Moleskine notebooks may just be one of the most useful products out there. I picked a few up last month, one large one for work and one small one for carrying around everywhere, and I’ve noticed my productivity has gone up measurably since. I have always been one to write notes to myself but they always ended up mangled or lost over time. Having one dedicated place to write everything down has been fantastic. One thing I had to get over was the idea of “wasting nice paper” because, after all, this is what the notebook is for. By wasting, I mean things like calculating money or hours spent working, which would take up several lines in a small notebook. I would feel bad for taking up the space for something so worthless, but it really isn’t worthless since I need that information! Now I’m using it as an all-purpose journal for anything I need to write down during the day, with my job-related items kept separate. I am considering buying one for recording my dreams since that helps me remember them. I have much more vivid dreams if I can keep them close to the surface.

Writing down all the irritating things I need to do has made the tasks seem less daunting, and it feels great to plow my way through the list and see my accomplishments. Having too much administrative work to do weighs on me heavily and anything I can do to lighten the load improves my mood tenfold. Current tasks include completely ditching my previous identity and sliding comfortably into my new one. All that’s left now is car-related papers, cell phone, and vet papers! Woo!