Does this title’s iconic phrase from Highlander, one of my all-time favorite movies, suggest I’ve found my answer to the ultimate journal?
If so, my long journey full of FOMO (fear of missing out) temptations and new journals teased from a variety of makers around the world, may be over.
Tossing the “only one” declaration to the winds of fate and expecting permanence seems risky. My fickle journal muse just snickers, “We’ll see about that!,” making it all seem about as reliable as believing in fortune cookie prophecies.
A year ago in search of a more minimal, simpler system, I stopped using a mongrel collection of loose notebooks and journals. Each one was for a specific use, e.g., journaling, project planning, todos, calendar needs, evening pages, and so on.
My fancy then turned to the Traveler’s Notebook (standard size). If you’re not familiar with the brand, their ecosystem has endless options for notebook inserts supporting a variety of needs, amazing accessories, and limited editions appearing every month or so. Just moving to same-size single notebooks held by elastic bands inside a Midori-style cover seemed like progress … but not yet minimalistic nor simple.
Temptations from constant limited edition releases of Traveler’s notebooks, cover wraps, plus accessories, proved too much for me. When I justified needing TWO covers stuffed with notebooks, I realized this rabbit hole was bottomless and I needed to find a way out.
Leaving the Traveler’s Notebook world behind in my rear-view mirror, I discovered and adopted a Lochby Field Folio A5. If you’re not familiar with Lochby, they specialize in making stationery accessories using waxed canvas, making them durable with a travel or nomadic vibe.
This beauty features a zipper to keep contents safely inside, an outside handle, inside pen loop, and pockets for notecards and such. Still has the Midori-styled bands, ala the Traveler’s Notebook system, to keep three+ A5 notebook inserts inside the cover, so seemed like more consolidation than simplicity.
Fast forward to my aha quest moment while reading a recent post by Stu Lennon. He shared the tempting concept of using just ONE journal to contain all one’s daily words and such needs.
Stu is a fellow paper nerd constantly in pursuit of stationery nirvana. He owned the wonderful Nero’s Notes shop, a UK stationery store many of us miss. Now living in Cyprus, he writes an engaging newsletter across a variety of topics, but frequently shares wit and wisdom on all things stationery.
Could this single-journal approach work for me?
Can’t get much simpler than using just one bound notebook to hold everything! Helps to use a journal with printed page numbers with content pages at the front to list those important pages to find later.
Since starting this approach, putting words on paper for a variety of needs and uses seems easier and more accessible in the moment. I dubbed this new process “Only One,” to encourage my hopeful optimism that I’ve found my practical holy grail journal.
Truth is, everything I write daily, whether inside one or ten notebooks, is a consumable effort. When journaling, it’s all about the process of putting thoughts on paper and out of the head, rarely to be reread later. Most everything else: todos, projects, general notes, etc., goes obsolete quickly.
I’ve stored boxes and boxes filled with used journals and notebooks, thinking I’d need them someday, or naively thinking my two sons would want to read “Dad’s ramblings” after I’m gone. Unless a famous author’s heirs can exhume such “graveyards” for profit, they’re all just recycle fodder. I ain’t one of those (the famous author, not the recycle fodder … although aren’t we all the latter?).
There have been two reasons I’ve gone back into my paper archives. One is to retrieve details from old travel journals for new articles. Another was to occasionally reread pages I wrote on faith years ago during an especially low period. That long treatise was not about religious faith, but about believing in yourself and the courage to wait and trust things will work out.
Several weeks of living with the Only One is almost everything I’d hoped for and more than I expected. As an EDC (everyday carry) journal when out and about (or on my desk at home), I can capture everything I need in there.
Where I’m seeing the honeymoon fading is with daily/weekly/monthly scheduling. Those are in there amidst all the other writings, but less practical to access frequently. I am developing a new mini-booklet for scheduling needs that could slip inside the Only One, to help it achieve stationery holy grail status.
The simplicity of carrying a single journal is a luxury, compared to the 4-5 I used to use. Will I stick with this approach? My history would cast a doubting glance, but we’ll see.
And the Lochby Folio? It’s alive and well as what I use to carry the Only One when I’m out writing in cafes or on planes or trains during next year’s travels.
Periodic musings by Gary Varner. Always free. Subscribe for fresh, emailed new releases.