This Notebook System Made Me a Pretentious Pen-and-Paper Notetaker and I Love It

Abby Jaquint
5 min readJun 14, 2024

How one notebook boosted my self-esteem and my personal library of inspiration.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

I have been obsessively writing in notebooks for so long that I’m sure I was born penning a review of my time in the womb.

When I moved into my new apartment last week, I had to set up my bookshelves, and out of curiosity, I counted up my notebooks.

The amount I’d scribbled on a lemon-shaped sticky note looked like this:

Writing with drawings/sketchbooks — 9

Journaling/self-help/diaries — 13

Notebooks (misc.) — 39

Final count = 61

Yet I sat back in my desk chair and thought, You know, I actually don’t think that’s very many.

And I stand by that.

But that doesn’t mean I don't have a favorite out of my 61 pretty, bound stacks of paper.

Dear Diary,
For obvious reasons, I never told you about my notebook, with a cover as green as mansions long gone, which I use as a commonplace book, a phrase which here means “place where I have collected passages…

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Abby Jaquint
Abby Jaquint

Written by Abby Jaquint

Novelist. 24. I write about writing and productivity. Check me out on Amazon or Barnes and Noble!

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