Why I Only Use One Notebook

Why simple beats clever, every time

Over the years I’ve tried a lot of note taking and journaling methods that just didn’t last. Bullet journaling, commonplace books, sectioned notebooks, even separate notebooks for different areas of life, one for ideas, one for reflections, one for travel etc. Each one sounded great on paper (pun intended), and each one quietly became a chore rather than a moment of reflection.

Bullet journaling was the first to go as it required too much maintenance, too many symbols and layouts to remember, and somewhere along the way I was spending more time managing the system than actually thinking and taking notes. The multiple notebooks made sense at first as it seemed organised, with everything having its place and everything being in its place. But instead of clarity I ended up with chaos, forgetting which book a thought belonged in, carrying the wrong one on the wrong day, or worse, having a good idea and nowhere to put it because that notebook was at home. What was meant to bring order actually scattered my thinking further.

In the end it was the reviewing aspect that got to me, if your thoughts are scattered across several notebooks and sections, you’re not reviewing, you’re hunting.

What I started doing

Around the time I started writing daily notes for Substack I needed somewhere to write down post and note ideas, before they disappeared and I couldn’t remember what they were. So I grabbed a notepad and started carrying it with me, writing down whatever came to mind.

That didn't last long though, it stopped being just about content ideas and expanded to include thoughts, reflections, half formed opinions about something I’d read, and they all ended up in the same place. Once a week when preparing content I would flick through it, looking for patterns and pulling out anything worth turning into a Substack post or notes. If there’s a bigger project I want to keep together, I just start it from the back of the book and work forwards, meeting myself somewhere in the middle. Which is as complicated as it gets.

One notebook. Nothing to set up, nothing to maintain, nowhere to lose things.

Nothing new under the sun

At first I assumed I’d stumbled onto something clever, although it turns out I hadn’t.

Leonardo da Vinci never went anywhere without a notebook on him, and used it to capture whatever he’d just observed, a sketch, idea, or an overheard argument in the street. He filled dozens of these over his life as he was a polymath and was clearly not short of thoughts and ideas, but at any given time he was working from one, carrying it everywhere, filling it up and then starting the next. Not several notebooks split by subject and juggled at once, one notebook at a time, doing the job.

Marcus Aurelius took the same single notebook approach, but leaned further into the reflective side of it. Meditations wasn't written to be published, or even read by anyone but him, he referred to it simply as his notes to myself. It was one undivided practice of personal reflection kept throughout his time as Roman Emperor, not separate notebooks for separate parts of his life, just one place for working through his thinking, never intended to be anything other than useful to himself.

Two very different men, the same underlying habit of one notebook, not several running in parallel. Capture it, keep it together, work it out later.

Why it actually works

The biggest benefit for me is reviewing, as when everything lives in one place patterns show up without you having to go looking for them. A thought about work naturally flows into a thought about family, which flows into an idea for a Substack post. As I kept looking through my notebook certain themes, thoughts and ideas became clear, as they kept showing up consistently.

There’s something deeper in this too, keeping everything together is what allows for crossover between different areas of thought, which is where the interesting stuff tends to live. It’s the same reason polymaths throughout history, Da Vinci included, made connections other people missed. When your mind isn’t scattered across multiple notebooks for separate subjects, threads start to appear that link one area of your life to another, and patterns repeat themselves in places you wouldn’t expect. That’s not something a sectioned system gives you, because sections are designed to keep things apart, and half the value is in seeing how they connect.

The other benefit is simplicity. No deciding which notebook this thought belongs in, no flicking to the right section, no elaborate key or colour coding to remember. There’s also something to be said for portability, one small notebook is easy to carry, easy to grab on your way out the door, easy to have on you when the idea actually strikes. Less friction means you actually do it, and a minimal, simple method you actually use will always beat a method that looks impressive sitting on a shelf.

A quick caveat

This isn’t me saying every specialised journal or notebook is pointless as they do have their place and their seasons, and there’s nothing wrong with picking one up and consistently using one if it genuinely helps you and works. Austin Kleon, who writes brilliantly about creativity, keeps four notebooks, each one doing a different job, but even he points people towards starting with just one.

So if you’re someone who has tried the elaborate systems, bought the specific notebooks for specific purposes, and found yourself managing the method instead of using it, maybe it’s worth stripping it back.

One book, one place, one method.

What’s stopping you starting with just one notebook?

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