I used to-do books long before I knew what a bullet journal was, then started an actual bullet journal in 2018. Never used it the way it’s meant to be used, or the way anyone recommends. Rapid logging one week, ignoring it the next, keeping only the parts that stuck and skipping the rest.
A pocket notebook doesn’t have to hold everything forever. It’s a good place to sketch an idea before it’s ready anywhere else — a first pass, same as in Why paper, before it moves into a digital tool, a bookmark, a document, wherever it actually needs to live and be found again.
Access to a writing tool matters more than using the same one every time. Pencils sit around home, office, and every bag, so there’s always something to jot with. Pencil first, then a pass in pen later, crossing out what’s done, striking through what’s no longer relevant, adding a counter-argument next to something that was wrong the first time. Still, ink pens remain the real favourite.
Mine is a mix of a lot of things, closer to a diary than a strict system, split by date stamp with no fixed format and no empty space, whatever comes next just starts where the last thing ended.
These books don’t come with page numbers, so pages don’t get numbered. Ideas do instead, any switch to something new gets the next number, whether that’s two lines down or two pages down.
Once the book fills up, something closer to a Bullet Journal Index shows up on the first page, just enough to mark what’s where. Layout isn’t fixed either, mostly portrait, landscape on office-meeting weeks or whenever a page needs more room.
The best notebook is the one that’s actually with you. Something pocket sized, an A6 or close to it, fits in a bag or a pocket without a second thought, so it’s there when a thought is worth catching.
A plain grid notebook does the job, 32 pages, barely ₹30 a book as of July 2026, with a colored cover version too if plain isn’t your thing. Both are small enough to disappear into a pocket.
A few others came before these. Neorah’s Petite is a longer book, good for writing more per sitting. Accuprints A6 is hardbound, for something sturdier.
Daily scratch stays out of the notebook these days. Long meetings, quarter planning workshops, even a single day of time blocking, all go on separate paper, stapled back in later or just thrown out.
Too much to-do turns a notebook into a reminder app instead of a journal, and there’s rarely anything in a time block worth reviewing later, the point was getting it done.
Cheap writing blocks or A4 notepads handle this kind of quick writing, nothing precious about them.
Almost everything gets noted down, then most of it gets cancelled. It’s less about capturing the right things upfront and more about reviewing later and cutting hard.
I track it in the margins. Something moved to Raindrop, filed into an Obsidian note, or simply done gets marked and struck out, in both the index and the entry, so it’s obvious at a glance what’s still open.
Keeping separate notebooks for work, personal thoughts, and projects never really works. One notebook for everything is messier, but it’s the one that actually gets used.
It also doesn’t need to look good. Bullet journaling on social media makes it seem like a notebook has to be hand lettered, color coded, a neat spread, a different activity from using a notebook to think. Mine stays messy, and that’s fine, nobody else needs to see it.
This isn’t new. Commonplace books, one book for everything worth keeping, go back centuries, through people like Milton and Jefferson.
| Pocket Notebooks | No brand. Soft cover, 32 pages, pocket sized, pack of 20. |
| Grid Notebook | Same notebook, colored cover, different seller. |
| Neorah Petite | Used earlier. A4 height, thin, hardcover, easy to carry. |
| Accuprints A6 | Pocket sized, hardcover. |
| Writing Blocks | Desk block for quick notes and to-dos. No frills. |
| A4 Notepads | For long forms. Great once you’re in writing mode. |
| Lamy Safari EF | Writes beautifully, a daily pleasure. |
| Jinhao 35 | Cheapest, but good quality. |
| Twsbi Eco F | Writes exceptionally well. Body shows ink level. |
| KuruToga M5 | A must-have mechanical pencil. |
| Kabeer Art Pencil | Good for boring meetings when the art set’s out of reach. |
Old notebooks get read again on and off, crossing off what’s been dealt with, sitting with questions still unanswered. That’s usually where the better connections show up, not while writing, but on a second pass.
I’ve used Evernote, Google Docs, and still rely on Obsidian for most of my work, along with a dozen to-do apps on the phone over the years. A few of them still hold to-dos from 2015. None of that failed exactly. It worked fine for projects, just never for the daily grind of noting things down.
What actually goes into a notebook isn’t a to-do list. Observations, half-formed ideas, questions, answers, things that don’t fit anywhere digital yet. A notebook to think along, with no fixed form or layout, is the simpler answer. It stays with me, takes anything worth writing, and most of it gets cut later in Lots of inputs and a strong filter.