I Solemnly Swear That I Love Writing Daily Notes on Scrap Paper
This FAQ should answer all your questions about a surprisingly creative practice
As much as I love keeping digital notes in Obsidian, and crafting my own platform-agnostic, plain text productivity systems, the act of writing on real paper will always be part of my life. Lately I’ve set aside my Moleskine Cahier in favour of …scrap paper.
Yes, I really do, of my own free will and choice, write in a notebook filled with scrap paper! Or reclaimed paper, as I like to think of it. You’ll be able to read the why and the how in a soon-to-be-published article on the importance of non-precious paper to my creative thought processes.
Today I’ll be tackling some common questions and objections that might keep someone from embracing this style of notebook. You may find them helpful if you’re considering if the idea has merit for your own papery peregrinations.
I can see the shadow of what’s printed on the other side, through the page! Won’t that be distracting?
It’s true — you can see print through the paper and on the left hand side — but it’s not distracting. Not for me, anyway. Maybe it’s a personality thing? I don’t know. What I’ve found is that having marks already subtly present on and around the page I’m writing on is enormously freeing, somehow. It’s like I can’t possibly suffer from blank page syndrome, because the pages aren’t fully blank! This is a gift. A ticket labelled “this entitles you to permission to write whatever you want, however you want to write it; there is no right and no wrong — just write!” Or draw, or scribble, or doodle, or turn the page sideways or upside down.
I truly didn’t realise how much those perfect pages were holding me back.
Sometimes I write on the left hand side of the spread, too, on top of whatever is written there. The best way I can think of to explain how that feels is to imagine someone who wants to act on a big stage, but stage fright always sabotages their best efforts. Then one day, they find themselves in a completely empty theatre; the doors are locked, and the room is soundproof so they get up on that stage and sing/dance/act their hearts out! Being relaxed and not under any pressure, their performance is incredible.
Is this like a fancy version of those DIY notebooks from a few years back?
Kind of yes, and kind of no. I carried around a teeny stack of DIY-style pages clipped together for a while, but didn’t stick with it. I much prefer the substantial feel — and bigger size — of what feels in my hand a lot like a Moleskine or Leuchtturm1917 notebook, rather than some loose paper. As much as I want to think that appearances don’t matter, I have to admit that the respectable outer of the Paper Saver is something I value.
If you’re interested in trying a Paper Saver for yourself, and the 10% off one-time new customer discount has finished before you get there, pop the code ELLANE10 in at checkout and they’ll take 10% off your order. (I don’t get kickbacks from sales, but I did receive a free notebook and accessories as a thank you for writing about the product.)
The DIY method seems to work for a good number of intelligent folk, so try it for yourself if you’re curious as to whether it’s a good fit for you.
But I like buying new notebooks! Won’t I get sick of this one?
To this I say — good! and, I don’t know. I’m not going to tell you to give up your soul-nourishing notebook habit, but I am going to encourage you to think very carefully where that paper came from. What’s the true cost in terms of production, fair pay, and the planet, for those beautiful pages? That wasn’t supposed to be a guilt-trip, just a reality check. Everything comes at a cost, and honestly, recycling is good but it isn’t enough.
My invitation to you is to consider saving your pretties for special writing, and squeeze every inch out of reclaimed paper for your everyday scratchings.
But I’m a bullet journaler; this isn’t going to work for me
Okay. No worries! If you’re into the full BuJo method, the Paper Saver mightn’t cut it for you, so you should stick with a notebook that does. But I really do think that even hardcore-calligraphy BuJo-peeps need a non-precious notebook as well.
BuJos are great, but they don’t usually allow the untethered freedom that non-precious paper provides. I don’t want to imagine a world where I can’t brain dump my thoughts all over a page without worrying about whether I’ve used up my quota of pre-prepared pages for the week.
But I’m a fountain pen enthusiast, and scrap paper and fountain pens do NOT play well together!
Oh, I know, believe me, I know! I love fountain pens too, and I’ve seen the mess they make on copy paper. That’s what notebooks like Leuchtturm1917 and Rhodia are for.
Please understand that I’m not advocating for scrap paper in a nice folder being everyone’s only notebook. I will always, however, advocate for everyone having a non-precious notes system of some sort, and for helping the planet by making full use of paper that’s usually wasted.
But I don’t have any scrap paper at home, and all the scrap from my office is shredded because it’s confidential…
No scrap paper at home? Okay. I bet someone you know does, though! And I’m finding it hard to believe you don’t have any.
No second pages of bills without any identifying information? No packing slips from online purchases? What about drawings your children/grandchildren bring home from school? This last one is my favourite. I even have some drawings my adult daughter did with her daughter’s crayons! I like using drawings (cut to size) as section dividers.
Definitely don’t reuse paper that holds confidential information, but don’t give up. Ask around, and you’ll be sure to find a source of non-confidential one-sided paper without resorting to dumpster diving. Not that I’d judge you if you did get your paper from a dumpster, mind you. We eat our meals at a table and chairs I reclaimed from someone’s junk pile, so, yeah.
But isn’t the Rocketbook a better choice for saving paper? You can use it over and over again, no extra paper needed.
The Rocketbook is an excellent notebook choice, no doubt about it. I have nothing bad to say about them, and I’m absolutely a fan of the concept. Here are a few things to consider, though, before making the Rocketbook your only notebook:
There’s still a lot of one-sided copy paper going to waste
You can only use one kind of pen in the Rocketbook
Rocketbook pages don’t last forever, so you’ll eventually have to replace it
If someone accidentally writes in your Rocketbook with the wrong kind of pen, there’s no coming back from that
The Rocketbook doesn’t provide you with an endless supply of scrap paper to rip off when you have to leave someone a note!
What should I do with all those scrap pages once they’re filled?
Right! You have a wad of used paper from your Paper Saver notebook in your hand, and it’s time to do something with it. It’s likely you’ll won’t want to keep all of it. If you look at a page and think “can I really be bothered scanning this?” — that’s a pretty good indication it’s not one you need to keep.
Should you —
bin or compost it? (i.e. final recycling)
bind and store it?
scan it? (and if so, then what?)
Since buying my Paper Saver four months ago I’ve been through almost three full refill cycles. I’d say 40–50% of each A4 sheet contains things I might like to see again, so those are the pages I’ve been scanning and storing digitally. My process looks like this:
Remove the used pages from the notebook
Fire up Scanner Pro by Readdle on my iPhone
Examine both sides of each A4 page, and scan those I want to keep
Name the files with the date in
YYYY-MM-DD dddformat plus one or two key words, and send them to a designated folder in DropboxToss the pages into the recyling bin, keeping only those with artwork that I might want to re-scan later, at a higher resolution
Scanner Pro has an optical character recognition (OCR) feature that I haven’t used yet on my scanned pages, mostly because they’re too untamed to decipher with today’s technology. If I want any OCR in the future I’ll run them through PDF Expert (another excellent Readdle product).
Reuse, and reuse again—then tell me about it
If you’ve read this far, I’m interested to know if you’re convinced enough to start your own scrap paper notebook. Whether you make your own folder from covered cardboard plus a clip, buy a Paper Saver or the more premium Roterfaden, please let me know about your setup and how it’s working for you, either here or on Mastodon.
Remember, our current recycling system isn’t enough. There’s far too much paper going to waste, and far too many trees being sacrificed to make cheap notebooks with pretty covers.
My invitation to you is to use new paper products judiciously, wisely, as the precious resource they are. And when you want to scratch away freely, with no thought for how much paper you’re going though, remember, too, there’s an almost limitless resource just waiting for a new lease of life!