There’s at least one thing Nic and I have in common: a passion for notebooks.

You see, our decluttering process brought to the surface a rather sad reality: we are notebook freaks. In total we found, scattered around the house (study, living room, bedroom) about 20 notebooks, of all sizes, shapes and colours. Some were partly used, others were brand new.

We just can’t resist buying them.

My point is, I have now decided to limit my consumption of notebooks. So I have a set up a system: each notebook I use has a specific purpose. Once it’s full, I can go out and buy a new one (yay!).

So I now have 4 notebooks on my desk:

• Notebook #1 is a project book. Divided into 5 sections, I use it to write down ideas about the different projects I’m working on. I keep everything in the same place and can come back to it whenever I need to.

• Notebook #2 is a basic daily planner / to-do list. I use it to write down everything I need to do, in no particular order of priority, personal stuff as well as business tasks. I basically use to avoid forgetting things (which is quite common especially now I’m pregnant).

• Notebook #3 is a pretty girly notebook, which I use for inspiration. I use it to start writing blog posts for example. I just find it easier to fight the blank page syndrome with a pen and paper than sitting in front of my laptop. It also allows me to get away from the computer, sit on the sofa and concentrate on the piece I’m writing.

• Notebook #4 is not really a notebook. It’s what we call a Hipster PDA and I use it for my daily to-do list. On Sunday night, I take 15 minutes to go through my massive to-do list (notebook #2) and I organise my workload by choosing 3 or 4 tasks for each day of the week. This means I know what I need to do when I get to my desk in the morning, and, most importantly, I don’t feel so overloaded with so many tasks that I end up not doing much (one of my biggest flaws).

Some people might think: why on earth do you use notebooks at all? Pen and paper are so last century!

Well, yes and no. First, I have always loved books and writing on paper. It has a different feeling from writing with a software, and the literary girl that I am just can’t get over the satisfaction of writing in a pretty notebook. Secondly, I have tried working solely on Google Docs. I have also experienced not being able to do any work because Google Docs was down for a couple of hours, and it just proved my point: the cloud is cool, but I’m not ready to rely totally on it.

Are there any notebook freak out there? What do you use them for?