Why I will Always Use Notebooks at Work



Here are the four main reasons why I use notebooks at work, plus some tips if you are a left-handed writer like me!




Call me old-fashioned, but rather than using a work laptop, my phone, or a tablet of sorts like a Surface or iPad, I prefer to jot down my own personal reminders and to-dos by putting pen to paper. 

Here’s why this works for me:

Quick recall
  • I’ll admit, my short-term memory isn’t always the best, especially when I’m in back to back meetings/reviews/calls/dailies—this is the best way for me to remember key action items 
  • Taking the moment to physically write something down helps me to remember the information clearly and quickly

Focus
  • My notebook is just my own communications and thoughts - if I look at my phone to look something up, I might get distracted by incoming emails and messages



Organization
  • I personally find it’s faster for me to recall info or action items by flipping back to the page for the day in question rather than searching through emails or the network for meeting notes
  • I keep all my filled up notebooks on site at work to quickly refer back to when required
  • I always put print outs of key info - schedule, episode titles and order, etc for the front and back pages of my notebook — I call them my cheat sheets!
  • I’ll do a quick streak of a highlighter on top of certain pages to quickly identify what the notes are about - orange mark means learning a new process, pink for important to-dos, etc
  • At the end of the week, it’s a quick and easy way to look back and review if needed, versus scrolling back through emails

Privacy & Discretion
  • Practically speaking, I’m left-handed. My writing is illegible to almost anyone except me at any rate!
  • For more serious conversations and reviews, I prefer to write things down until I’m ready to commit the info digitally (if required) - I feel like there’s something more personal and engaged about using a notebook in such times rather than typing away at a laptop, with some of my body language possibly being hidden by the screen 



BONUS - Notebook Tips for Lefties

I burn through a work notebook every two months. Here’s a few of my suggestions, especially if you are a leftie like me!

Also, remember to write the date somewhere on the cover of your notebook or just inside - you can more quickly associate episodic production/stages of show production with the relevant notebook if you have the date range easily visible. 

  • Consider a notepad with coil/binding at the top
  • A folio with such a notepad inside also works - I like this one because it has a stiff back for writing on the go 
  • Notebooks with angular binding (like Moleskines) I generally find is a no-no — the binding breaks up faster with the pressure from your hand resting on it and it’s as awkward as coil binding sometimes
  • Notebooks with rounded binding are a YES because they open flat
  • I personally really like Decomposition notebooks - the paper is solid, not flimsy, the size of notebook means your hand won’t fall off, the rounded binding means they open flat but still have a lot of pages, have a stiff cardboard cover and back, and of course, the covers are fun
  • Japanese dollar stores (Daiso in Richmond or Oomomo in the International Village/Tinseltown mall downtown Vancouver) tend to have lots of notebooks without coil binding - they often don’t have as many pages as other notebooks so you go through them quickly, but since they’re at a dollar store you can stock up 
  • Consider the TYPE of paper - I’ve tried pens that advertised they won’t run/smear especially for left-handed people to limited success; I have found it more helpful to keep an eye on the TYPE of paper you are writing on as certain kinds cause more smearing — smoother pages like in Moleskine lined notebooks = yikes 


Image credit: all of these pictures are my own work notebooks that I have used in the last four or so years working in Vancouver's animation industry!


A version of this was originally posted on my LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-always-use-notebooks-emily-yakashiro-1c

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