hello everybody Welcome or welcome back in today’s video I’m showing you exactly how to set up a pocket notebook that you will actually want to use I’ve made a couple videos on my pocket notebooks but it has become one of the most helpful journaling practices that I have implemented into my planner regime make sure you stay to the end of this video for giveaway details because one of you guys will be winning your very own pocket notebook and some necessary supplies to go along with it so without further Ado let’s get started I’d like notebook is kind of like how ballerinas break in their point shoes it’s going to be a very personalized process and it’s not going to look the same for everybody ultimately you were trying to customize your notebook in a way that’s going to be comfortable and functional for you in this setup we are going to prioritize functionality Simplicity and breaking your inner perfectionist when you first open up your notebook I would start by writing your name and the day in which you start and finish this notebook of course you can always add more customizations if you like sometimes I add a couple stickers or use these little corner frames to add a little more Deco but if you are looking for the most minimalistic setup then just writing your name and date will be helpful especially if you’re planning on archiving this notebook in the future on the left hand side I find it helpful to have a key I’ve been using my key for so long that I have it memorized but if you don’t and you’re just starting it might be helpful to put one on a sticky note this way not only do you have it readily accessible and you can move the sticky note from page to page but if you end up changing your key you don’t have to worry about it being etched permanently into your notebook I will be showing you two different keys today the first one is by Ryder Carol the author of The Bullet Journal method and his key is as follows it starts with the dot to represent a task if the task is being completed it gets an X if it’s being partially completed it gets a slash through it if the task has been migrated it gets an arrow facing to the right if it’s been scheduled it gets an arrow facing to the left if it’s been cancelled it just gets a slash through it if it’s a priority it gets a star if it’s an event it’s a circle and if it’s a note it’s a dash I myself have created an alternate key feel free to use this one or create an entire new one if you’d like mine starts off with a dash it turns into a plus if it’s being completed if it’s been partially completed I give it a circle if it’s been migrated I turn the dash into an arrow facing to the right if it’s been scheduled I turn the dash into an arrow facing to the left if it’s been canceled I simp simply extend the dash through the entire task and if it’s an event or an appointment then I simply give it a star once again you don’t have to use this one or you don’t have to use a key at all now that you have your key and things are starting to feel familiar it’s really time to ponder to keep or not to keep are you going to be keeping this notebook when it’s completed do you ever want to see this information again and are you going to be migrating the information to another notebook for those of you who want to use this notebook and throw it away when you’re done you can skip this step but for those of you who are planning on archiving this notebook and having it as a reference in the future then I suggest you add an index you want to start by dedicating about three or four pages for your index I decided to go with three for this example and at the top of the page you’re going to label it index up into the left you’re going to write the word title and up into the right you’re going to write page number and that’s that is literally it if you aren’t decided whether or not you want to keep this notebook in the future feel free to leave a couple blank pages at the beginning this way you can turn it into an index if you like and if you don’t then you have a couple extra pieces of scrap paper now it might be an idea to add a clip for quick reference at a later date these are the ones from my other video and you just open them up clamp them on the page and you are done the next step I would recommend is numbering the first 10 to 20 pages this way you’re starting off with a Baseline and you don’t have to worry about numbering them for a while especially if you’re just getting into the habit of using a notebook and trying to drill that into your mind adding page numbers every time might be the step that just sets you over the edge so I suggest doing them now now I want you to flip to your very first page and I’m going to get you to write something down this second and we are going to break that initial Instinct in you that wants to be a perfectionist I want you to start by writing the date at the top of the page and include what you ate for breakfast then tell me about that breakfast was it good was your toast dry did you drink too much coffee and now you’ve got the Jitters write that down underneath it I want you to include three tasks that you have for the day using the key that you just created if you need to reference that sticky note feel free and then underneath that I want you to make notes of a fun fact that you heard today and if you haven’t heard one yet then I’m going to tell you one did you know that planning on paper can actually help you learn and remember more that’s right writing out your plans by hand is beneficial for your brain I got that quote from Thrive Global and I thought it was pretty fun at the very end of the day you’re going to go back over your entry and filter through all of the information start by migrating any incomplete tasks and then go over the information that you’ve collected for example this fun fact is this a piece of information that you would like to hold on to and reference later if so you can either put it in a Commonplace Notebook or another notebook that you have laying around or we can use that index that we made earlier I’m going to give it a title and then just add the page number now if you found this fact more useless than fun you don’t have to do anything with it at all once you have filtered through all the information I like to use a colored pen to denote that I have reviewed this page and that all of the important information has either been completed or migrated the final step in the setup has to do with the back pocket and it is a feature that I do not utilize enough there are several options that you can choose from for this back pocket but some fun ones I think are to use it to put your favorite stickers a portable ruler some metric conversions maybe your go-to takeout order some affirmations or even receipts ephemera and anything else you can think of okay everybody that is it for the I’ll see you next time guys stay cozy and bye-bye