In this episode we talk about what's happening to us - as we find digital tooling becoming more important in our stationery world. We talk about the Remarkable 2, Moleskine balance and how we are still stationery freaks! And Rob is retooling his knowledge management and Helen learned nothing about herself, despite sticker journaling for a few weeks.

We cover:

1. Woolsthorpe manor, where Isaac Newton saw the apple fall - and the fact you can buy pens made from the very tree that Newton saw the apple fall from
2. Rob's bought a Remarkable - will he send it back?
3. Rob's doing a workshop in Romania - and has bought hundreds of stickers for an immersive workshop
4. Helen's been using the Moleskine Balance app to track habits, mood etc. The interface is calming and clean - she is enjoying
5. Helen is using Bullet Journaling more for work than personal - due to working from home more often and "closing down the day"
6. Rob's been researching tooling for a Personal Knowledge Management System - and was spending more time fiddling with the system than learning. Helen is using Obsidian, Rob uninstalled it after 10 minutes.
7. Rob talks about The Brain as a PKMS. It's an awesome tool - but pricey, and would require a big on-going financial investment.
8. Helen has been sticker journaling about her mood and energy levels, and tracking this using stickers. What did she learn about herself? Absolutely nothing by all accounts. Zero insights. Nothing. Nada
9. Rob talks about using Zotero and the Remarkable as his new PKMS
10. Rob talks through why he's bought the Remarkable 2, and how it fits into his ecosystem of learning and note taking. At the moment, he's keeping it, but there is a 100 day returns promise
11. Helen's not convinced about the Remarkable. Truth be told, Rob isn't either.

Find more episodes and subscribe to the newsletter at www.stationeryfreaks.com

In this episode we discuss habits and how we define them and track them using both digital and analogue tracking and documenting. We share our own perspectives of how we develop habits.

* Helen has bought all of the stickers in the whole world (possibly)
* Rob is trying to build the habit of not buying anymore notebooks for a while - and instead, using up the mountain of notepads he has
* Rob has regained the love of Yellow Legal Pads
* Helen spends her life trying to make herself better using structures and systems to try and take away the thinking around habits
* Helen is trying to stop eating chocolate
* We reference Atomic Habits by James Clear as an awesome book about habits (affiliate link)
* Rob talks about how routines and habits that he used to work with in business
* Charles Duhigg's book on habits is also pretty special (The Power of Habit) (affiliate link)
* Helen is tracking how she feels using stickers in a notebook
* Rob used to track habits in ToDoist and simply didn't keep it up to date
* Helen is using Moleskine Balance digital app to track her habits. And reminisces about "Sunrise" app by Dan Ariely - since closed down
* Rob used to do quantified self, then went on to use the fridge of accountability
* Rob is changing his environment to force the habit of weightlifting - and will become the strongest man in Winchester within a month
* Rob references The Diary of a CEO podcast with Tim Spector
* Helen has moved to measuring the impact habits is having on her life, rather than the thing itself

Why not subscribe to the newsletter!

Thanks
Rob and Helen

In this episode we interview Maria Van Le of LeVan Books. 

Maria makes her own beautiful notebooks - of which Helen has purchased a few. They are exquisite, hand made and use some top notch material.

In this episode:

• Helen talks about her 6 ink pens - and decides she needs more (or not).
• Maria talks about her passion for glass ink pens, water colour painting and using her own books
• Maria explains how she started making books for her daughter and her friends, before making them for other people
• Maria is self taught and a perfectionist - always ensuring her books meet her own high standards - therefore delighting the customer
• Maria mentions Shepherds book binding (bookbinding.co.uk) - a cool store where she gets many of her materials from.
• Rob realises Shepherds is not too far from his office….credit card ready
• Maria explains how long books take to make and how precise she needs to be
• We discuss GSM paper thickness and their different uses. 
• Maria also shares the 5 things she would take to a desert island
• Maria also shares why she set up the Etsy store and how you can get your own custom notebook

Useful Links

You can find Maria on Etsy at LeVan Books - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LeVanBooks?ref=usf_2020

Fancy having a go at making your own notebook? Here’s a kit (affiliate link).

In this episode Rob and Helen share some of their stationery disasters as well as ramble chat about stationery, including, but not limited to,

• Helen has a new LeVan notebooks
• Helen Callaghan Writing Challenges - check out this previous podcast featuring Helen Callaghan
• Stationery Care Packages - Helen sends some beautiful gifts, perfectly wrapped. Rob sends a package with a terrible index card in it. 
• Rob uses his Bella Beso planners.
• Helen explains to a new team member that she doesn’t use digital tools. Rob uses analogue note taking methods whilst others smirk. 
• Helen explains how she ruined a notebook
• Rob explains how he lost his entire digital Personal Knowledge Management System (we’ve done a cast on this)
• Helen is now going to come up with creative ways to ruin more notebooks so she can justify starting new ones.

https://www.stationeryfreaks.com/episodes/stationery-disasters

Hope you enjoy.

Rob and Helen

In the first podcast of the year, (I know, we're slack), Helen and Rob chat about recent stationery finds, purchases and goodies. 

1. Helen geeks out with a colleague who loves Fountain Pens - and is an expert on paper quality.
   1. They head to Gilbert House Pens to spend money. 
   2. Helen buys a feather resin pen. 
   3. Brad Herrington from Gilbert House Pens is helpful and guides Helen to the right pen. 
2. Helen is now obsessed with inks, especially after we had Urban Hafner on the show. 
   1. Helen is now using shimmer inks of various colours. 
3. Rob is taking out extra loans to cover his addiction to Domestika courses. 
   1. Rob is now finishing a small lettering course by Little Hannah (amongst other courses!)
   2. Rob has therefore bought some Pentel Brush pens for the course - sorry, Rob referred to them as ink pens in the podcast - they are not. They are brush pens. 
   3. Rob apologises if you head to Domestika and up remortgaging your house. Their courses are brilliant. 
4. Helen has convinced friend of the show, Helen Callaghan (Guest on Episode 20), to set some constraints and coach / mentor Stationery Freak Helen on writing. 
5. Helen has finally found a use for her "top of the class" Mark and Fold notebook - you know, that notebook that is super special. 
   1. And now Helen has replaced it with another "top of the class" notebook from LeVan notebooks. 
   2. A beautiful hand stitched notebook, that lays flat, and is covered in Japanese silk/linen. 
6. It turns out Helen keeps her unused notebooks (of which most Stationery Freaks have hundreds) on display. 
   1. Rob finds this unsettling as it would remind him of all of the potential he has yet to release. 
   2. Rob keeps his hidden away in his writing desk
7. Rob is following the wonderfully talented Play Attention Now on Instagram - he has inspired Rob to keep learning to draw.
   1. Which is why Rob has purchased another Ottergami notebook.
8. Helen has signed up for a writing workshop that takes place over 30 weeks with Alison and Jenny who run "A Novel in a year"
9. Rob mentions his upcoming book "Take a day off" over on Cultivated Management 
10. Rob has bought an old school Rapesco pencil sharpener.
    1.  Helen has bought an ergonomically challenged pencil sharpener of her own - that slices fingers in the process of sharpening pencils. 
11. Rob has bought a book called "Japanese Colour Matching" from the wonderful CounterPrint books.
12. Stationery Freak Helen and author Helen Callaghan are taking their "creative constraints" workshop to conferences this year! How exciting.

Until next time.
Rob and Helen

We were VERY excited when fellow Stationery Freak and founder of Fountain Pen Companion, Urban Hafner, joined us on the podcast. Urban is a software developer, fountain pen aficionado, host of two podcasts (one of which is about stationery), bullet journal user and fan of nice stationery.

In this episode we chat about:

• Fountain pens, inks and why Urban created The Fountain Pen Companion tool
• Japanese pencils
• Learning handwriting and calligraphy
• Why Urban throws away his journals once he's finished with them
• Urban's paired down Bullet Journal practice
• Desert Island stationery - the five things Urban mentioned are below
•  Urban flips the rules and turns his desert island into a paradise
• Why paper is so important when you're using Fountain Pens
• A3 paper
• Helen joins the A3 paper movement and tries, weakly to justify buying a beautiful notebook. She did justify the second notebook as a way to practice learning Arabic.
• Rob share his use of the daily planner from LoveBellaBeso and also makes no attempt to explain why he bought some notebooks from All Things Analogue.
• Urban's bought some more postcards to send to his subscribers

Urban's Desert Island stationery. Urban flips the rules and turns his desert island into a paradise. We didn't

• Endless Recorder notebook: https://www.madebyendless.com/collections/endless-recorder-notebook
• Giants' Pens custom pen: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg0-HEdjiKB/
• Diamine Green/Black: https://www.fountainpencompanion.com/brands/13-diamine/inks/967-diamine-green-black
• Uni Penmanship pencil: https://pencilsandotherthings.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/mitsubishi-penmanship-pencils/
• KUM Masterpiece: https://www.kum.net/en/the-masterpiece/

Products and Links mentioned in this episode

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urbanhafner/

2 Guys 0 Planners Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2-guys-0-planners/id1436673888

Expanding Beyond Podcast: https://www.expandingbeyond.it/

Fountain Pen Companion: https://fpc.ink

Endless Recorder notebook: https://www.madebyendless.com/collections/endless-recorder-notebook

Giants' Pens custom pen: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg0-HEdjiKB/

Diamine Green/Black: https://www.fountainpencompanion.com/brands/13-diamine/inks/967-diamine-green-black

Uni Penmanship pencil: https://pencilsandotherthings.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/mitsubishi-penmanship-pencils/

KUM Masterpiece: https://www.kum.net/en/the-masterpiece/

Moo Luxe postcards: https://www.moo.com/uk/postcards/luxe

FPC logo: https://www.fountainpencompanion.com/blog/4-introducing-fpc-the-fountain-pen-capybara

LoveBellaBeso on IG : https://www.instagram.com/lovebellabeso/

All Things Analogue on IG : https://www.instagram.com/allthingsanalogue/

These are the notebooks Rob bought : https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck2318OIO3y/
Scribble and Dot notebooks - https://amzn.to/3VNn6dy

In this episode Rob and Helen share the 5 items of stationery they would take with them to a Desert Island.

What would you take? Let us know on Instagram - @stationeryfreaksuk

In this episode:

1. Helen is obsessed with Rob’s A3 learning management system - a video of the system is here on Rob’s YouTube channel.
2. Rob talks about his new (old) Waterman Fountain Pen
3. Rob bends the rules of the game
4. Helen forgets a pencil sharpener

Helen’s 5 items:

• A Mark and Fold desktop scratchpad (part of the stationery pack)
• A Mark and Fold blackwing pencil (and no, we' have no affiliation with Mark and Fold - other than we love their stationery!)
• A Perfectly Penned notebook (aff link)
• TomBow brush pens (aff link)
• A Paperweight her daughter painted

Rob’s 5 items:

• Yellow legal pads (aff link)
• Staedtler school pencils (aff link)
• Craft knife
• The Daily Stoic journal
• A sketchpad

What would you take?

We also encourage you to try last year's stationery advent calendar challenge - here's the first episode of that!

Don’t miss out on joining the community with our newsletter or join us over on Instagram (@stationeryfreaksuk)

Thanks

Rob and Helen

How excited were we when, Sunday Times Best Selling psychological thriller author, Helen Callaghan agreed to be on the podcast?

Helen is a stationery freak, so we dug into her process of writing, typewriters, book soundtracks, choosing colours for books, Moleskines, writing retreats and more. 

It was a real joy and we’re sure you’ll be inspired and motivated and learn a lot about the world of writing books.

Some quotes from the show:

• “Self-consciousness is the enemy of creativity”
• On Fountain Pens - “There’s something wonderfully technical about them”
• On writing retreats - “This is what I’m doing now and I’m concentrating on this”
• “You create a plan for the chapter, and then you don’t follow it.”
• “Work on it every day, be engaged in it and a synthesis happens between things in your head.”
• “Inspiration has to be summoned”

Here’s what we covered:

1. NaNoWriMo - and Helen’s engagement in it
2. How stationery still has an important role in Helen’s life and book writing process
3. Why seeing what you crossed out on paper is important
4. Why choosing a colour scheme for a book being written is important - and how Helen does this
5. Mood boards and music playlists
6. The importance, joy and process of writing retreats. Helen mentions Gladstones writing retreats.
7. How Helen plans and plots out a book - and why sometimes she often doesn’t stick to the plan
8. Why writing plots and twists in a book often surprises herself with where it goes!

You can find out more about Helen, including her social media and published books here on her website. 

Thanks

Rob and Helen

In this episode:

• We jump into the topic of career development with a three dimensional approach created by Rob, which consists of:
  • DISC
  • Strengths
  • Happiness
• Rob explains why he prints out loads of selfies using his new Thermal Printer from Vretti
• Helen is obsessed with stickers from Spooky Yeti
• If you’re interested in the Trinity here are some recommended surveys (Stationery Freaks has no responsibility for your data from these sites - nor has an affiliation with them. But we use them often).
• It’s also worth doing an internet search for free versions of the strengths finder - we’ve never used any alternatives so cannot comment on how helpful they are.
  • For DISC use Tony Robbin’s free online survey.
  • For strengths use Strengths Finder 2.0.
  • For happiness, (choose VIA Survey of Character Strengths) from Authentic Happiness.
  • Rob has a more in-depth write up on his Cultivated Management website here.

Don’t miss out on joining the community with our newsletter or join us over on Instagram (@stationeryfreaksuk)

Thanks

Rob and Helen

In this episode:

• We explain what mind maps are, how they work and what we use them for.
  • For more details on different mind maps we recommend this post.
• We also introduce our new newsletter!
• Helen introduces her new learning of choice - Arabic. And how she is using brush pens and a new notebook for it.
• Rob steals Helen stationery. Video of that here.
• Rob talks about his new Academic planner that makes him look all sophisticated.
• Helen talks about NaNoWriMo and how she’s only ever made it to day 3.
• Helen talks about fine liners
• Rob buys some stationery from Sainsbury’s but is less than impressed with their shop display.
• And Helen adds that TKMaxx isn’t much better for their displays.

https://www.stationeryfreaks.com/episodes/mindmaps