Moleskines - Errands Hack

moleskines with shopping list / errand hack.

i have been checking out the gtd plugin for moleskine, and have set it up according to hyalineskies.com’s hack. very very cool, but i made a few different hacks to it. the moleskine i am currently using is full to about page 30, so i didn’t use the front pages for the project index. what i ended up doing is making the LAST few pages my project index. this way, i can track projects backward. when i get to the middle, i can go ahead and start a new one without wasting any pages. over the past few months, i have moved over to moleskines from a cheapie drug store notebook. it is the same as the bound notebooks you can get in the store, but much smaller, and like a buck for three. the problem with them was that the paper was too crappy, and pencils and pens would stick on all the junk in the paper. anyway.. the reason for my hack.. i found that i was trying to shove alot of one off information into my notebook. things like: * errands at lunch time * phone calls to make * notes of info that non net savvy people needed * grocery lists

most of this stuff just wastes valuable notebook real estate, generates clutter, and is useless storage of now useless information.

what i did was just made some inserts that i can use for one off information that i don’t really need for very long. here’s how:

1. get some good quality paper. doesn’t matter what, just don’t use your kid’s budget notebook paper.

2. the moleskine notebook i have is 3.5″ x 5.5″, so i tried a few different sizes. i settled on 3.5″ x 5.5″ and a bit. the trick is, you want the vertical size of the paper to be “a bit” longer than a page. this way, no matter how it’s shoved in, it will stick out “a bit” on the top or bottom. you will not have to go fishing around for it. experiment to see how much “a bit” is for you.

3. with a paper cutter, cut a few sheets of paper to size.

4. when you need to mess with non permanent data as above, put the date, and what it is on top. when you are done shopping or errand running, you can just pitch it.

5. take a few pages and fold them in half. store those extra pages in the back of your book. this way, you will have some spares. i find that i end up using five or so a week, so it’s not that big of a deal..

let me know if anyone else does this..