Experiment, or another of my "why didn't I try this before other than I've been trapped in the same cycle for twenty years in spite of my best efforts to break out" endeavors: ditching notebooks entirely for index cards (I buy them in bulk quantities of 1000) and my modified physical Zettelkasten system.

So far: I've brought out my old Field Notes wallet (Coal Creek leather) and ditched the Field Notes and replaced them with blank index cards. I've shifted my time blocking and bloodsugar tracking to an index card paper clipped to the inside (also the home of my Inputs) that I'll put in the ZK cabinet along with the notes taken during that day.

Journal entries will be written on cards and filed away (given that I timestamp everything, this should work.)

On the other side of the wallet: many blank sticky notes. Lamy AL-STAR the only pen I have that fits, which solves my “which pen do I use now” quandary / useless thinking when I should probably be thinking of other things thing.

A sort of shedding of the middleman: the notebooks functioned as an illegible mess of thoughts I never used again. The ones I decided to keep were rewritten on cards which I treated as an index system. Far easier (and cheaper) to write them on the cards straightaway. Will likely keep a scratch card just to throw things down that probably wouldn't rate a card anyhow and file it in the cabinet with the daily timeblock / bloodsugar.

Potential pitfalls: I've tended in times past to think on paper, drawing things, etc. Suppose I can do those on the big dry erase board given that I recognize that I rarely, if ever, reference those notes to begin with.

The experiment begins. Will update as I succeed or fall flat on my face.