When to Give Up and Ideas for How to Repurpose

When I was in high school, I used a dated planner every year. I would write down my assignments for each class. I still have the fabric cover I used for my planners that I now keep on my A5 Midori MD notebook. But, I’m not in high school anymore. My planning and journaling system is adjusting to the current demands of my responsibilities, my feelings, and life as a whole.

My notebook cover from high school repurposed for my A5 Midori MD notebook (that mostly stays at home).

Like many stationery fans, I have plenty of unfinished notebooks. I see a notebook and set a specific intention for it, but my intentions tend to change, as often happens in life. Then, I abandon the notebook, at least for a while. I consider this notebook debt.

Notebook debt is essentially giving up a notebook because it no longer meets your needs or because you can’t “pay” your writing debt. For example, you might give up on a notebook because you can’t keep up with a regular writing habit, like writing each day on dated pages. To be clear, although I have done this many times, I am not proud of it. It’s best to mindfully use notebooks and note-taking systems and not impulsively take on new ones because of the excitement of something new. Instead of falling into a bad habit, trying to buy into a solution, I am learning to repurpose old notebooks, and I’ll explain that soon.

I didn’t get many notebooks in high school. My mother and I would go back-to-school shopping, and she would buy me the standard, lined notebooks from Wal-Mart (like Five Star and those notebooks with the cute covers of puppies and kittens). I loved back-to-school shopping. One of my favorite stationery items was the new academic agenda I would get for each school year.

Since keeping an agenda in high school, my feelings have gotten a bit bigger. I’m not just writing down homework assignments and club responsibilities. I’m writing to regularly evaluate the trajectory of my life. I’m writing to make sure that the actions I take in my daily life are those I can look back on with pride and reverie. To make sure I minimize the regrets in my life (and don’t kid yourself, we all have some), I keep tabs on myself with regular documentation.

Now that I’m well into adulthood with the complicated feelings that come along with it, dated notebooks are difficult for me. They either feel restraining or wasteful. Some days, I have many feelings and observations I want to capture. I might run out of space if the notebook is dated. Other times, I have very little to express on a particular day. Either it’s a busy day with little time to write, or it’s a particularly bad day that I don’t feel ready to process. Writing little on a dated page on those days feels like a poor use of the paper. Multiple times, I gave up on the beautiful, dated, Midori Hibino in 2024. I haven’t regretted that.

Quick notes in the Plotter Mini 6 binder using Pingraph paper.

But I’m still looking for a way to repurpose the unused pages in my Midori Hibino from 2024. One way I’m using paper from old notebooks is in binders. Lately, I’ve been tearing paper from my spiral-bound Postalco notebook and using Pingraph paper in my Plotter mini. It’s one of my favorite papers because my rollerball, Baron Fig Squire pen doesn’t smear on Pingraph paper. They make a nice combo for quick notes, doodles, and skteches. To use the Pingraph paper in my binder, I just trace six holes to match the Plotter mini and punch them with a one-hole punch. I setup a few pages for the week. It’s a weekly reset ritual of sorts. I like these systems because they are flexible and scalable.

Plotter Mini 6 binder and Baron Fig Squire pen with a pencil grip on top of digital writing tools (folding keyboard + iPad).

Postalco Snap Pad binder with a Baron Fig Squire pen and printed pages of a book that I’m drafting (redacted).

I could use pages from the Midori Hibino in these notebook systems, but it seems sacrilegious to destroy the notebook by cutting out thread-bound pages. It really is a beautiful book. Instead, I might use the Hibino as a sketchbook or “doodlepad.” Any unfinished notebooks that feel too beautiful to be altered are for drawing, drafting, and brainstorming while at home.

My plan going forward is based on writing clearly in a focused, simple, and sustainable way (which is an ongoing theme or intention that I’ve set for myself). This includes repurposing as much as is reasonable for me. Hopefully, I will fall into notebook debt no more and make meaningful use of that which I already have.