Stationery Freaks

In this episode we discuss Helen's recent retreat to Gladstone Library. The surprising thing about the retreat was that there were no obvious stationery freaks....in a library.

• Helen explains what Gladstone Library is and the environment
• Helen talks about her experience at the retreat
• Helen explains how everyone had laptops, and very few stationery freaks were there
• Rob talks a little about his retreat 2 years ago
• Rob remarks that his was like a lads holiday, without the lads
• Helen explains why she's rebooked already
• Plus some hints and tips on doing your own retreat

Gladstone Library - https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/
Previous episode where Helen Callaghan mentioned Gladstone Library - https://www.stationeryfreaks.com/episodes/helen-callaghan
Our Stationery Freaks newsletter where we shared a picture of Helen at the retreat - https://stationeryfreaks.substack.com/p/travel-chaos-and-laziness-stationery

In this episode we were super inspired by a wonderful YouTube video we watched, called "You're Not Lazy : How to live a chaotically organised life" by YouTuber Elizabeth Filips. 

So, given it summed up how we work, or at least how Rob works (that was why Helen sent him the link to the video), we thought we'd deconstruct the video and share stories about how we operate. And of course, although light on stationery talk, how we use stationery to control our own chaos.

In the episode we talk about:

• Stationery Stories:
  • Helen has bought some single use ink pens
  • Rob's been boring and bought some coloured paper 
  • Helen's daughter is mapping out the entire history of the Roman Empire on a giant sheet of paper. 
  • We chat about white boards
  • Helen is retreating to a library
• And of course, we deconstruct the messages in Elizabeth's videos and how they resonated so much with us.
  • Fall behind, catch up, move ahead
  • Seven year itch - become 1000% better quickly
  • Optimise for passion
  • Adult brat - talk to yourself properly

Elizabeths video is here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2sS00egAzg&t=639s
Her channel is here : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUFFHXvzAMRSD8Bq4bJppxQ
We mention Van Neistat : https://creatorhub.patreon.com/articles/digital-spaghetti-van-neistat
We mention Mark Forster : http://markforster.squarespace.com/

Check out the newsletter and website at stationeryfreaks.com

Thanks

In this episode we chat about what stationery we take with us when we travel. Let us know what you take.

We cover:

• Bookaroo notebook carry cases are Helen's new thing. (affiliate Amazon link)
• Van Neistat's inspiring Rob again - this time to create ToDo lists and organise himself
• Helen waxes lyrical about some new exercise books
• Rob turned up to a Mastermind meeting with the worst stationery
• We then chat about what we take with us to conferences and when travelling with work.

- Notebooks
- Pens
- Pencil cases

And we also share two examples of Stationery Freaks we've spotted in the wild - and how we might approach them to talk stationery.
You can find more on https://www.stationeryfreaks.com/

In today’s episode we chat about why we revert to lists when we’re overwhelmed - as well as some stationery stories

Stationery Stories

1. The man who stuck post-it notes to his tie - Helen recalls the story of a man who used this process to get things done.
2. Rob's using Helen's post-it notes
3. Teachers using iPads to stick post-it notes to
4. Rob has sent the Remarkable2 back - and bought a typewriter

Main Topic - Lists when overwhelmed

• We chat about lists, what we use them for and why we revert to them when things get overwhelming
• Not all of our lists are analogue
• Rob talks about his bucket list as the master list
• We chat about how digital tools can store endless lists - and that's why analogue can be helpful - there is limited space
• Helen talks about using a list to write stories
• Helen talks about workflowy and how she uses it

We mention:

• Van Neistat's ToDo list video
• Remarkable2
• Workflowy

You can find our newsletter and other episodes on https://www.stationeryfreaks.com/

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