I love my Moleskine. However, if there any knocks against my famous Moleskine Legendary Notebooks it is the people that say they are expensive. On this point of course I beg to differ because I don’t find Moleskine Notebook expensive if you account for their high quality paper and nice build construction. Moleskine are higher quality notebooks, so yes, they do cost more than a standard Walmart composition pad or the little freebie notepad you get from your insurance agents during this time of the year. By the way, remember, garbage in garbage out. Actually in this case it’s garbage out garbage in. Maybe the adage is backwards, but there is a solution to the otherwise “quote-unqoute” expensive Moleskine Legendary Notebooks.
Bring on companies like Borders or Barnes and Noble who if you sign up for their affinity programs like the Borders Rewards Plus membership you will get your inbox flooded at least once a week by coupons allowing you to take 30% off, 40% off, 50% off and during the glorious holiday season like today upwards of 60% off any item you purchase in the store with said coupon. Simply, you print out these special coupons at home, carefully fold them up and place them safely in the back pocket of your Moleskine and head straight to your local Borders brick and mortar store.
Today I got just such a coupon offering me 33% off any item in the store with an additional 10% because I am a Borders Rewards Plus Member so today 60% off my $20 Moleskine a gives me a $8 Moleskine(Plus+ membership cost $20p/y). Not much more expensive than the piece of crap you could possibly buy from Wal-Mart.
So the way to save money and get the type of journal that you would love, is to simply sign up for a free Borders Rewards Membership card and just wait and watch him box for coupons a rolling and use those coupon times to buy your Moleskine Legendary Notebooks. Or if you buy a lot of books you can sign up for the Barnes & Noble’s Card which cost $25 however B&N offers a lot of times much bigger discounts on books, magazines, music and DVD’s. Both companies off discount on coffee to so the cards will pay for themselves in no time.
Since all the naysayers that say Moleskine Legendary Notebooks are pretentious and expensive I say shut the hell up print out your coupon and keep the pen moving. Well that’s enough of this blog post now my buddy Philip and I are on our way to Borders to buy more Moleskine Notebooks.
In the Podcast we cover some volunteer organizations, here are the links so you’ll have no excuses not to give your help and support. Remember you got to get your hands dirty.
If you want to search a database of places that need help check out Just Give at http://www.justgive.org/
In My ‘Skine (inmyskine.com) is about the Fanatic appeal of Moleskine Legendary Notebooks and One Wanna Be Author’s journey to create his first book in 30 days.
Oh yes the Christmas shopping season has been forced upon us early and every company is out there racing or jumping up and down screaming “ohh pick me pick me” like an over eager sixth grader to get our attention. Moleskine Legendary Notebooks are no different and they have just dropped a beautiful little gem on us.
Moleskine Folio Collection has just been fortified with these easy to use loose leaf and sticky notes dubbed Foilo Tools. Now Idon’t have to stick PostIt Notes In My Skine. It felt so vulgar before.
It includes the Stick Notes, a set of 3-packs of 20 sticky notes – 2 plain and 1 ruled, and the Memo Cards, a set of 20 cards – 10 ruled and 10 squared, all retaining the classic Moleskine mood, with ivory color pages and rounded corners. Both are folded into a small pocket cover to protect the corners and edges. They are conceived to fit right in with all your note taking needs, for memories, messages, any kind of list and flash notes, useful at work as in everyday life. -Moleskine Web site
For you viewing pleasure check out this cool stop-motion promotional video from MoleskineArt. If you feel so inclined you can get me these for Christmas.
Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars..
Les Brown
Moleskine 101: Goal Setting
Of course there are many reasons to write in your Moleskine but here goes another one. Goal setting can be a major help in increasing productivity as well as a general life hack. The thing about setting goals is the provide you with guideline and milestones to let you know you are on the right track and more importantly heading the right direction. It really does not matter how fast you are running if you are running in the wrong direction. I have heard that saying or something close to it in about six different languages all from different cultures; therefore, there must be something to live by no matter how you were brought up.
Your Word Is Your Bond
Many people say the number one cause of stress is broken promises, especially those promises made to yourself. A good way to ensure you are keeping yourself stress free is to keep your pledges to yourself and others as if your life depended on it… because it does… stress is a powerful killer.
So the first ting to know about goal setting is to stop calling them goals. Goals are a thing you attempt to do and you know as well as I do we all need to stoop attempting and actually do it. I have made a conscience effort to to reframe the word goals to pledges or promises. I actually spent about ten day with Bill Bartmann a Billionaire Entrepreneur. He drilled in my head this idea of making promise cards what basically amounted to a set of 3×5 cards to carry with you daily and to be refereed to several times a day until the things you want to change are second nature.
I use my Moleskine for this. In your pocket journal sized notebook save a hand full of pages at the front or the back for you Promise Pages(Sorry Bill cards are too messy for me). The full system is an entire blog post by itself but here’s the Cliff Notes version:
Write down the six things you need to do this week
Write down the six things you need to do this month
Write down the six things you need to do this six months
Write down the six things you need to do this year
Then you look at this list six times a day and check stuff off as you go if you don’t do it move it over the the next list, if you move it six times you need to reframe, rethink, refocus or you’ll regret it. Ok i made the last part up but it works for me.
This system has a lot more to it and I’ll surely get in the details in a later blog post but start with stop calling the goals first. They are Promises! Promises to yourself that should never be broken.
Conclusion
The size and ubiquitous nature of the Moleskine pocket sized journals or smaller are a great place to do a little life planning and course correction. Let me know how you set your goals opps promises and what tricks if any can you share. Leave a comment and don’t forget to follow In My ‘Skine or Doc Rock. You can check out my personal blog Sleeve of Wizzard at http://mrdocrock.com
