[If you missed part 1 of the newsletter you can read it here.]

6) The Reading Journal

I read every day. It's a core daily habit that fuels my brain with the nutrients it needs to focus, learn, and create. To get the most out of reading I keep a reading journal.

The simplest version of a reading journal acts as a log where you record time spent reading and pages read. You take the number of pages in a book and divide it by the time frame you want to read it in to get a measurable daily reading goal. For example:

• Book pages = 300 pages
• Time frame = one week
• Daily reading goal = 300/7 = 43 pages/day
• If you read at a modest 20 pages/hour then you know that you need to set aside two hours a day to finish the book in a week.

You can superpower your reading journal by adding visual progress systems like habit trackers or progress bars to gamify staying on track with your reading goals.

I mostly read nonfiction (which is by no means superior to fiction, just what I enjoy reading more) and I always do what is called active reading. This means I read with a pen in hand, ready to annotate as needed. Here's my system:

• Underline passages I want to reference later. These are usually propositions and reasons that make up an author's argument. Or, it can be a phrase I find interesting or quotable.
• I circle terms that define a word in a way that is specific to the author.
• I write notes to myself in the margins if I want to record context of what is standing out to me.
• Then, I dog-ear every page with any of the annotations to reference later.

Most books are lightweight enough to get the gist and move on, but others demand active engagement with the material to fully grasp what is being said. For those more challenging books I write critical analysis in my reading journal.

Once I've finished a chapter I'll go through and deconstruct the ideas in the chapter by extracting quotes, terms, and arguements directly from the author before distilling those extracts into my own words. This process allows me to truly engage with the wisdom of the author and come to an understanding of the material that is no longer superficial.

The size of a pocket notebook is great for this because it forces me to narrow in on what is important and can double as a bookmark so I avoid scrambling through archives.

7) The Skill Journal

A few months ago I took up leathercrafting as a new skill to learn.

The thing that immediately struck me as I made my first leather card holder is how much it felt like a video game, as if I was playing a real-life RPG leveling up my crafting skills. So I thought to myself, "Why not make a real-life crafting journal?" That way, like a video game, I could gamify my learning journey with visual progress and reward systems, while creating a record of my process to learn more efficiently.

Here's how it works.

1. Start by writing down a list of learning goals. (ie. learn how to make a messenger bag)
2. Create visual progress bars for trackables. (ie. every 5 leather projects I'd lvl up.)
3. Assign a relevant reward to the accomplishment of a learning goal or to leveling up. (ie. buy a new leathercrafting tool)
4. Document your projects with notes, drawings, and timelines to learn by explaining your process.

This skill journal had some amazing results. I went from knowing absolutely nothing about leathercrafting to hand-crafting a custom-designed messenger bag that people think I spent hundreds of dollars on in a about 5-weeks.

That's because documenting your process internalizes what you're learning at an accelerated rate and allows you to pinpoint mistakes quicker than someone who doesn't have notes to review. The gamification aspects got me uber-obsessed with making progress and made the whole experience more fun.

The skill journal system has become my go-to method for developing my crafts. I have skill journals dedicated drawing, writing, YouTube, printmaking, leathercrafting, and bookbinding. Maybe it's the childhood gamer in me but I love filling these journals with notes about my process and seeing those progress bars level up.

8) The Project Planner

Similar to the skill journal is the project planner, only instead of documenting a learning journey this notebook is dedicated to organizing and planning longterm projects.

This can be things like a home-renovation, an essay, or a business venture. This notebook gives you a dedicated space for everything related to that one specific project so you can keep your thoughts and progress organized.

You can choose to gamify it by setting goals, milestone markers, and visual progress meters or, you can simply use it as a place to brain dump ideas and tasks.

For instance, right now I'm in the early stages of writing a guide to using notebooks as a thinking tool. I don't want to have my notes in a bunch of different places so I dedicated a new pocket notebook to that specific project. That way, anytime I come up with a new idea for the structure or create a new task item to move the needle forward, it's all in one place.

9) The Sketchbook

Pocket notebooks makes excellent sketchbooks.

I'm not an artist by any means and if you're on the fence about drawing just know that it's a skill like any other. I believe there is real value in being able to visualize ideas on paper or capture a memory in a quick sketch. The point isn't to make something to show to people but to be able to develop your eye to notice the world around you.

Instead of scrolling your phone while you wait for your latte, try drawing the coffee shop and create a visual memory of your experience. This is something I've been trying to do more of and it has turned killing time into an opportunity for practice.

10) The Medical Journal

I consider myself a healthy guy but this year challenged that assumption.

I was sick more times this year than any other that I can remember and at some point I had a bit of a health scare that I'm still in the process of dealing with.

The reality is I'm entering middle-age (or more accurately, have been middle-aged and in denial) and I have to take my health seriously.

Clearly, my method of control in an unpredicatable world is to use a notebook to make sense of the chaos. So that's what I started doing with my health.

I now keep a medical journal where I document injuries, illnesses, and oddities in my health so I can monitor them over time. I use it to write appointment notes, preventative care tips, and diary entries that are specific to the health concerns that I'm tracking.

This gives me a sense of a ownership and agency over my health that was missing before. It allows me to make plans to overcome health challenges and hopefully spot things before they become bigger problems.

I want to take a quick moment to say one of the most under-rated benefits of all of these single-purpose notebooks is the artificat itself.

There is something inherently satisfying about looking at a shelf of notebooks that are filled with your life experiences.

There is a joy in the tangibility of flipping through your life on a page that is impossible to understand until you've experienced it yourself.

Hopefully one of these methods will inspire a pocket notebook experiment for you to try in 2026.

Happy Holidays!