Name: 3 notebooks to save you from mindless scrolling
Uploaded: 2025-08-03T13:44:44.000Z
Duration: 8 min 54 s
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I could look back at any date in the last year and tell you the most meaningful thing that happened to me on that day.

I'm so attached to this notebook that I've changed the way I dress so I can carry it with me at all times.

Adverbs of degree

This isn't just helping me unlock my creativity, it's improving my mental health.

Hi friends, if you're new here, my name's Henry.

I run a management consultancy by day and perform as a magician by night.

Through this channel, I share advice on how to learn new skills and find time for creative projects that make you happy.

Over the last few years, I've become increasingly attached to my phone.

Mindlessly scrolling social media was getting in the way of creative projects, was disrupting my sleep, and was making me unhappy.

I've been searching for ways to replace this habit with something more productive, and in the last year, I've experimented with different ways a notebook could fulfill this role.

Through trial and error, I've realized there wasn't one style of notebook that would meet all of my needs, and over time, I've landed on three that each fulfill a specific purpose.

In this video, I'm going to share what they are, how they keep me off my phone, how I use them, and the impact they've had on my life.

So it's important to say that this isn't a prescription, it's a description of what works for me.

But having said that, of all the habits I've introduced to my life over the last 10 years, this one has been the most creatively and emotionally fulfilling.

One of the times I was most vulnerable to scrolling my phone was first thing in the morning, immediately after waking up, and before getting out of bed.

This habit was really disruptive, because either I would see something that would annoy me or make me feel inadequate, or I'd just spend too much time scrolling and be late to start the day.

In the last few months, I've swapped this habit for writing morning pages.

If you haven't come across this practice before, it was popularized by Julia Cameron in 1992 in her book, The Artist's Way, and it's incredibly simple.

All you need to do is write whatever is in your head continuously for three pages.

If you can't think of anything, you just write about that.

You might be thinking, well, why the hell would you do that?

In my case, there have been two specific benefits.

I'm quite an anxious person, and first thing in the morning, I sometimes have unproductive thoughts that get in the way of making progress over the course of the day.

Writing morning pages is a way of me unburdening myself of some of those thoughts.

By getting them on paper, I'm able to look at them objectively and ask myself how valid they really are.

Over time, I've realized this practice helps me see these thoughts for what they are, in most cases, just works of fiction, and to replace them with more productive ones.

I was really nervous about starting this practice because I didn't want to commit the embarrassing and sometimes quite pathetic thoughts that are in my head to paper.

But once I got over myself, I found this practice to be incredibly cathartic and really productive.

Second benefit is that almost every day, the practice produces a serious volume of creative ideas.

It's the strangest thing because just by letting your mind wander, it seems that creative ideas just pop in as if by magic.

And probably about half the ideas that I get for this channel or for magic tricks come from writing morning pages.

They aren't perfectly formed, and more often than not, I have to refine them later on.

But if it wasn't for this practice, then I don't think they'd even be born in the first place.

I use this Penco B5 notebook for my morning pages, and I write with a Lamy fountain pen.

It didn't come with this piece of elastic.

I added that because I wanted to customize it in some way.

I love the way that it feels to write on the paper, and it's kind of a treat for me first thing in the morning.

It takes about 20 minutes to complete, and I do it with a cup of coffee and a candle burning at my side.

For me, at least, it's a tool for mental clarity and seemingly boundless creativity.

I really couldn't recommend it highly enough.

The second notebook is designed to be used in those moments where previously I would have just impulsively reached for my phone.

I often find myself compelled to find out when Shawn Michaels won the Royal Rumble or how Bronnie James is doing in the G League.

Those random snippets of information just go in one ear and out the other, and what would have otherwise been a moment of relaxation ends up actually draining my battery a little bit more.

So I've replaced this urge with a style of notebook called a zibaldone.

In the 1400s in Florence, just as paper was becoming widely available, people started to capture quotes, passages from books, sayings, aphorisms,

in some cases, even achievements they wanted to show their friends and maybe even future employers.

The zibaldone is a precursor to the modern commonplace book and the more modern still concept of the second brain.

Whenever I see something I find fascinating or enriching, I copy it out.

I write slowly and neatly and if I remember to bring my date stamp, I'll stamp the date alongside it.

Keeping a zibaldone is making me more curious, more present and just more attuned to my surroundings.

In moments where I would have previously reached for my phone, I've replaced that with reaching for my zibaldone.

I flick through it and very quickly I'll come across something inspiring that brings me joy or that helps me in some way.

And I'm so attached to this notebook that I've even changed the way I dress to make it easy to carry it with me at all times.

This is the kind of thing that so many people would keep in notion or some kind of other second brain style software.

But for me, having this in notion would sort of defeat the object a little bit.

It would require me to use my phone even more and I'm irrational.

So before you know it, I'd be off down some rabbit hole looking at information that I wasn't searching for and that doesn't add any value to my life.

I'm certain that at some point in the future, I will digitise the contents.

But for now, I'm very, very happy with this being an analogue solution.

I was also vulnerable to getting lost on social media at the end of the day before getting ready for bed.

I wanted to find a way of replacing this habit more than any other because it was making me wired and feel anxious and really disrupting my sleep.

And I'm so chaffed with the solution that I've come up with here.

But before I get to that, if you're still here, then you're part of the 20% of people that statistically is still watching the video at this point.

So I'm guessing that you're getting some kind of value out of it.

If you are, then I'd be really thrilled if you give it a like, which will help other people to find it in future.

And leave me a comment down below to let me know why you stuck around.

I've got a dreadful memory for experiences.

So I've been looking for a way to help me recall moments that I might otherwise have forgotten.

I haven't been willing to commit to writing a proper diary, but recently I've come across a practice and a tool that have solved this problem for me.

About a year ago, I read Storyworthy by Matthew Dix.

Matthew is a world-renowned storyteller and his excellent book shares a wide range of techniques to tell best stories and practices to find them in your daily life.

One of those practices he calls homework for life.

The idea is that every day you capture a moment that is storyworthy.

Now it could be something small and tender, or it could be something big and impressive.

The tool is this beautiful journal from Tamara Shopsin.

I bought it after reading about how Austin Kleon uses it as a commonplace diary.

It's got space to capture a really succinct moment every day for five years, which is perfect for capturing something storyworthy.

I found this practice to be so soothing at the end of the day, but it's also a gift that I'm giving to my future self.

In five years time, I'm sure I'll remember swimming in geothermal springs with my siblings in Iceland, but I probably wouldn't have remembered my dog Larry knowing instinctively to comfort me at the end of a difficult day.

But I think that's the beauty of this practice because it forces you to capture the boring, but beautiful moments of your life that would otherwise be lost as memory fades.

It takes me five minutes to fill in, and I'm 37 now.

I love the idea that at 42, I could flick through and just see what was the thing at 37 that I thought was worth recording on that specific day, and then I can share it with somebody else.

I do know that all of this is kind of a lot, and I'm not saying that you should do exactly as I do.

But I feel so strongly in my heart that taking the time to work through your worries, to explore your creativity, to draw inspiration from other people, and to document your experiences is a damn sight more meaningful than watching thirst traps on TikTok.

I discovered at least one of these practices in Oliver Berkman's Meditations for Mortals, so if you enjoyed this video, I'm pretty sure you'll also enjoy this one,

which is five lessons from the book on how to live an intentional and meaningful life while embracing your. Thanks for watching.