How Many Notebooks Does a Multi-Passionate Artist Need?

Besides writing, I paint and draw. I do collage, and I knit. My creative energy used to fluctuate like roller coasters. As time went by, I regularly reassessed the causes of those unplanned bouts of fatigue. Here, you will read about how my note-taking system has changed and what I needed to change in my life habits in order to calm the roller-coasters.

Food-Mind-Body Connection and Artistic Practice

I learned that if I eat enough good-quality food, I feel better, my muscles and my brain respond better, and most important of all, I sleep well. Then I can exercise, and I also have more energy for all these projects linked to my multiple interests. Fueling my body properly helps me stay active, productive, creative, happy and maintain practices with purpose and consistency, rested and oxygenated. In the end, I need to fuel my body correctly to create more and become an artist entrepreneur.

To become the latter, I need to grow a body of work through regular artistic practice. In my case, having many practices involves a little more organization. Notebooks are part of it.

The Commonplace

While I had busy children at home, losing information was not possible, so I needed one online planner and one commonplace book. I filled the latter with painted or drawn sketches, written thoughts, learned things, ideas, inspirations, discoveries and findings, recipes, any lists, and daily notes — anything!

As my life changed, so did my system. Now I use multiple specialized notebooks instead.

My Notebooks

Recently, I found myself with several notebooks:

• One for my morning pages;
• a planner for my daily personal notes, appointments, etc. (with a much-needed and detailed table of contents);
• one composition notebook at work, also with a table of contents;
• one sketchbook to scribble and doodle away during meetings at work (it keeps me present in the meeting, can you believe it?);
• one composition book for idea generation;
• an online one, a private TiddlyWiki (filled with information found on the Internet);
• recently added to the collection: poetry notebook and reflection notebook (oh my...)

I think I listed them all.

Some of them I make myself. I bind a pack of 150 lined sheets together, make the cover with an empty cereal box decorated with my painted paper: my favourite ones! I can also bind three Cahiers Canada together to make a pretty useful notebook perfect for Morning Pages.

Recently, I asked myself: Do multiple notebooks help me feel less scattered, or are they a symptom of being scattered? Good question. At certain times in my life, just like at work right now, a commonplace book helps me avoid losing important information. For the past few years, I haven't had to manage other people's lives. So, a planner and a few notebooks help me keep everything in its place.

To Sum Up

I loved my commonplace books, but now I prefer using a few notebooks for now. I'm sure it will change again.

I want to know:

Do you use notebooks? What do they look like? Do you make your own? Share a picture if you can.

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A.I. was used to edit the text.