you just repeat them.

The notebook becomes a record of your thinking that you can reference, build on, and learn from.

That’s what makes it useful. Not the paper. Not the pen. The externalization.

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This is part of a series about Hand-Write. Think Better.—a method for people who feel overwhelmed to start simply writing more on paper. Get the book →

New day = new page.

Even if yesterday’s page is mostly empty.

This is going to feel wasteful at first. You’re going to look at all that empty space and think “I should fill this page before starting a new one.”

Don’t.

The empty space doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can find things later, and dating each page is how that works. If Tuesday and Wednesday are on the same page, you’ve broken the one feature that makes the whole system useful.

Think about it: three weeks from now, you’re trying to find something you wrote. Was it Monday? Tuesday? If every day has its own page, you can flip right to it. If you crammed multiple days together to “save paper,” you’re hunting.

The notebook is cheap. Your time spent searching is expensive.

Starting a new page each day isn’t about perfection or following rules. It’s about having a system that actually works when you need to look something up.

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This is part of a series about Hand-Write. Think Better.—a method for using paper to think more clearly. Get the book →

This might be the most important decision you make about your notebook practice.

Your notebook needs to live where you already are, not where you think you should be.

Here’s the common mistake: putting the notebook in an aspirational location. The beautiful desk in the home office with perfect lighting. The special reading chair. The dedicated workspace you set up but rarely use.

The problem is simple: If you’re not already spending time there, you won’t use the notebook.

Think about where you actually spend your day. The kitchen counter where you drink your morning coffee. Your desk at work. Next to your laptop if you work from home. In your bag if you’re always on the move.

Not where you wish you spent time. Where you actually are, during the main part of your day, when you’re doing things and thinking about things.

Physical proximity matters more than you’d think.

If you’ve started a notebook practice and it’s not sticking, check where the notebook lives. If it migrated to a drawer or a shelf, that’s your answer. Move it back to where you actually spend your day.

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This is part of a series about Hand-Write. Think Better.—a method for people who feel overwhelmed to start simply writing more on paper. Get the book → or grab the free quick reference →

The decision about where to write something is friction. Friction is the enemy.

You want zero decisions between “I should write this down” and actually writing it down.

I know it’s tempting: one notebook for work, one for personal, one for that side project. That’s three decisions you have to make every time you want to write something down. Three opportunities to just… not write it down.

What actually matters is having something you can write in without thinking about whether this thought “belongs” in this particular notebook.

One notebook. Everything goes in it.

Work stuff, personal stuff, ideas, questions, whatever. It’s all part of figuring out what you’re trying to do. The notebook doesn’t care about categories. Neither should you—at least not at the moment of capture.

Organization can come later. Capture has to happen now, or it doesn’t happen at all.

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This is part of a series about Hand-Write. Think Better.—a method for using paper to think more clearly. Get the book → or grab the free quick reference →