Ditching the Phone for Field Notes (and a Tiny E-Reader)

What do you actually do with a stack of pocket notebooks once you own more than you'll ever fill? Tom's been figuring that out for six months, and it turned into an actual system: a custom monthly and weekly planner, daily notes, and a pocket journal that's his new daily carry wallet. Jeff's carried notebooks for decades and joins in with his own habits, plus a magnetic pocket e-reader that's small enough to attach to the back of your iPhone. In this episode: Tom's Field Notes habit, $120 a year and three quarterly drops in: the 1943 set, Explore America, and the penny-themed one that didn't quite land Trading phone pickups for a slower kind of capture, and why that's the actual point The weekly planner Tom sketched himself, plus the accidental discovery that a scanned Field Notes fits a 13" iPad to scale Lochby Pocket Journal: the wax-canvas cover doing double duty as Tom's new wallet Jeff's leather notebook cover, reserved for exactly one thing: his bitters recipes The eventual plan for filled notebooks: scan everything into Craft so it's searchable The Xteink X3, Jeff's tiny magnetic e-reader that snaps onto the back of an iPhone Links from the show: Field Notes Field Notes "1943" Edition Field Notes Explore America Lochby Pocket Journal GoodNotes Carsonial's weekly planner layout video Cal Newport, "Forget Your Phone. You Need a Single-Purpose Notebook" Xteink X3 Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message! Support the show Contact Us Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks. Tom has a new YouTube channel Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating! Review on Apple Podcasts Rate on Spotify Recommend in Overcast Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen Apple Music Spotify Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.