Notebooks

Notebooks, sketchbooks, journals. Whatever one calls them, I need another. Apparently six distinct notebooks plus a tablet for the to-do list aren't enough.

Starting with the black sketchbook and going counter-clockwise:

1. Sketchbook. As I take this everywhere with me, it tends to be a catch-all despite my efforts to keep it strictly for ideas pertaining to photo and crafting projects.

2. "Personal growth" journal. This is where I blather to myself about anything and everything as a way of blowing off steam and getting to the root of niggling issues that I can't suss out otherwise. The process of writing, for me, tends to reveal to my otherwise obtuse self what is really going on in this fat head of mine.

3. Research notes for possible photo projects. I tried keeping photo research in the sketchbook along with photo ideas, but it just didn't work for me. Ideas get toyed with in the sketchbook, and the keepers progress to research, and, in theory, research leads to actual photographs.

4. To-do list notepad. I try to keep my lists all on this one tablet, but in reality the lists take shape on any scrap of paper at hand. Which is somewhat less than helpful.

5. House project notebook. 

6. Writing notebook. Notes on publications, ideas for articles, drafts of articles, etc. 

7. Gardening notebook.

And, now, I find I have need for a business development notebook. As it is, I have business goals, tasks, to-do lists, marketing ideas, product ideas, web development goals, etc. bottled up in my head and scattered hither and yon. Any little scrap of paper littering my desk or receipt crammed in my wallet might just contain a nugget of business-wise gold. Probably not, but the possibility is there. Which means I can't just sweep all these scraps into the recycled bin. I have to read them first. And then decide what to do with them if they do indeed contain notes. Yep. It would be less maddening to just have another notebook.

Are you a notebook person? I'd love to hear how many you have and how you use them.