Pen & Paper

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This community is all about using pen and paper as a deliberate choice — because handwriting helps memory, deepens learning, sharpens focus, and unlocks creativity in ways screens often can’t. Whether you’re sketching ideas, drafting a to‑do list, or mapping out a semester, the physical act of writing slows things down just enough for the thoughts to really land.

All notebook and calendar types are welcome here: plain bound notebooks, bullet journals, Filofax systems, ring‑ and disc‑bound setups, sticky notes, legal pads, or whatever you throw together.

Privacy matters. With paper you keep control as your notes aren’t tracked, used to train algorithms or so. That sense of ownership makes paper a safe place for brainstorming, personal plans, and messy drafts that you don’t want floating in the cloud.

This is a place to share practical tips, clever layouts, before‑and‑after spreads, and what you’ve learned about staying organized (or unorganized) offline. Post pictures, ask for feedback, swap templates, or just brag about a perfect page.

Come as you are: Neat planner nerds, scrapbookers, list lovers, or anyone curious about slowing down. Bring your spreads, hacks, inserts, index systems, and the little rituals that make your setup work.

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CoffeeTails@lemmy.world

neat idea (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by letsgo2themall@lemmy.world to c/pen_and_paper@lemmy.world

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Neat idea for a community! I recently started using spiral bound notebooks to practice my handwriting (it's pretty bad) and to help remember things. G7 pens are my current favorite. I remember in school they made us write definitions for punishment for acting up so I learned to hate writing. Now in my 40's I'm learning to enjoy it. It's like therapy. :)

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[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm in a similar boat. I went back to college during the pandemic trying to better position myself financially for the recession that everyone was anticipating. During college I quickly realized I needed the memorization boost that hand writing things brings, then after college I found writing lists and taking notes much better allowed me to manage my tasks in my now more senior roles.

Since then I've had multiple life events creating more chaos so I've shifted methods of tracking tasks and keeping thoughts together and honestly, nothing works as well as pen(cil) and paper.

At one job, they handed everyone legal pads and had mondat morning meetings to go over tasks, so I built a practice of writing my tasks for the week on a page of the legal pad, then crossing items off as I complete them, ultimately ripping the page off and recycling it once all items are complete. If I had tasks leftover I had the shame of needing to flip pages to access the current week's tasks until the last item was crossed off.

Currently I've shifted to two notebooks, one for work and one for my personal life. Currently I'm just tracking tasks on a day to day basis with a separate todo list for longer term tasks but that's not super good for in the long term. I might shift to a week based task tracking, maybe one side for tasks to complete during the week and the other for individual days? We'll see!

[–] CoffeeTails@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Nice to be able to write all tasks at once like that, neat habit!

I have a todo-list in a A5 Filofax and have a sort of rolling list. I plan to write a post about it but in short: I write all todos I have in no particular order, crossing them over as they get done. When the page is full I write the next todo on the next page and also all that I haven't done yet and the transferred ones gets a wavy line. In this way I keep it rolling.

[–] CoffeeTails@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I'm glad to hear you like it!

Spiral bound notebooks are great! Easy to get your hands on, cheap so you don't need to be super careful with them which gives a sense of freedom. If that makes sense? haha

ooh the Pilot G7 are very trustworthy pens, lovely!

I'm glad you are able to turn around your view on writing. It's truly a great way to learn, note, remember and live! It gives so much more freedom than digital note programs.