I belong to the generation that learned to embrace the internet and technology half way through my life. Mobile phones, email, internet and texting were fine and exciting. But, i used to ask, do people really switch to an online diary? I remember a friend of mine who was obsessed with her palm organiser back in the late 90’s. I was horrified. And what about those who rushed to buy the very first digital cameras? Plleeeeaasee! You mean, you’d give up film for digital?
I think you get the picture. It took me ages to let go of the old ways. I was the girl, who in the middle 80’s rushed to the very first filofax shop in murray street, in london’s camden town. Anyone remember that shop? My love affair with their diaries set off an obsession that lasted for many years…
I learned that although i naturally have small writing, i needed a bigger size and am sorry to say that filofax a5 binders, which finally launched, just didn’t cut the mustard! No, i discovered the gorgeous and luxurious mulberry agenda. I felt sophisticated and all grown up. I could keep a diary, address book, pages to sketch on, same as with the filofax system, but the bigger size helped enormously. Oh, i didn’t much like the mulberry diary inserts so used the filofax a5 month to a view instead.
Next, i wanted to find a way of capturing diary entries together with to do lists and have it all in one place. I decided it was time to develop my own system. So i created one… looking back, it was time consuming and bulky to store. I designed my own lined pages, printed them out, bought some card for the front and back covers and simply used a stapler to bind it all together. Now i had a new system. Yah!
Finally i realised i cannot sketch and be creative with lines so for the next few years i used plain layout. The only change was the front and back cover. It was fun to choose different coloured cards.
Still with me? So, i started to feel i will need to move flat to house my diaries if i continue this way. A re-think was the only way. I don’t know why it took me so long but one of my favourite notebooks has to be the wonderful moleskine range. I like the weight and quality of the paper. I figured out i can use one a5 notebook for every 3 months. My prayers were answered.
When the iPhone launched in 2007, everything changed for me. There now was a reason to keep an online diary on the phone. It all synched beautifully with my iMac. Well, steve jobs was my hero. My books became a daily record of what i was working on or up to. I am really happy with my system. For now! Storing is easy. 4 books per year. Done!
To make it more personal i commissioned a lovely artist on etsy to saw me some covers for my notebooks. For now, it’s the fourth year, i’m really happy with my system of using technology alongside my notebooks. Who knows what happens next?
I would love to hear how others out there deal with diaries and keeping a record. Is it all gone digital? Do share. For me, i now have a record of stuff that happened in the last 25 years. If anyone wants to know what i did on the 20 november 1989, just ask!