Notebooks and sketchbooks as allies for your creative life

Once, on a trip to San Francisco, I set out on day one to explore. Walking around the Mission gave me lots of inspiration. A few steps out my door, I saw a cool vintage liquor store sign. “That’s cool! I’ll sketch that later,” I thought. I kept moving.

But the artist in me took a stand. “No!” she said. “Stop now and capture it. Take five minutes, for goodness sake!”

Luckily I listened to the part of me that knows how to stop to savor, to capture, to slow down, and be present. I LOVE the little sketch I made in five minutes, and I committed to filling the sketchbook with five-minute pauses. That became one of my favorite notebooks.

If you know me, you know that I always have at least one notebook with me at all times. I feel naked without one. I’ve trained myself to capture my ideas, dreams, lists, and doodles.

Sure you can capture all that on a smartphone, but I have never felt the same about my device that I do about my notebooks.

My notebooks are my allies. They hold my heart, my mind, my writing, and my art. In any situation, I can stop, drop and put a thought or image onto the page.

You don’t have to be a sketcher or an artist to have a notebook with you. It definitely doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be whatever you want. If you consider it an ally, it can help you take little pauses that don’t have you immediately putting your face to a screen.

If you decide to keep a notebook or sketchbook, have a sense of why it matters to you. Know what motivates you so you can use that as a compass to steer past any inner critic commentary or excuses.

Adding your thoughts, feelings, and experiences to a notebook doesn’t have to take a lot of time. A pause, a dip, a quick word sketch or a note to yourself. That’s it. See what it’s like for you to have this in your life.

I bet you already have a notebook on site – no need to buy anything!

Do you keep a notebook? How does it help you be your most creative self? Share your experience below.

P.S. I made a video series showing how I use my notebooks as planners, sketchbooks, journals, and more. Check out my notebook videos and leave a comment here. 

P.P.S. If the thought of a notebook gives ANY level of stress, forget it! None of what I share is meant to add a ‘should’ to your list.

P.P.P.S Below is a photo of all my notebooks through February 2020. From left: early journals, personal journals. Middle: Mostly Moleskines, which I use to run and organize my business. Tall skinny stack: Moleskine Japanese albums or accordion notebooks. I’ve filled more than 30 of them with sketches and stories of travels and daily life. Right: Sketchbooks filled with drawings, paintings and inspiration I have captured in the world and at home. See inside my sketchbooks here.