No Rules, Just Pages: How Your Notebook Becomes Who You Are

There’s no single “right” way to use a notebook. That’s the point.

Some people write lists and business strategies. Others capture fragments of memory, sketches, or raw emotions. Across personalities and life stages, a notebook mirrors who you are, your preferences, your pace, your pressures.

Unlike digital tools, your notebook doesn’t grade you. It grows with you.

🌍 How Place Shapes the Way We Use Notebooks

Our environment often influences how we turn to our notebooks.

• In Istanbul, life’s layers inspire artists to split pages between errands, patterns, and overheard phrases, fragments that later become art.
• In Tokyo, professionals often use structured spreads: left page for to-dos, right page for reflections, combining order and awareness.
• In Porto, quiet mornings lend themselves to three lines a day, about the weather, a memory, or a small victory.

Wherever you are, your notebook adapts: sometimes it’s order, sometimes it’s refuge. Always, it’s yours.

🎨 How Artists Use Notebooks for Resilience and Creativity

For artists, notebooks are more than drafts, they’re safe spaces to process life.

• Frida Kahlo kept a diary through her years of pain and recovery. Her notebooks became part archive, part therapy, filled with sketches, poetry, and unfiltered thoughts.
• Nick Cave still writes song ideas longhand. He fills pages with fragments, doodles, and emotions, using notebooks to move through uncertainty until lyrics take form.
• David Bowie carried spiral notebooks where he drafted lyrics, stage directions, and costume concepts, a reminder that even world-changing ideas can start on humble ruled paper.

How you can use yours:

• Keep a daily log of images or words, even if tiny.
• Create a motif bank, symbols, colors, lines you return to.
• End each page with a next step to sustain momentum.

Check out our Pro Notebooks to explore your artistic side!

🧠 Notebooks for Memory and Recall

Notebooks are also companions when memory falters.

• Chen Hong-zhi, in Taiwan, lives with severe memory loss after a brain injury. He writes down his daily experiences in notebooks to reconstruct continuity and identity. Without them, he says, he feels lost.
• Wendy Mitchell, diagnosed with young-onset dementia in the UK, used notebooks to document names, routines, and feelings, helping her stay independent and connected.
• Clive Wearing, an amnesia patient, repeatedly recorded in his diary “I am awake for the first time.” His notebook became a temporal anchor, proof that he still existed in time.

How you can use yours:

• Build a Daily Facts page: date, location, people, events.
• Number pages and keep a simple index.
• Use memory cues, short notes under photos or drawings.

Explore the features of our Earth Collection!

💼 Using a Notebook for Business Planning and Career Growth

Some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs credit notebooks with their progress.

• Richard Branson has said Virgin would not exist without the notes he jotted on paper from ideas to meeting takeaways.
• Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, filled notebooks with thoughts and product ideas long before she became a billionaire. Those notes became the foundation of her business.
• David Sedaris, though not an entrepreneur, proves consistency matters: his 100+ personal diaries became the backbone of his career as a writer.

How you can use yours:

• Dedicate “one-pagers” to each idea: objective, risks, next steps.
• Keep a log for names, opportunities, and sparks in your own way.
• Close each day with 3 wins / 1 blocker.

Check out our Wildlife Collection to explore your business side rules free!

✨ Your Notebook, Your Rules

Some use their notebooks for gratitude, others for anger. Some fill them with careful diagrams, others with chaotic scrawls. There is no right way, only your way.

Whether you’re recalling memories, planning your future, or simply processing today, your notebook is your companion.

At Dingbats*, we design notebooks, pens, and backpacks that honor this freedom: durable enough for daily life, flexible enough to adapt to your personality, and crafted responsibly for a lifetime of pages.

No rules. Just pages.

🔎 FAQ 

What is the best way to use a notebook?
There is no single way; notebooks can be used for lists, journaling, memory recall, creative art, or business planning.

Which famous people used notebooks?
Frida Kahlo, Richard Branson, Sara Blakely, Nick Cave, David Bowie, and many more relied on notebooks to shape their art, businesses, and lives.

Can notebooks help with memory loss?
Yes. People with amnesia and dementia use notebooks to record names, places, and daily facts, helping maintain independence and recall.