The notebook rule

30 September 2026

Every note here starts in a paper notebook with a soft grey cover. This is not nostalgia. It is a speed limit.

A screen at night wants to be several things at once, and I am not a strong enough negotiator after midnight to hold it to one. A notebook has a single function and no opinions. It also cannot show me what anyone else is doing, which at that hour is its best feature.

The rule is simple. The pen stays capped until the second cup. The first cup is for sitting. If there is still something worth saying after that, it gets one page, front only, and the notebook goes back in the drawer.

Most nights there is nothing, and that is fine. The pages that do get filled are typed up a few days later, in daylight, with the more dramatic sentences removed. What is left is what you find on this site: small, and a little slower than it needed to be.