I adored reading this! I recently got myself a new notebook as I am preparing to dive into my first thesis for my English degree next semester, and this just has me itching to pick up a pen and to simply get started on it. Incredibly thoughtful, and inspiring.
> When I scroll my TikTok feeds and watch people explaining their journaling set-ups to me, they are performing an identity as a notebook user and I’m learning how to perform along with them. I don’t think this being performative makes any of this bad or stupid. It’s an equivalent level of unnatural as my boyfriend performing being a football fan.
On that note, i'd love to learn to perform alongside you, if you would share more about that spreadsheet! My biggest problem with notebooks, especially commonplace ones, is that there's no easy way to search them to recover the information. The spreadsheet is great idea, but how do you fill it up? Immediately after taking a note? Once a week? All those cases feel like extra work for me, and since we're leaving the pretty notebook for the bland spreadsheet, i'm not sure i'd follow up.
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About the Inkvent calendar: i found it to be a great way to try a bunch of inks and colors to get to know what i liked or not! I've shared the cost with friends, and we split up the colors into sample plastic vials you can get at the craft store. Much more affordable, and you don't need that much of each ink to get a really good use out of it!
Also, that's now 2 Roses telling you to go for it, so it's a sign and you have to ;)
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Re planners: i don't think planner peace is attainable, or even possible. I loved Pumpkin Productivity when i was doing my master's too, Ruby did an excellent job with it. The spiral was annoying as a lefty, but the guts were well organized. But i find that my priorities and goals and activities change so much from a year to another that it's impossible to just stick with the same book for more than a year!
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> The most significant challenge facing my research is finding ways to articulate how my puzzle pieces talk to each other. I have a lot of conversations where people say to me, ‘So what is soil in literature?’ and I make strange frightened faces while I try to articulate something.
This is at the same time my worst nightmare, but also now i'm super interested about soil in lit! Sorry to add to the burden :s
Thank you!! Tbh I think it’s possible to love the spreadsheet. I think of it as the library index system of my mind and I get a lot of fulfilment out of seeing new topics fit in there, like an elegant old card catalogue but easier to use. I don’t have a timeline I try and keep to for updating it, but after taking a min to set up its quick to add things and I’ll update it when I’m sat at my laptop with nothing to do or I’m procrastinating doing something meaningful. I can romanticise being able to sit back and appreciate the vast magnitude of content across all my notebooks, and that’s pretty neat.
The inkvent calendar is a strong possibility. I think I probably would have to buy it on my own cause I have no friends at present who love inks, but I can plan for that at a later date. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be financially this autumn once I go part time and start the PhD, and where the substack income will be up, so I’ll mark it as ‘a good idea, but let’s see how we go’.
Completely agree with you about pumpkin productivity. I’d love to get all the inner pages rebound into a different format, but for now I’ll just have to make peace with papier. I can just never learn to love spiral binding. I’d love to find a PhD student specific one but the only ones I’ve ever seen are very science specific.
Re soil - I’ll get back to you as soon as I work out what soil is.
1) I adore this 2) if you start a kofi specifically for getting the ink Advent calendar, I will donate 3) do you have any tips for improving handwriting?? Yours is amazing!
1.) thank you ☺️ 2.) that’s the sweetest thing ever and you absolutely don’t have to - I do have a kofi linked in my bio and I solemnly swear to note contributions made for the inkvent calendar and put them towards that, but absolutely no one should feel any pressure to donate to something so frivolous. 3.) thank you again! I got this handwriting from obsessively copying the fake Victorian handwriting in the companion books that went with the spiderwick chronicles when I was about ten. I don’t know if that’s a tip anyone else can make practical use of but you’re welcome to try!
Thank you! Being called an absolute genius is one of my absolute favourite ways to spend a Sunday. And thank you v much for linking that I’m looking forward to reading it on a train later today
I’m in the thinking stages of planning to approach my university for my PhD after I finished my MA 9 years ago!!
Writing my Substack to flesh out and test ideas.
This bit of your post made me laugh (among others)
“My PhD project involves a lot of methodologies, theories and concepts that all stand on top of each other in a trench coat to pretend to be a cohesive idea.”. 💡
I love that I've found someone else who handwrites despite pain! I have fibromyalgia which makes my wrists pretty stiff and sore. I have to take a break after writing a few lines, but that suits note-taking perfectly, most of the time. I also journal daily. There's just something about handwriting that is more satisfying, more real, somehow more worthy than taking notes on a computer or phone. When I tell other people it hurts me to do it but I do it every day, I get very weird looks, haha.
On the topic of pens that are nice and less painful to write with, if you haven't tried them, I recommend the Muji gel ink 0.5 ballpoints. They're not very expensive, although sometimes hard to find as I think pretty much everyone in the bullet journalling community ends up using them eventually. I buy them in bulk so I always have another one to grab when I run out of ink. They're very smooth and require no pressure on the page.
I adored reading this! I recently got myself a new notebook as I am preparing to dive into my first thesis for my English degree next semester, and this just has me itching to pick up a pen and to simply get started on it. Incredibly thoughtful, and inspiring.
thank you so much!! the word inspiring being used about anything of mine really makes my day. sending lots of good wishes to you and your notebook :)
> When I scroll my TikTok feeds and watch people explaining their journaling set-ups to me, they are performing an identity as a notebook user and I’m learning how to perform along with them. I don’t think this being performative makes any of this bad or stupid. It’s an equivalent level of unnatural as my boyfriend performing being a football fan.
On that note, i'd love to learn to perform alongside you, if you would share more about that spreadsheet! My biggest problem with notebooks, especially commonplace ones, is that there's no easy way to search them to recover the information. The spreadsheet is great idea, but how do you fill it up? Immediately after taking a note? Once a week? All those cases feel like extra work for me, and since we're leaving the pretty notebook for the bland spreadsheet, i'm not sure i'd follow up.
-
About the Inkvent calendar: i found it to be a great way to try a bunch of inks and colors to get to know what i liked or not! I've shared the cost with friends, and we split up the colors into sample plastic vials you can get at the craft store. Much more affordable, and you don't need that much of each ink to get a really good use out of it!
Also, that's now 2 Roses telling you to go for it, so it's a sign and you have to ;)
-
Re planners: i don't think planner peace is attainable, or even possible. I loved Pumpkin Productivity when i was doing my master's too, Ruby did an excellent job with it. The spiral was annoying as a lefty, but the guts were well organized. But i find that my priorities and goals and activities change so much from a year to another that it's impossible to just stick with the same book for more than a year!
-
> The most significant challenge facing my research is finding ways to articulate how my puzzle pieces talk to each other. I have a lot of conversations where people say to me, ‘So what is soil in literature?’ and I make strange frightened faces while I try to articulate something.
This is at the same time my worst nightmare, but also now i'm super interested about soil in lit! Sorry to add to the burden :s
Thank you!! Tbh I think it’s possible to love the spreadsheet. I think of it as the library index system of my mind and I get a lot of fulfilment out of seeing new topics fit in there, like an elegant old card catalogue but easier to use. I don’t have a timeline I try and keep to for updating it, but after taking a min to set up its quick to add things and I’ll update it when I’m sat at my laptop with nothing to do or I’m procrastinating doing something meaningful. I can romanticise being able to sit back and appreciate the vast magnitude of content across all my notebooks, and that’s pretty neat.
The inkvent calendar is a strong possibility. I think I probably would have to buy it on my own cause I have no friends at present who love inks, but I can plan for that at a later date. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be financially this autumn once I go part time and start the PhD, and where the substack income will be up, so I’ll mark it as ‘a good idea, but let’s see how we go’.
Completely agree with you about pumpkin productivity. I’d love to get all the inner pages rebound into a different format, but for now I’ll just have to make peace with papier. I can just never learn to love spiral binding. I’d love to find a PhD student specific one but the only ones I’ve ever seen are very science specific.
Re soil - I’ll get back to you as soon as I work out what soil is.
1) I adore this 2) if you start a kofi specifically for getting the ink Advent calendar, I will donate 3) do you have any tips for improving handwriting?? Yours is amazing!
1.) thank you ☺️ 2.) that’s the sweetest thing ever and you absolutely don’t have to - I do have a kofi linked in my bio and I solemnly swear to note contributions made for the inkvent calendar and put them towards that, but absolutely no one should feel any pressure to donate to something so frivolous. 3.) thank you again! I got this handwriting from obsessively copying the fake Victorian handwriting in the companion books that went with the spiderwick chronicles when I was about ten. I don’t know if that’s a tip anyone else can make practical use of but you’re welcome to try!
Has anyone told you that you are an absolute genius? I love how deeply you think about notebooks, especially as a notebook fanatic myself!
Also on the topic of Oxford, I thought I’d share with you recent thoughts in the hopes they resonate even a little: https://idontknowwhoneedstohearthis.substack.com/p/whats-the-point-of-an-oxford-english
Thank you! Being called an absolute genius is one of my absolute favourite ways to spend a Sunday. And thank you v much for linking that I’m looking forward to reading it on a train later today
Oh thank you! You made the start of day inspired.
I’m in the thinking stages of planning to approach my university for my PhD after I finished my MA 9 years ago!!
Writing my Substack to flesh out and test ideas.
This bit of your post made me laugh (among others)
“My PhD project involves a lot of methodologies, theories and concepts that all stand on top of each other in a trench coat to pretend to be a cohesive idea.”. 💡
I love that I've found someone else who handwrites despite pain! I have fibromyalgia which makes my wrists pretty stiff and sore. I have to take a break after writing a few lines, but that suits note-taking perfectly, most of the time. I also journal daily. There's just something about handwriting that is more satisfying, more real, somehow more worthy than taking notes on a computer or phone. When I tell other people it hurts me to do it but I do it every day, I get very weird looks, haha.
On the topic of pens that are nice and less painful to write with, if you haven't tried them, I recommend the Muji gel ink 0.5 ballpoints. They're not very expensive, although sometimes hard to find as I think pretty much everyone in the bullet journalling community ends up using them eventually. I buy them in bulk so I always have another one to grab when I run out of ink. They're very smooth and require no pressure on the page.