Discbound notebooks are compact notebooks that are easy to customize and reorganize as they’re bound with several solid plastic discs. They’re kind of like three-hole-punched binders, but without the drawbacks of being clunky and mechanically failing over time. (I need to take a picture and add it here.) I cannot recommend discbound notebooks enough.
There are several brands of discbound notebooks that I believe are largely compatible with one another; there’s Levenger, Staples Arc, Circa by I think TUL?, as well as some disc parts you can buy on the internet. I use Arc since it’s relatively inexpensive (Levenger for example is nicer but way too expensive for my measly wallet) but still relatively okay quality. And speaking of quality, don’t buy super cheap generic discs: I tried some and they were made from a slightly rougher plastic that made turning pages unbearably stiff.
Unorganized notes
- Junior paper is half of letter paper. A5 is half of A4. I’m using an A5-sized notebook I bought when I was in Shanghai. It works pretty well for junior paper now.
- Getting a puncher is essential. I’ve got a couple Staples Arc punchers. I should add the product number or whatever.
- For cutting junior paper, I’m using a “Model 15E” guillotine-style cutter from I think Dahle?
- I should add my script that automatically transforms a PDF into junior-sized book-ordered pages on letter paper.
- For section separators, I just took some colored cardstock and cut them slightly wider than all other paper.
Notebook checklist
Making sure my junior/A5 notebook is tidy-ish
- Monthly planner
- Planner paper
- Dotted paper
- Graph paper
- Transparency
- Blank paper
- Lined/ruled paper
- Calling cards
- Clips
- Post-its
- Colored flags (e.g. Post-it flags) for marking actionable pages
- Ruler
- Clear out my “scratch paper” section in the back
- Clear front pocket
- Have something to read printed out
- Envelopes? Stamps?
Color flags
This is still a work in progress.
- Pink
- Sync (needs to be transferred to a computer)
- Blue
- “Do” (something needs to be done)
- ?
- Remove/trash (although this can also be the back section)
- Green?
- Read (something printed out that should be read?)?
- Purple?
- Refile (paper can be transferred elsewhere without needing to sync anything)
- Orange?
- ?
Personal to-dos
- Maybe seam-rip the pencil holder, which I don’t use.
- Glue or label a calling card so people can contact me if they find my notebook